A short definition of Presence
Based on a longitudinal qualitative research into the practising of presence in outreach pastoral care, 'presence' became circumscribed as:
A practice in which the professional involves themselves with the other or others in an attentive and dedicated way, by doing so learns to see what is at stake for the other or others, from desires to fears, and, in connection with this, comes to understand what could be done in this particular situation and who they can be for the other or others. What can be done is done. This mode can only be accomplished with a sense of subtlety, craftsmanship, practical wisdom and loving fidelity.
Since the publication of 'Een theorie van de presentie' (A Theory of Presence) in 2001, the theoretical elaboration and justification of the practice of presence have been received very positively, even far outside the realm of pastoral care. The vocabulary of presence has come to be appreciated by social workers, nurses, youth workers, workers in addiction care, general practitioners, et cetera. It helps them to articulate their own motivation and aims, as well as their possible frustration with the way they are being trained, assessed, and managed. The presence approach and theory also have become relevant to management and to thinking about quality of care.
For a further introduction into Presence, read the 2002 article The Presence Approach, an Introductory Sketch of a Practice or watch the videos What is presence? for social workers and for nurses.
In 2025, Relational Caring and Presence Theory in Health Care and Social Work: A Care-Ethical Perspective was published with Policy Press. Also in 2025, Iemand voor iemand (Someone for someone), a fully revised and expanded version of the presence theory, was published.
See also: The Presence approach in New York: two intriguing examples
The Presence Foundation
The Presence Foundation (in Dutch: Stichting Presentie) is an independent, non-profit and non-governmental knowledge institute on presence and relational caring. In 2004, it was founded by Prof Andries Baart. He became known in the Low Countries after publishing 'Een theorie van de presentie' (A Theory of Presence) in 2001 as the 'spiritual father of the presence theory'.
The Presence Foundation is registered as a research organization in the ROR registry with ROR ID: https://ror.org/05a778a43.
The work of the Presence Foundation consists of:
- development of and research into (good) care practices from a presence perspective;
- promoting presence in lectures and publications and by maintaining our network, as much as possible in interaction with care recipients and clients;
- teaching presence through lectures, learning trajectories, seminars, courses, coaching et cetera, and forming a powerful framework that can set up and support practices of presence;
- (providing help with) the establishment of concrete practices of presence, setting up innovative pilots, stimulating care innovation and providing support where necessary;
- acquiring sound knowledge of how presence works ('best practice'), what it requires, what it delivers and how it can be promoted;
- disseminating this knowledge by doing research, issuing publications, publishing a database, et cetera;
- taking part in the public debate based on this knowledge and practices, and based on the basic philosophy of presence (about good care, for example);
- establishing and maintaining an endowed chair for Presence and Relational Caring, in order to further develop and teach presence and relational caring at an (international) academic level;
- in addition, the establishment and maintenance of a lectorate (at a university of applied sciences) and a practorate (in secondary vocational education), so that presence and relational caring can be further developed and taught as broadly as possible at different levels.
Research into Presence
We are interested not only in 'sayings', in what professionals are willing to tell to an interviewer about their work; we are also interested in their practice, the interplay of 'doings', 'sayings', 'involvements', 'undergoings', and artefacts. What professionals do and don't do is of interest to us, especially concerning professionals who are acknowledged by their clients or patients and their colleagues as good professionals. Presence is not an ideal that we impose on the field, but an existing practice that we look for and often find, in some form or another, in the field. And we do find it in all fields of health care and social welfare.
The research methods we choose are those that are helpful in capturing what professionals do and what they say about what they do. We choose methods that fit the field of study, the research question(s) and the empirical material that is available or can be constructed. Besides interviewing professionals and patients or clients, we observe professionals closely while doing their work; we follow patients on their trajectory through the institution; we read personal and organisational documents, case reviews, letters of complaint, diaries of family members, incident reports, et cetera. Besides thematic and content analysis, we do (critical) discourse analysis, grounded theory analysis, qualitative heuristics, phenomenological analysis, institutional-ethnographic analysis, narrative analysis, et cetera. Sometimes, qualitative methods are combined with quantitative methods ('mixed methods').
(See: Timmerman, G., & Baart, A. (2021). Research Methods for Research on Presence. In E. Du Plessis (Ed.), Reflecting on Presence in Nursing: A Guide for Practice and Research, Cambridge Scholars, pp. 90-109.)
Education
An introduction into Presence
This course offers an introduction into the presence approach. Presence is all about relational caring, and is basically to be understood as a qualified, efficacious way of being for others by being with them.
Would you like to know more about the presence approach? Discover how you can make a difference in caring for others. How do you balance your passions for others and the protocols of your organization?
More information and registration
International publications on Presence
Over the years, Andries Baart, Guus Timmerman and others have published a number of articles and book chapters about the practice and theory of presence in English and German, making them available worldwide for those who wish to explore the care-ethical theory of presence or actually practise presence in their working with and for people. In 2025, the first English monograph about the practice and theory of presence, Relational Caring and Presence Theory in Health Care and Social Work, was published by Policy Press.
List of international academic publications on Presence
International contacts
Belgium
Linus Vanlaere, Prof Mieke Grypdonck and other Flemish fellow travellers in Belgium, organised around the Care-Ethical Lab of sTimul.
South Africa
Prof Andries Baart is extraordinary professor of the Optentia Research Focus Area at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University in South Africa. With Prof Jaco Hoffman, he is working on different projects around ageing in South Africa. On 5 May 2025, he presented the book Relational Caring and Presence Theory in Health Care and Social Work, published by himself and Guus Timmerman, at the North-West University. The presentation is available on YouTube: Relational Caring: A Soft Voice in Transforming Society.
Several staff members have contact with Prof Emmerentia du Plessis, fulltime professor at the School of Nursing of the North-West University in South Africa, and her fellow researchers into Caring Presence in Nursing. Besides doing research, they maintain a website and a platform on YouTube.
In 2021, Prof du Plessis published the volume Reflecting on Presence in Nursing: A Guide for Nursing Practice and Research, with contributions from, among others, Andries Baart, Elly Beurskens, Jan den Bakker, and Guus Timmerman.
Canada
Albert Banerjee is a gerontologist 'interested in the existential assumptions that have shaped the Western approach to healthy living and dying'. He is involved with the website Imagining Age-Friendly "Communities within Communities" and the YouTube platform Imagine Aging. He has kindly helped us with his feedback on 'Cultivating quality awareness in corona times', now published in Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy.