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Pink Therapy Newsletter
Keeping YOU in the Frame
December 2006
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Greetings!
Xmas dec

Welcome to our December Newsletter. We have quite a bit of external news to tell you about this month (thanks to everyone who is keeping us abreast of things). If you work in London, please make sure you read the LATE BREAKING NEWS at the end of this Newsletter

We also have some exciting news of our own. Pink Therapy will soon be launching our own accreditation scheme which will be useful for members of the public looking for an experienced therapist to find them more easily in the Directory. Accredited therapists will be in a highlighted section and therefore much easier to find.

Whilst all therapists in the Directory are qualified as counsellors/psychotherapists, not everyone has participated in specific Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in this growing area of specialised work. However, we are aware that many therapists are actively committed to their CPD and are very experienced at working with sexual minority clients. Accreditation is a way of acknowledging this and encouraging those who have not had the opportunity to update their skills and knowledge of this growing area to do so. After all, clients contacting someone through the Directory will expect that therapist to have had some specific training and knowledge.

We will be announcing more about this scheme in the New Year, but are interested in your thoughts and comments, so please do tell us what you think.

PT Presents
The final day of our second four-day Essentials in Sexual Minority Therapy training course is about to take place and 16 more therapists will be receiving their certificates.

Our training programme for 2007 continues and a full list of workshops is online. If you are thinking of booking for one of our workshops, please be aware of the closing date for each workshop is about five weeks before the event, and so book NOW for The Development of the Self & the Function of the Therapeutic Alliance with Judy Yellin.

We have been invited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to give feedback on some new Standards of Care for people living with gender dysphoria. If you would like to participate in the consultation process you can click the link below and download the relevant documents.

Pink Therapy will be submitting our thoughts on the proposed Standards, and you are welcome to send your thoughts to us for inclusion in our feedback, or of course, submit them directly to the RCP.

black connection
The Black connection is a monthly group where Black gay and bisexual men come together to meet, talk, socialise and share experiences about their lives in a supportive and attitude free environment. There will be opportunities for participants to network and connect with other Black men, exploring the challenges they face and celebrating their lives.

All Black African, Black British and Black Caribbean men are welcome to attend this popular group. The group meets on the third Sunday of the month from 6-9pm (doors open at 5.30pm) at PACE and is facilitated by experienced Black groupworkers Anthony Johnson and Dennis L Carney.

GMAC
We've been asked to let you know about this monthly group which aims to provide peer emotional support, information and guidance to gay men affected by cancer, whether they are a patient, carer, loved one or friend.

Every second Wednesday of the month from 7-9pm at Dragon Hall, Stukeley Street, London, WC2B 5LT
meditating woman
The Lesbian and Gay Spirituality Group was formed in London in June 2006. It ran an open group for six sessions, between June and September 2006, inviting lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women, to attend and explore issues about spirituality in the context of our sexuality. The group is non denominational and is open to people from all perspectives-from questioning agnostics to people who may identify themselves according to a spiritual or religious tradition-and seeks to promote encouragement support and shared ideas within the group, on the development of spirituality in its broadest sense.

Since the initial group sessions earlier this year, we have formed a small steering group, established a website, and are hosting a spirituality awayday in southwest London on the 16 December 2006.
The recent publication of The Transgender Studies Reader (ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, New York: Routledge, 2006) marks a watershed in the development of trans studies. Arising in the early nineties in close relation to queer theory, trans studies is characterized by the coming-to-voice of trans people, long the theorized and researched objects of sexology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and even feminist theory.

Hypatia (a journal of Feminst Philosophy) invites submissions to a special issue on transgender studies and feminism, which recognizes the emergence of trans studies. We welcome articles that investigate the relations between feminism and transgender studies. Articles exploring the intersections of multiple oppressions are especially welcome, as are submissions that come from subject-positions outside the United States (and North America more generally). We seek a collection of papers that is international in scope.

Papers should be no more than 8000 words, prepared for anonymous review, and accompanied by an abstract of no more than 75 words. Please provide a cover letter identifying your paper as a submission for the special issue "Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gendered Realities." The deadline for submissions is 15 April, 2008. Papers should be submitted by electronic attachment in Word to Talia Bettcher at tbettch@calstatela.edu. Submissions should follow Hypatia guidelines (see below). Please address all correspondence, questions and suggestions to Talia Bettcher or Ann Garry at agarry@calstatela.edu.
Pink Practice logo
The Pink Practice is currently taking bookings for 2007. They are offering a range of workshops and services from a social constructionist and systemic perspective.

They have also redesigned their bookshop links with Amazon.
The London HIV Commissioners are proposing radical changes to the way HIV prevention services are provided. Announced on Monday 28 November and with a closing date of 14 December, it is vital that gay men in London (and those working with them) get to express their views about these changes.

It would appear that London will lose virtually all the Sexual Health Counselling at THT, PACE and Health Gay Living Centre that isn't directly related to sexual behaviour change, the proposed service will not offer general mental health, emotional well-being or non-sex specific counselling. Nor will the counselling services deal any more with sexual dysfunction, identity or coping with a history of sexual abuse unless these directly influence the individual’s risk taking behaviour. The Group Work programme at PACE & the Naz Project, and almost all the specific and targeted print media will be radically changed/replaced. These will be replaced by gay men (sic) being offered an assessment with a 'Sexual Health Trainer' (most probably in gay venues or the GUM clinics) who will advise them on how to change their behaviour and give them some condoms. 45% of the budget for the next three years will go on this radical proposal!

Data will be collected and stored centrally on everyone using the service and can be accessed by a wide range of people. One leading HIV/AIDS writer has said "what is totally off-the-wall is the intrusive and coercive nature of the proposals - which go totally against recent DH appeals for people to take more responsibility for themselves, not to mention driving the proverbial coach and horses through medical confidentiality."

The only website we can find at present which has produced any information is the GMFA one. They've got the commissioners report (51 pages) which I've not yet had time to read. They also have a Summary (seems unbiased and is only 14 pages long). Also a Response Form for anonymous feedback on the proposals (it will take about 10 mins to complete).

Can we wish you all the compliments of the season and hope that however you'll be spending the festive period, that you have a restoring break and all good wishes for 2007.


Dominic Davies
Pink Therapy

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