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Greetings!
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Welcome to the July issue of our newsletter. Again, we have a bumper issue of relevant news and information for you.
We're always keen to have your feedback on these newsletters and please let us know if you no longer want to receive these newsletters by unsubscribing at the foot of the email with one click of the safeunsubscribe button.
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In Memoriam - Graham Perlman
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 Graham Perlman, one of the original group of clinical associates to join Pink Therapy, died on Tuesday 25 June after a long and courageous battle with AIDS and with the assistance of Dignitas the Swiss based assisted suicide organisation.
Graham was a TA trained psychotherapist and former student of Metanoia. His passion for gay affirmative therapy extended to written contributions to Vol, 2 of Pink Therapy (Open University Press) where he wrote a chapter on Transactional Analysis and he also wrote a chapter on Gay Affirmative Practice in Anti-discriminatory Counselling Practice edited by Colin Lago and Barbara Smith (Sage).
He was a fine colleague and will be missed by all at Pink Therapy. His ashes will be scattered in Sandy Bay in Cape Town by his former partner Seamus and as far as we know there are no plans for a memorial service here in the UK.
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Training News update
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 Our new programme of CPD workshops and courses is online and bookings for the Essentials course in September are coming in fairly rapidly and as places are limited, we recommend you book soon if you are planning to do this popular four day course.
Our new one-year Certificate in Sexual Minority Therapy has attracted quite a bit of interest, but firm bookings have been slow and we're now not sure whether we will be able to run the course this year, so if you've been planning to book, please let us know ASAP as we need to schedule selection interviews etc. We're extending the 15% early bird discount until 14 July, so please get in touch if you want to start this course in September. Closing date for registration is 31 July 2007.
We also have workshops on Parenting, Working with sexual minorities from the BME communities, and Relationship therapy on in the Autumn term as well as two workshops for supervisors to learn more about supervising Sexual Minority Therapy. Full details in the Training section of our website: www.pinktherapy.com
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'Reparative Therapy' on the rise in the UK
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 Reparative Therapy (aka 'conversion therapy') which offers to cure gay men [sic] of their 'ego-dystonic' homosexuality is increasing in the UK. The president of NARTH, Joseph Nicolosi was keynote speaker at a conference entitled The Time for Truth [sic] run by Living Waters, CARE and the Christian Lawyers Association on the 22 and 23 June in Central London. The conference, aimed at counsellors and therapists who wish to help gay men 'heal from their homosexuality' was attended by around a hundred people, and Andrew Hanuman a gay counsellor and social worker from Brighton attended the pre-meeting and recorded the opening lectures and obtained a conference pack.
Increasingly we are learning of other evangelical Christian groups offering to help gay men who feel shame and regret about their homosexuality to become married heterosexuals. We have heard of True Freedom Trust who have a conference of their own later this year; Liverpool Life Ministries at Frontline Chuch and Realignment - Reinventing People who also claim to be offering counselling under the auspices of the BACP Ethical Framework (but they are not BACP members and so a complaint cannot be brought). These organisations are seeking to work with vulnerable people, often young gay and bisexual people and are likely to be causing great damage. Youth Caught in the Crosshair is a free downloadable report into their attempts to target young people.
Reparative Therapy has been roundly condemned as dangerous and unethical by all the major mental health organisations in the USA. If you come across people who have been caught up in the ex-gay movement, or who are practicing 'reparative therapy', we'd love to hear about it. If you want to know more about the true effect of reparative therapy and the ex-gay movment, then Truth Wins Out is the best place to go.
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Gay Self-Help Movies on Videojug
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 Dominic Davies was asked by Videojug to help make a series of short self-help videos on a range of topics relevant to lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Dominic provides the narration whilst actors act out the topics. Unfortunately, without the aid of an autocue Dominic ends up looking to the side of the camera which makes for poor presentation skills! TV presenting won't be his second career, but hopefully the videos will be useful!
The titles include: How to know if your lesbian, gay or bisexual; how to accept yourself as gay; how to tell is someone is gay or straight; what to do if you suspect your child is gay; what to do if your child tells you they are gay; what to do if a friend tells you they are gay; how to deal with homosexuality in the workplace; how to deal with homophobic abuse; how to meet your child's gay partner and how to get involved in the gay community. All these titles are located in the Love and Relationships channel on the videojust website.
They are freely available to be emailed or downloaded and sit alongside thousands of useful video's on an enormously wide range of topics. Click here for the main Videojug site.
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New LGBT Relationship Therapy Service for Brighton
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 Proud to Connect is a joint venture between Brighton & Hove LGBT Switchboard and Brighton & Hove Relate in which Relate has trained a lesbian and a gay man to offer relationship therapy to members of the LGBT communities in Brighton.
This is the second interagency collaboration of it's kind between Relate and the LGBT community. The first scheme was pioneered by the Lesbian and Gay Foundation in Manchester and South Manchester Relate.
The service was launched on Wednesday 27 June, where Pink Therapy's Dominic Davies was invited to talk about the significance of the service and the unique stressors on the LGBT communities. More information about the service can be found in due course via their respective websites.
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Women & Self Realisation Course
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 Women and Self Realisation is a three month ongoing course for women who are interested in exploring their self development journey with a group of women. It will be facilitated by Cloud Taylor (Pink Therapy Clinical Associate).
The course will run fortnightly on Thursday evenings from October 4th 2007 until March 29th 2008. There will also be 2 full Saturdays on December 15th 2007 & March 29th 2008.
It is intended that women will come away with a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in their lives as well as feeling they have had fun, enjoyed expressing themselves, and had rich encounters with other women in the group. There will be creative visualisation, art work, drama and movement exercises as well as discussion and encounter. It won't be a therapy group as such but will inevitably involve some therapy and interpersonal work.
Venue: Psychosynthesis and Education Trust, London, SE1.
Book before August 29th 2007 for an early booking discount of £320 (Full fee after that date £400. Full details here
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Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Health Survey
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 A national lesbian and bisexual women's health survey has just been launched by Stonewall and colleagues at De Montfort University.
Please pass this information to as many lesbian and bisexual women as you can.
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Older LGB person's survey
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 Polari is a small voluntary organisation which works towards better services of all kinds for older lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and trans people (LGBTs). They are trying to reach lesbians, gay men and bisexuals 50 and over who have used mental health services in the Greater London area within the last five years to find out what their experiences have been. This includes voluntary and statutory services, inpatient and outpatient.
The ultimate aim of the project is to allow older LGBs to communicate their views to Mental Health Trusts in the Greater London area, and, if this is what users need, to help Trusts to improve their services. Individuals can take part
- by anonymously completing an online questionnaire at www.polarisurveys.org.uk
- by contacting them directly to be sent a hard copy questionnaire which they can fill out anonymously
- by getting in touch to arrange a convenient time for them to be interviewed face-to-face or over the phone.
They can reach Polari on 020 7255 4481 or email: mentalhealth@polari.org
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Gay Fathers and Their Children Research Project
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 Damien Fitzgerald is undertaking a research project to explore the experiences of gay fathers and their children. Unlike much of the previous research He is not approaching this from the perspective of trying to find problems that children may face simply because their father is gay.
There is a large range of research that has shown that children are not disadvantaged because they have a gay parent(s) but very little that explores the actual experiences of gay fathers and their children. The aim of the research is to enable the voice of gay families to be heard.
If you are interested in finding out more about the project, further information is available via this link.
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Department of Health Treatment Satisfaction Survey
For Trans Patients in the UK
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 One of the greatest obstacles to developing and improving medical
services around gender transition in the UK is a lack of solid research data
about patient experiences and outcomes. Anecdotal accounts often suggest
that problems exist but, until now, no rigorous research has been
undertaken to capture and classify people's actual experiences (good and
bad) across the board.
The Department of Health, under guidance from the trans workstream of its
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advisory Group (SOGIAG) wants to remedy
that information gap. Full details of this survey can be found on the Press for Change website. Therapists working with trans patients in the UK are invited to let their patients know about this important survey (it doesn't matter if the patient had/is having NHS or private treatment, simply that they reside in the UK.). Full details here.
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The 4th Brighton & Hove TLGB Jobfair
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 In this safe and welcoming space run by trans people for trans people, we have great employers bringing a wide range of great jobs - airline cabin staff, accountants in a world wide accounting firm; jobs in councils, police forces, childcare, fire-fighting, Criminal Justice - for graduates, older people, those looking for a new start, you name it.
It's relaxed and friendly, and it's our space for the day, where lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals, and trans people can feel assured that what you are is not just being accepted, but positively valued.
It's free, just come along and feel welcome. Thursday August 2nd 2007 - 11 am till 6 pm
At the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel on the seafront.
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Soho Consulting Room to let
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 If you are looking to rent a consulting room in Central London, then we
still have some limited space available in our new offices in Soho, so do get in touch.
Further information online here.
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Actor wanted
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We're looking for a volunteer gay male actor who could role play a client for a short in-house training video we're making around sexual minority therapy. If you know someone who enjoys role-play (no need to be a trained actor) and has a spare hour or so, please get in touch.
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