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Greetings!
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As I sit here on a rare sunny day to compile this newsletter on the eve of Brighton Pride, I've learned that the Christian Voice and the National Front have both announced intentions to protest at the narrow entrance to the park as people arrive to celebrate what is probably Britain's largest pride outside of London.
Earlier this week I was talking with a TV researcher about her plans for a documentary into reparative therapy and the ex-gay movement. As our civil rights advance, so too do objections to our existence.
There is still an urgent need for trained and experienced therapists to provide support to sexual minorities and to challenge the heterosexism and homophobia endemic in our culture. Your interest and involvement continues to be crucial.
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Training News
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 We are still hoping to run our innovative one-year Certificate in Sexual Minority Therapy in September this year. We do need to recruit some more students for this, and so if you're interested, please get in touch right away. Full course details online here.
Also, enrollments for our four-day Essentials in Sexual Minority Therapy course are still coming in and places are limited. This is an excellent basic training course in understanding and working with sexual minority clients. Remember, days can be taken individually. Essentials course details are here.
We are also running workshops on Lesbian and Gay Parenting and Working with Sexual Minorities from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities and four one-day workshops for Supervisors on what's different and significant about supervising sexual minority therapy. Also there will be a workshop on Relationship Therapy with Sexual Minorities in November.
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BACP Conference 19-20 October 2007
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 Dominic Davies, Pink Therapy's Director has been invited to present a seminar at this year's BACP conference. In a presentation as part of the Diversity Training strand on Saturday afternoon, Dominic will discuss: Finding global relevance locally - on learning from sexual and gender minorities. The seminar intends to present and discuss what the majority
(heterosexual) culture might learn from gender and sexual
minorities, and how this might be incorporated into training therapists
to work with these diverse populations. Therapists of all
sexual and gender identities are welcome to participate in
this seminar.
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Riga, Latvia
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 We have also been approached by the Individual Psychology Institution in Riga for some help with training psychologists and local gay and lesbian activists in working with sexual minorities locally.
The situation in Riga is pretty grave for gender and sexual minorities with little political or social support. There doesn't even appear to be a LGBT helpline, and discrimination is rife.
We've agreed to offer a weekend's intensive training in March 2008 on a pro bono basis. Earlier this year, London's Pride committee twinned with Riga Pride. London DJ and Journalist Stewart Who? went along to investigate. Here is his report.
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| LGBT Adoptive Parenting Group |
The Post Adoption Centre are to hold two days for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adoptive parents, foster carers and prospective adopters.
They aim to provide participants with opportunities in a safe place to:- Look at how being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender affects your parenting
- Meet other families in similar circumstances
- Explore attachment and bonding issues
- Examine child development theory and how it affects adopted/fostered children
- Help build on your own knowledge and resources and share these with others
The workshops will take place on Saturday 13th & 27th October 2007, and will be facilitated by two experienced psychotherapists.
Further details from the Post Adoption Centre. Click here to for more information.
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Women & Self Realisation a course for women - Oct 07 - March 08
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 Women and Self Realisation is a six 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, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Health Summit
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 Manchester is to play host to the UK's second national LGBT Health Summit on 20 & 21 August. Last year 150 delegates attended the inaugural summit which was held in London.
Attendance is free (you only have to pay if you fail to turn up, as places are strictly limited). Full details online here.
The summit will also see the launch of the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Summit Awards.
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VideoJug Success
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 Last month, you may recall we informed you about a collaboration between Pink Therapy and VideoJug, where Dominic Davies has helped make a series of 13 short self- help videos for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
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 videojug website.
The videos have proved very popular recording hit rates of nearly 7000 for the video on How to know if you are lesbian, gay or bisexual.
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Dominic Davies in the News
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 Out in the City - a relatively new monthly free London gay magazine has interviewed Dominic Davies about his work in the August issue of the magazine.
Anyone interested in seeing a copy of the article is welcome to click here. Or click the Out link above to be able to download a PDF of the whole magazine.
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