Pink Therapy News
Keeping YOU in the Frame
March 2010
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Greetings!
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 It's been a hectic month here at 'Pink HQ'
We've been supportive of the move to eradicate reparative therapy (see below). Given the research emanating from Professor Mike King's team last year that 17% of therapists (mostly UKCP/BACP members) have agreed to contracts to reduce Same Sex Attractions (SSA) which was also reported widely in the Guardian and Independent. It is my hope that BACP and UKCP will now ensure all courses explicitly
include training in how to work with clients presenting for help in
reducing their SSA's as part of their registered/accredited status and I think this is something we
should all push for.
We've also had to make a pragmatic concession on our holding off on new Directory members (again, see below).
I'm giving two talks (6 & 20 March) to LGBT therapists in London entitled Who Do We Think We Are
they aim to share some of specific challenges of working with
gender and sexual minorities and inform about the work of Pink Therapy. Email Olivier for further information
I've also been invited to join the Advisory Board of BASE (see below) and would encourage those of you involved in training to become members.
Dominic DaviesDirector |
Essentials of Sexual Minority Therapy
From Sat 17th April 2010
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Do you offer counselling or psychotherapy to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender clients?
Are you confident that you have had sufficient knowledge and training to work competently with sexual minority clients?
Would you be interested in updating your knowledge and have an opportunity to work on your values, beliefs and attitudes in this area?
Pink Therapy is the UKʼs leading independent specialist therapy organisation working with gender and sexual minorities and we would like to invite you to participate in what we see as essential training for all therapists who are working with sexual minority clients.
This is a six day training, spread over three weekends.
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Running Groups for Sexual Minorities: An introduction to group work theory and practice
Saturday 24 April and Sunday 25 April 2010
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Our focus is on participants developing their own skills and interests in facilitating groups and using the opportunities provided in group work to support therapeutic growth.
Skills and ideas developed on this course will be applicable within a range of settings such as time-limited groups, support groups and therapeutic workshops.
The programme focuses on planning groups, facilitator styles, co-facilitating, group work exercises and working with diversity.
The workshop offers an opportunity to participate in 'live' mini-groups with feedback and to initiate peer support. We plan a follow up group later in the year to develop the work arising from this introductory weekend.
The workshop is suitable for: counsellors and therapists who want to develop group work; facilitators wishing to develop their therapeutic skills to work at deeper levels and experienced group workers wanting to further develop their skills and understanding with minority communities. |
Women2Women: A Personal and Spiritual Inner Journey for Lesbians
Saturday 24th April, 2010
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 Spring 2010 will, once again, bring the offering of the workshop "Women2Women: A Personal & Spiritual Inner Journey for Lesbians" at the world renowned Findhorn Foundation (spiritual community, eco-village, workshop center) in the north of Scotland.
This workshop is a magical week for women who love women (by any name) on a spiritual journey and who are wanting to grow in or explore more deeply any aspect of their lives. Historically we have laughed, cried, sung, danced, explored, inspired and been inspired in this circle of women.
We are certain this will, once again, be the case in this week scheduled to begin on April 24, 2010.
Attached you will find a pdf version of the poster for this wonder filled workshop. We would be hugely grateful if you could share this information as far and wide as possible, both via email and by posting printed copies of the poster.
If you would like printed copies from us, please feel free to contact us and we will get some in the mail to you ASAP!
Should you have any questions concerning any of this, or wish more information about LGBTQQ workshops at the Findhorn Foundation, please feel free to use any or all of the below listed resources and contact avenues.
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TRANS COMMUNITY CONFERENCE 2010: Creative Responses to Education and Equality
Friday 16th July 2010
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 The Trans Community Conference 2010 is a one-day gathering featuring a series of workshops for members of the trans communityfrom across the UK, as well as professionals who work with the trans community. The trans community includes family members, partners and lovers and friends and allies. The conference will celebrate our diversity of identities and knowledge, as well as the different groups, organisations and projects that our community offers.
This year's conference hopes to take a more creative approach to the themes of education, equalities and diversities, policy and practice, political activism and work carried out in the voluntary and community sector. As our host is Central School of Speech & Drama, we will be disseminating various projects that have used art, drama, applied theatre, voice work, and creative writing as practical measures that educate and work towards equality, including encouraging body positivity for trans people and their loved ones, and finding ways of getting our voices and stories heard. We will also be hearing from those who use creative tools as a way into the education and discussion of gender diversity.
Stalls for organisations:
A limited number of spaces will be available for organisations to display or distribute relevant materials at the conference. It is hoped that this will provide a valuable form of sharing information. If you would like to apply for a stall, please send an e-mail to transcommunityconference@googlemail.com telling us a bit about your organisation and the information you would like to distribute.
Convened by Gendered IntelligenceHosted by Central School of Speech and DramaFriday 16th July 2010atThe Central School of Speech and DramaEmbassy Theatre,Eton AvenueLondon, NW3 3HY UK9am - 6pmTo book, please complete the attached booking form (TCC10 booking form.doc) and e-mail it to:transcommunityconference@googlemail.com as soon as possible, but by 16th June at the latest.Details will be available on our website shortly (www.genderedintelligence.co.uk)Please note - Booking is essential
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Intersex in Performance: Embodying Ambiguity
Sat 20th March 2010
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The assumption that our bodies must be gendered as male or female - essentially one or the other - is deeply rooted in our culture. But the bodies of intersexed individuals are anatomically ambiguous in terms of their gender attributes. They cannot be categorised as exclusively male or female. Negative social responses to an intersexed body can be immensely distressing for the individuals concerned. In 2009, for example, the athlete Caster Semenya won the women's 800 metres in the World Championship in Athletics - only to be threatened with disqualification on the grounds that she is intersexed.
For more than a century, the medical profession has wrestled with the issue of intersex - whether to recognise it as a condition, and if so, what to do about it. Contemporary medical interventions may involve invasive, repeated and potentially traumatising surgery to normalise intersexed anatomy - frequently starting in infancy, before there is any question of informed personal consent. Is this done for the benefit of the individuals concerned - or for those of us who cannot tolerate the presence of embodied ambiguity?
Focused around a striking new piece of theatre writing, Intersex in Performance explores the following overlapping theatre/intersex perspectives and questions:
-Are there ways in which theatre and performance can usefully and ethically articulate a response to the reality of intersex?
-What challenges and creative possibilities might the example of intersex open out to theatre and performance - itself arguably a form of embodied ambiguity and capable of being used to explore beyond conventional social roles and identities?
(This event grows out of an ongoing Rose Bruford College research project into primary, pre-social creativity as a performance and performance-training resource)
Symposium and staged playreading Sat 20th March 2010 - The Drill Hall - Chenies Street - London WC1; 12:00noon - 4:15pm Tickets: £10 (Concessions for Students, Unwaged, Over 60s - £5) Booking: Telephone 0207 307 5060. Online booking available through Drill Hall website : www.drillhall.co.ukTickets may be booked in person at the Drill Hall box office, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX. Nearest Tube: Goodge Street Also close to : Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road and Euston Square
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Stop Conversion Therapy Taskforce SCOTT
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You
may have read in The Independent the story about Patrick Strudwick who
did an undercover investigation into the provision of Conversion
Therapy/Reparative Therapy here in the UK. He found a psychiatrist and
a BACP Accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist who were offering this
ineffective and often damaging form of 'therapy' and he has now lodged formal ethical
complaints with both organisations. Patrick also started a campaign to halt
Reparative Therapy in the UK with a Facebook group called Stop
Conversion Therapy Taskforce (SCOTT) which now has over 3000 members
and has had a lot of media coverage in the UK and abroad. They have a great slogan: Love Needs No Cure!
One of the aims of SCOTT is to put pressure on the therapy professional
bodies to ensure therapists are sufficiently well trained to understand
the implications of attempting to engage in contracts to eliminate Same
Sex Attractions (SSA). SCOTT are also asking the therapy professional bodies
to make the provision of Conversion Therapy a clear ethical breach and
both BACP and UKCP have issued clear supportive statements condemning conversion therapies. |
Directory of Pink Therapists
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 Most of you will be aware that for the past year or so we've been trying to change the Directory of Pink Therapists into a database where therapists create and maintain their own profiles and which becomes an expanded resource to include LGBT friendly complementary therapists. We're now on our second programmer and I've learned this week he's standing as an independent candidate in the forthcoming general election!
Whilst I've been reassured that he continues to be committed to getting this project finished, I am pragmatic enough to realise that we might not have 100% of his attention. This is all set in a context where we continue to have many enquires every week from therapists wishing to join the Directory or current members wishing to update their entry. I don't feel I can continue to crave their indulgence and patience and so I have decided to re-open the existing Directory for new members as well as updates for existing members.
This is even more important given the increasing demand for therapists who adopt a non-pathologising stance that has been created by the publicity surrounding the SCOTT campaign and we're aware of many therapists who are keen to work with gender and sexual minorities and as our Directory represents the only national online specialist resource for this we can no longer justify holding off until the new software is ready.
If you've recently submitted an application, our Admin person, Olivier will be in touch with you. If you are wanting to join, the forms will be online shortly, or you can email him. Likewise if you already have an entry and need to update something, please email Olivier. He is only in a few hours a week at present and so things may not be immediate, but it's going to be quicker than waiting for the relaunch!
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Sex, Sexuality and Therapeutic Practice:
A manual for therapists and trainers.
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This new book, (co-edited by Pink Therapy Associate Catherine Butler), is a valuable addition to the library of any therapist or trainer working in the field of human sexuality. As one can see from the chapters titles it's comprehensive in it's focus:
Sex, body, behaviour and identity
Talking about sex
Health, disability and sex
Sexual and gender minorities: consideration for therapy and training
Sexual and sexuality across the lifespan
Culture, sex and sexuality.
There are plenty of practical exercises for group work or indeed self-reflexive practice. The book takes a non-heteronormative stance and is written in a accessible style.
Sex, Sexuality and Therapeutic Practice: A manual for therapists and trainers.
Eds: C. Butler, A. O'Donovan and E. Shaw. Routledge 2010 £22.99 RRP
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Free and Informative Training Videos
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We've been informed that the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) have produced some short videos on a variety of social care issues that affect LGBT people. The address physical and learning disability, mental health, older people and residential care and transgender adoption.
They really are well put together and will be helpful discussion tools for social workers and others working in social care.
 You might also find the sex education videos that Channel 4's Sexperience programme have produced to be helpful for clients. There are a range of titles explaining female and male anatomy, orgasms, penis size, sexuality and coming out and many other topics. We think they're excellent and have set up a new section of our own website to link to them.
http://sexperienceuk.channel4.com/
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British Association of Sexual Educators
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BASE aims to provide this resource and support by engaging with professionals in all disciplines who are involved in Sexual Health. These professionals and the general public will have access to sexual health material both in written and electronic format, that is accurate, proactive and evidence based where possible. This information will promote healthy, pleasurable and fulfilling sexuality.
BASE intends to disseminate information on conferences, workshops, seminars and training on sexual health issues covering a broad spectrum of sexual topics to enable professionals from all disciplines to engage in dialogue and share information in a spirit of collegiality.
The BASE Mission Statement: - Support for sexual educators in their specific fields
- Sharing of positive sexual education that is significantly more than information about sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy prevention
- Providing access to sexual education information that is appropriate and accurate so that people can make informed choices
- The provision of information about sex in a user-friendly and accessible manner
- Creating an environment of openness and frankness about sex
- Encouraging and participating in national debate on sexual issues.
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My PR experience
by Florin Murariu |
 Our PR Intern has begun a blog about his experience of being a straight guy working in a organisation for gender and sexual minorities.
You can read it here:
http://myprexperience.blogspot.com/
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That's all for this month, thanks for your attention, and please do send us things that have a specific relevance to people working with gender and sexual minority clients. |
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Dominic Davies
Pink Therapy
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