Pink Therapy News
Keeping YOU in the FrameSeptember 2010
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Greetings!
|  There is a lot to share this month.
BACP members need to have to
undertake 30 hours CPD every year and we submitted our Essentials in
Sexual Minority Therapy as a suitable course. We were delighted to be learn we are one of the first CPD providers to have a training course endorsed by them in their new scheme to promote quality CPD provision for therapists. We hope that the endorsement will help lend further weight to the course and encourage more people to book on to it.
I was also interviewed for an article on gay men's mental health for last Sunday's Observer.
Poor mental health is a major issue for many gender and sexual minorities and anything that raises this profile is useful especially as it's likely that many LGBT mental health projects will be cut in the Government's new budget. It's a pity the original article in Attitude implied the only way to approach helping gay men with their mental health issues is through Addictions based therapy and 12 step programmes! Clearly we've some work to do to make them aware of all the other helpful approaches which exist are doing good work.
I'm busy preparing my presentation for the LGBT Health Summit which is happening on 5 & 6 September and also writing a Keynote which is to be the opening plenary for the joint Relate/IFT conference at the end of October. Which is open to people outside these organisations.
We've reduced the fee for our Certificate in Sexual Minority Therapy and postponed the start date to January (see below for further information).
Dominic DaviesDirector |
Essentials of Sexual Minority Therapy
From Saturday 25 September 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. We will accept bookings for a weekend unit. But we would encourage you to take the whole course.
We are offering a bursary for a Trans-identified therapist or therapist in training who would like to undertake the course.
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Drugs, Alcohol and Sex in the City
Saturday 9 October 2010
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 Have parts of the LGBT community gone from 'Huggy
to Hardcore, Dance floor to Saunas'? What are the latest drug trends
and how are they impacting on sexual behaviours? Toni Hogg invites you
to explore the complex ways in which the LGBT community use drugs and
alcohol and become more familiar with the underlying issues.
The workshop will cover how to assess clients
presenting with a range of drug, alcohol and sexual/sexuality/gender
issues. It will provide the opportunity to explore personal and
societal views and judgements we can make on substance use and sexual
behaviours, and how these may impact on our client work.
The session will explore the specific function of
drugs/alcohol in relation to socialising and sexual behaviours to gain a
clearer understanding of the underlying issues and motivations. By
gaining this insight, participants will be more able to recognise the
difference between controlled recreational use and healthy choices
around sexual behaviours as opposed to problematic, harmful use and
sexual 'acting out'.
Humanistic approaches, which emphasise building a
strong therapeutic relationship and engaging clients 'where they are'
will be explored and a discussion will be had examining if such an
approach can help the client address their drug/alcohol use within the
specific context of their lives and communities. Other therapeutic
interventions will also be considered.
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Advanced Sex Therapy with Gender and Sexual Minorities - A Relate training workshop
Saturday 27th November - London
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This one -day workshop run by Relate with trainers from Pink Therapy and is aimed at qualified sex
therapists who want to update their skills and knowledge of working
with a diverse range of gender and sexual minorities. This is an area
which can be 'glossed' over on some initial psychosexual training
courses, and even where it has been covered, this workshop can serve as a
refresher and update on current and contemporary ideas.
This one day workshop will offer the opportunity to:
-Learn about inclusive assessment strategies for sexually diverse populations
-Understand more about the political and social context influencing the
sex lives of gender and sexual minorities (e.g. the impact of HIV, the
lesbian sex wars, Operation Spanner, Illicit drug use in sex, Public Sex
Environments and the Internet)
-Become familiar with a wide range of diverse sexual practices (including kink/bdsm)
-Develop your knowledge and skills in working with non-traditional
relationship models (polyamory swingers, open relationships) through
case discussion, role play/demonstrations.
The workshop is open to non-Relate PST counsellors and so other members of BASRT are welcome to attend.
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Working with LGBT Asylum Seekers
Saturday 13 Nov 2010
| Psychotherapists working with LGBT clients may be aware of the implications of homophobia and sexuality based persecution and discrimination, but may not be aware of the political landscape being negotiated by their clients. Psychotherapists are generally at ease with the concept of bearing witness in the aftermath of trauma, but the notion of bearing witness takes on a new meaning when working with this population.
The workshop will focus on the asylum process (including support arrangements for asylum seekers), and the role of the psychotherapist within the asylum process. The notion of the witness will be considered - with particular focus on the difference between the active and the passive witness. Small group exercises and/or role play will enable participants to think in broader terms about issues that may confront the therapeutic couple who find themselves immersed in the UK's asylum process.
Participants will be encouraged to question, to speak openly of their own fears, prejudices and presumptions. Lucy will aim to make the session challenging without being confrontational in a forum in which we can explore our own experiences and relationship. Differences and similarities will be explored and openly discussed.
By the end of the day, participants should have a good understanding of the asylum process and the implications and complications of this process for the therapeutic couple.
Lucy Kralj has been working in a therapeutic capacity with survivors of torture since 2003. She is currently the lead clinician at the Helen bamber Foundation where a range of clinical, therapeutic and advocacy work is undertaken with survivors of gross human rights violations. Lucy is a registered nurse with specialist qualifications in working with asylum seekers and refugees. She is a qualified counselor and is currently completing a masters in integrative psychotherapy.
This is a Pink Therapy CPD event bringing in outside expertise and to our knowledge the first training workshop for therapists looking at working with LGBT Asylum seekers.
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Certificate in Sexual Minority Therapy
1 year course from Sat 22 Jan 2011
| Pink Therapy is pleased to be able to offer the UK's only professional training course for counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists in working with sexual minority clients from a non-pathologising perspective.
We offer you:
Twenty training days over a year.
You will be part of a small supervision group - meeting more or less monthly (50 hours supervision) on a mixture of weekends and some Fridays. It is envisaged some developmental and experiential work will take place in this group as well as clinical discussions about clients or clinical issues. It is not intended to replace your regular clinical supervision. The groups will be facilitated by our Clinical Associates Damian McCann and Leah Davidson both or whom have extensive experience of group supervision. You will also attend a 11 training days from our core training programme of workshops.
Students are expected to work with at least two sexual minority clients per week, (and we will try and help you find those clients if necessary), although Pink Therapy is not responsible for finding clients for you though, and you should have reasonable plans for access to a suitable pool of clients.
We're seeking University accreditation for this programme.
We have re-scheduled this course to start in Jan 2011 and will be offering it as an intensive training course at a reduced cost.
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Relate/IFT conference
28th and 29th October 2010
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 Following the highly successful joint conference in 2009, IFT and the
Relate Institute are delighted to announce another collaborative event.
This will be a practice based conference for all those practitioners
who work in voluntary, statutory and private sectors. The conference
will focus on the development of discourses around sexuality; seek to
consider useful ways of talking with clients about sex and sexuality;
seek to consider useful ways of talking with clients about sex and
sexuality; and the effects on the family and wider systems.
The keynote speakers and workshop presenters are leaders in the field
and bring together a significant body of knowledge and experience of
working with sexuality with couples, individuals and families.
On Thursday 28th Dominic Davies will provide an overview of sex and sexuality
from a non-hetero-normative perspective. He will explore the meanings
placed on sexuality and ideas generated about sexuality in multiple
contexts. he will also look at how a heterosexist lens (the dominant
discourse) can lend a particular hue or tone to examining other's lives
and how the rose tinted spectacles of the presenter might show an
alternative perspective. |
Gail Simon of the Pink Practice
| Our colleague Gail Simon of the Pink Practice, the UK's first LGBT independent counselling service has written a paper entitled Self-supervision, surveillance and transgression which she's generously made available for download from her website:
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The Women's Project by PACE
14 September - 26 October 2010
| These vibrant workshops explore the diversity of lesbian, bi, trans and queer women's experiences through a series of conversations on different topics, including health, relationships, community and more.
Every Tuesday, 6:30pm - 9:30pm 14 September - 26 October 2010, in Camden For more information email hilary.knack@pacehealth.org.ukor phone 020 7700 1323 |
18th Annual Lesbian Lives Conference
REVOLTING: BODIES, POLITICS & GENDERS
11-12 February 2011
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University of Brighton's LGBTQ Life Research Hub is proud to co-host the 18th Lesbian Lives conference with University College Dublin at the University of Brighton in February 2011. It is the only annual academic conference in Lesbian Studies, bringing together academics, activists, performers and writers from all continents to network across international and professional boundaries and provides a unique forum dedicated to exploration of lesbian identity and experience.
Conference convenors of this two-day international and interdisciplinary conference now welcome proposals from academics, scholars, students, activists, documentary and film-makers, writers and artists.
Proposals are welcomed on (though are by no means limited to) the following:
Revolting lesbians - Bodies beautiful and/or grotesque - Revulsion and Disgust - Freaks and Families - Shame and Shock - Feminisms and Movements - Sex - Archives and Ageing - Class - Transformations - Paranormal and Out of this World - Femmes Fatale - Cyber and Sonic - Mobility.
The conference organisers welcome proposals for (A) individual papers, (B) sessions, (C) round table discussions, (D) workshops and (E) visual presentations or performances. You can find more information on presentation formats on our website.
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Public consultation on the Drugs Strategy
|  The Home Office has launched a targeted public consultation on the Drugs Strategy. Some of you with an interest or experience in this field may be interested to see the consultation, or respond from the LGB and/or T perspective. All information here:
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Facilitators Needed: Therapeutic Group Work with Asylum Seekers
|  We've been asked by the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group to help them run some therapeutic group work for LGBT asylum seekers and refugees. There are 4 possible groups you could be working with: Under 25's a mixed group, Gay Male Survivors of Rape/Sexual Assault, Women Survivors of Rape/Sexual Assault, Gay Male Asylum Seekers group (there is already provision for Lesbians to meet).
We are collaborating with Outcome (a LGBT Mental Health Project run by MIND) to offer this and hope that they will take over operational management of the groups. Pink Therapy's role is to find some group facilitators and supervisors for the groups.
If you are interested in offering your services, please contact Dominic Davies
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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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