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Pink Therapy News
Embracing Diversity
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| Greetings! | 
A lot has been happening this past month and we're in a period of growth and things are pretty exciting!
The new website is up and running so please check it out if you've not seen it. The Directory of Pink Therapists is getting new members every day, our training courses can now be booked online and our new Knowledge section is growing rapidly and we're confident will be a great resource for clients and therapists alike.
We're wondering about developing a new training course in clinical supervision and if you're interested in training as a supervisor with us, please drop me a line.
Dominic Davies
Director
 
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| Pink Therapy Accreditation Scheme |  
We're pleased to announce the latest incarnation of our redeveloped accreditation scheme for qualified therapists working with gender & sexual minority clients (GSM). There are two categories of accreditation:
Accredited Sexual Minority Therapist (ASMT) and Advanced Accredited Sexual Minority Therapist (AASMT). Initial accreditation for both categories runs for three years, following which there is a reaccreditation procedure. Practitioners with ASMT accreditation may apply at any time to upgrade to AASMT status.
Our aim is to make these categories and the application procedure fairly simple and straightforward. We hope this might help clients be able to easily identify therapists who have committed themselves to some specific training in working with gender and sexual minorities.
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Committed or Not - Relationship therapy with sexual minorities
26th November 2011
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 This workshop is devoted to developing a framework for the thinking and practice of undertaking therapy with sexual minority couples.
Current thinking about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender lifestyles in relation to coupledom will be examined. Although the workshop will identify specific challenges facing sexual minority couples, some of which may bring them for help, attention will also be paid to the factors which contribute to healthy functioning within couple relationships.
The trainers for this workshop are our clinical associates Damian Mc Cann and Leah Davidson who both have a long history of working with sexual minority relationships and this workshop is ideal for experienced relationship counsellors and those who are thinking extending their work in this area.
More information and book places here
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Working with Sexual Feelings in the Consulting Room
14th January 2012
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 Most therapists will be aware of sexual feelings in their therapeutic work with clients. Some therapists will frame this as erotic transference or counter transference and perhaps not be willing to see any here and now erotic feelings as belonging to them and the client.
Sexual feelings may emanate only from the client, but most of us will recognise our own feelings of attraction to some clients from time to time.
Rarely are therapists taught to work with these issues, and often therapists find it difficult taking such complex feelings to supervision.
It may be particularly difficult to seek consultation on such feelings if one is a gay male therapist due to societal projections on to gay men as "hypersexual" and "predatorily seductive."
This workshop will explore sexual attraction and erotic feelings, whether 'real' or transference based and how one can work with them ethically and professionally. There is tremendous therapeutic potential in being able to work creatively with such feelings.
More information and book places here
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Pink News
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 We now have Paris Lees working with us on our Complementary Health project and helping us become better known by the LGBT media.
We have already been featured in an article on Pink News:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/09/30/new-website-lists-gay-friendly-therapists/
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Stonewall
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Stonewall have updated their online Guidance on the Asylum Process. They have asked us to help spread the word to therapists who might be working with Asylum seekers as well as those who are involved in mental health issues. You can download a PDF of their two reports from the link to their site.
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Ebook by Martin Hoskins
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 Martin Hoskins has just published an ebook charting the early years of the development of the Terrence Higgins Trust. The first part recounts how it was managed as it struggled to cope with the shifting pattern of demands brought about by the AIDS epidemic. The second part records how it developed its health promotion work. Literature, advertising campaigns, outreach work and international conferences all played their role. The third part describes the services, which were offered its clients. Individual counselling, support groups, the telephone helpline, buddies, advocacy and advice work, practical help, hardship funds and commemoration ceremonies greatly helped improve the welfare of people who were either infected or in any way affected by HIV. As well as the statistics, this account tells the human story, about the people who have worked for the organisation, both in a voluntary and a paid capacity, and about some of the many thousands of people who have been assisted because their lives have been adversely affected by HIV and AIDS. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fear-Hope-Terrence-Higgins-ebook/dp/B005MHBPFU |
| Pansy Project | .jpg) Artist Paul Harfleet plants pansies at the site of homophobic abuse. Each location is photographed and named after the abuse received.
The Pansy Project has many incarnations; small scale unmarked individual plantings, free pansy 'Hand Outs' where the artist speaks to passersby about the project, installations of thousands of plants at the site of homophobia and exhibtions of the photographs the artist has made over the last five years.
The Pansy Project has featured in festivals and exhibitions around the world and recently won a Gold Medal at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2010.
You can visit their website and blog
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| Transformers Grant Scheme |
 The Transformers Grant Scheme is aimed at community groups and organisations in five of the Olympic boroughs (namely Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Greenwich).
The projects have to benefit the local communities (only in the five named boroughs) in some way and be focused on the Olympics (NB this doesn't necessarily mean sport!). See the list of current grant holders for an idea of the kind of things they've funded so far.
The final round has a deadline of 5pm on Friday 28th October 2011. The maximum amount that can be applied for is £20,000. The minimum is £10,000.
The LGBT community has been under represented in terms of applications received and they want to hear from you.
All the information you will require can be found here:
www.transformers-1.org.uk
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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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UKCP