Our usual one-day conference this year has been replaced by a series of four Saturday webinars around the theme of how as therapists we might enhance the mental health of our gender, sex and relationship diverse clients.
We've invited therapists from a number of countries to share their lived and professional experiences and we welcome you to attend one or all of the sessions which will be recorded and available at a small cost afterwards.
The sessions will comprise short presentations and also panel discussions between presenters. Optional breakout sessions may be included. They are aimed at fellow mental health professionals and those involved in training us.
You may attend one or more sessions. CPD Attendance certificates will be emailed out to those attending a whole session.
~~~ We’d love you to come to all four sessions if you can, and we can offer you a flat rate of £100 rather than £120. Please buy all four tickets as normal, then contact admin@pinktherapy.com for reimbursement of the difference. Applicable to General Admission tickets only. ~~~
Saturday 6 March 2021 14.00 - 16.30 UK Time (GMT)
How do therapists and clients manage their self-care in GSRD-hostile environments?
Self-Care in Hostile Environments - Chile
How do non-heterosexual mental health workers deal with hostile environments? What can we learn from the stories of colleagues that have endured and thrived after difficult experiences? What are some of the factors involved in the decision making of staying or leaving from a workplace, city or even a country where you don’t feel at ease? I try to answer these questions through interviews with fellow sexually diverse psychologists and psychiatrists from Chile, a country with a long history of repression facing the possibility of social change.
Dr Alejandro Gepp Torres is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist from Universidad de Valparaíso. Currently working as a lecturer of developmental psychology at the same university and as a psychiatrist at Diversalud and the Gender Identity Program at the Hospital Carlos van Buren, in Valparaíso, Chile. He is currently in advanced training in GSRD Therapy with Pink Therapy. Email: doctoralejandrogepp@gmail.com
Self-Care in Hostile Environments - Bangalore
In India which is just two years in from decriminalisation of non-vaginal intercourse which has led to the decriminalisation of LGBTQIA, the country is far from being inclusive. A staunchly conservative and religious country where status in family, marriage, faith and community are prized above all else being part of the gender, sexual and relationship minorities can be a huge challenge. Most people live with their families very commonly in large joint family households. I would say arguably over 95% of queer folk are or will be married into heterosexual unions. The fear of ostracism, ex-communication even death in some cases is a reality. How do we cope? I’ll be speaking from my own personal experience and from my work as a psychotherapist working with queer folk both here in India where I am now and with the Asian community back in the UK.
Sanjay Kumar BSc.MA.PgDip.MBACP
I am an Integrative Psychotherapist in private practice and trained at Regents University, London. I set up and ran London’s First-ever counselling service for South Asian Gay and Bi-sexual men through the Naz Project London and have conducted therapeutic workshops through PACE Health London and LovingMen.org for several years, offering support to gay and bisexual men from various ethnic backgrounds and men living with HIV.
I work both in London and in Bangalore, however, since the pandemic, I now provide therapy for individuals and groups only online through my private practice called Positive Therapy Today. I conduct various workshops online on Intimacy, Grief, Identity and Feeling Out of Control, also leading guided meditations and mindfulness practice.
Email: positivetherapytoday@gmail.com Instagram: @positivetherapytoday
Twitter @SanjayTherapy and Facebook: Positive Therapy Today
Self-Care in Hostile Environments - Poland
Contemporary Poland seems to be a visibly hostile and shaming environment for different culturally/societally unprivileged groups e.g. LGBTs+, women or immigrants. Guided by the relational gestalt theory of shame I am going to describe the ways of self-care used by Polish LGBTs+. I will refer to my experience as a mental health professional and also as a Polish citizen.
Daniel Bak, PhD I am a European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) accredited gestalt psychotherapist, also a group trainer, psychotherapy teacher, clinical consultant and a psychologist. I am a Clinical Associate and Faculty Member at Pink Therapy. I am also an Advanced Accredited Gender, Sex & Relationship Diversities Therapist.
Saturday 13 March 2021 14.00 - 16.30 UK Time (GMT)
Freedom to be Queer in the UK - at what cost?
Queer Disorientation: The Loss of the East
There are many ways to be queer. Migration means leaving our own way behind. We imagine the freedom to be openly queer in the UK as a homecoming. We believe we’re safe, that we’ve realised our dreams, but start to feel disoriented and alienated. We’re faced with anything from misconceptions to microaggressions to outright hostility. Our queerness, our lives and the communities we left behind are questioned and judged. We finally lose our East when we experience tectonic shifts in the intersections of our identity. Can we create a safe and inclusive space for all queer lives in the UK?
Ronete Cohen MA MNCS (Accred) is a psychodynamic psychotherapist and a Pink Therapy Clinical Associate. Her areas of expertise are GSRD and race, culture, neurodiversity and disability. She works with queer communities in the Middle East and with migrants in the UK. British-born, bi-racial and from a multi-cultural family, she spent her childhood in the Middle East and returned to London as a queer adult.
Website: rainbowcouch.com Email: ronete@rainbowcouch.com
Queer migration - an experiential enquiry into interweaving multiple identities
Migration of LGBTQI people to the UK is habitually depicted through the lens of a Western-centric narrative in a romanticised, simplistic way – of “backward”, “rural” individuals, moving to the modern metropolis, where they are free to express their true sexual identity. “This narrative is a hallowed one in domestic ‘coming-out’ discourses as well as in a burgeoning international human rights arena.” (Grewal and Kaplan 2001). In reality, each migratory journey is a unique and complex process, significantly changing the individual’s identity. My presentation focuses on a variety of personal experiences of LGBTQI migrants, including my own, in an attempt to challenge some prevailing assumptions around queer migration to the UK.
Piotr Mierkowski, MA Dip Psych UKCP reg. gestalt psychotherapist and supervisor in practice in London. Visiting trainer at The Gestalt Centre and board member of UKAGP, he also regularly teaches in Poland, where he grew up. He has extensive therapeutic experience with LGBTQI clients who are also part of another racial/ethnic minority.
Website: www.gestalttherapist.co.uk Email: gestaltpsychotherapy@gmail.com
Saturday 20 March 2021 14.00 - 16.30 UK Time (GMT)
How Not to Harm our Trainees
Maximising diversity and inclusivity on a counselling training course requires more than teaching a compulsory diversity module. It requires a willingness from course designers and teachers to examine their own blind spots and privileges regarding identity and to sincerely consider the lived experience of students from minority groups. Crucially it requires sensitivity to the impact of micro-aggressions and how that may be triggered or expressed during the training. In this panel discussion Julie Sale, Director of the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology (CICS) and Rhi Kemp-Davies, CICS alumni, share how CICS integrates inclusivity in its courses.
Julie Sale is a UKCP Registered and Accredited general psychotherapist, COSRT Senior Accredited sex and relationship therapist, COSRT Accredited Clinical Supervisor and Fellow of the National Council of Psychotherapists. She currently represents COSRT on the national Coalition Against Conversion Therapy group, working towards establishing standards of education and practice in gender, sexual and relationship diversity in the health professions across the UK. Julie is Director of the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology (CICS) which runs specialist training in the themes of sex and relationship therapy. Julie is a Pink Therapy endorsed GSRD Aware Trainer and the CICS Diploma in Clinical Sexology is Pink Therapy endorsed. theinstituteofsexology.org
Rhi Kemp-Davies (They/Them) is a recently qualified Clinical Sexologist after having studied with the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology and is a Registered Member of COSRT. At the time of writing, they are applying to be accredited with Pink Therapy!
Rhi is based in Pontypridd, Wales and is the only known non-binary and queer Sex Therapist in Wales.
Rhi has recently started working as a psychosexual therapist with the Transplus pilot in 56 Dean Street, London, and has also started their own private practice. sexandrelationshiptherapy.co.uk Email: rhikempdavies@gmail.com
Saturday 27 March 2021 14.00 - 16.30 UK Time (GMT)
Enhancing the Therapeutic Relationship with GSRD Clients
Moving Beyond Microaggressions: Affirming GSRD clients in therapy
Although critical to exploring the therapeutic exchange, the topic of microaggressions in therapy often leaves people feeling defensive. Beyond avoiding microaggressions and repairing ruptures when they do occur, therapists might find themselves reluctant to broach topics of gender, sexual, and relationship diversity for fear of causing harm. The discussion of microaffirmations in therapy can be a useful way to think about what types of exchanges and acknowledgments are seen as affirming to GSRD clients. Attendees will get free 2-week access to an online simulation for developing gender affirmative skills.
M. Paz Galupo, Ph.D. (She/Her or They/Them) is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sexual & Gender Identity Lab at Towson University. Paz’s research interests focus on understanding the intersection of sexual orientation and gender identity, with a particular focus on understanding non-binary expressions of plurisexual and transgender experience. Paz’s recent research focuses on understanding therapy experiences of trans and nonbinary individuals and using that information to create therapy simulations that allow the practice of gender affirming therapy skills without harming actual clients.
Paz serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the APA journal, Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, as well as the Journal of GLBT Family Studies and the Journal of Bisexuality. Paz also serves as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Transgender Health. http://wp.towson.edu/galupo/
When the therapist is the micro-aggressor: Working through microaggressions in the therapeutic relationship with the GSRD client
Microaggressions are frequently reported by GSRD clients in their everyday life; when microaggressions are unknowingly and inappropriately delivered by a helping professional, a rupture or impasse in the therapeutic relationship may inevitably occur.
However, as long as microaggressions do not remain “invisible” or unspoken in the therapeutic relationship, not only they can be repaired, but they might provide opportunities for helping the client developing an intrapsychic system able to filter and metabolize these traumatic and negative experiences.
Antonio Prunas, PhD, is a psychologist, psychotherapist and sex therapist living and working in Milan, Italy.
He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Milan-Bicocca in 2018 and since April 2015 has been serving as professor of clinical psychology at the Department of Psychology of the same University.
He also completed a four-year training program in clinical sexology and is a European Certified Psychosexologist by the European Federation of Sexology (ECPS). In July 2019 he completed the two-year program in Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity Therapy at Pink Therapy, London. He joined the Faculty and Clinical Associate team at Pink Therapy in 2020.
www.antonioprunas.it email: antonioprunas@gmail.com