Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity

Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity and Person-centred Therapy Conference 25th November 2023: A Call for Presenters

20 February 2023

We’re excited to announce that the Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) Special Interest Group is in the process of putting together a hybrid in-person/online conference. This one day conference is open to all who are interested in GSRD practice and person-centred therapy, regardless of identity and is scheduled to take place on 25th November 2023 at Coventry University. The conference will have an intersectional lens. As such, we particularly welcome the voices of queer, tra...

A new #QueerTherapistSocial

24 February 2022

Are you a queer therapist/trainee (identities not policed by us) with an interest in the person-centred approach? The 'genders, sexualities and relationship diverstities (GSRD) special interest group' for tPCA are holding what we hope will be a regular zoom social on the second Friday of the month from 6.30-8. Our first meeting will be 11th March It's a relaxed chat space for those of us who identify as queer in some way, with an interest in PCA to meet other like-minded people over a...

A Queerer Way of Being: A Monthly Blog Series on Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) and Person-centred Theory and Practice

07 July 2021

A Queerer Way of Being: A Monthly Blog Series on Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) and Person-centred Theory and Practice (Rachael Peacock, GSRD Special Interest Group Link) Welcome to the first blog post by the Person-centred Association’s (tPCA) GSRD Special Interest Group! Over the coming months, we’ll be posting a series of blogs exploring a range of GSRD related topics, focusing on person-centred theory/practice and therapy practice more generally. Each blog will be w...

But I’m person-centred. Isn’t this enough?

27 October 2021

LJ is a white non-binary person-centred therapist living and working in the UK with clients who we might term LGBTQ+ or GSRD Whilst this blog may be read by anyone anywhere in the world, I write this as a white British therapist living and working in the UK, and this is where my experience and expertise lie. I recognise that not everything I speak to here will feel relevant to all. As person-centred practitioners, we try to hold to the concept of Rogers' (1957) six necessary and suf...

Conversion therapy – a plea

21 November 2021

Dear all, Some of you may have seen the government’s recent consultation on LGBT conversion therapy and are wondering if and how to respond. It is (what feels to me as a non-legal person) a complex bill to respond to and is a law that covers several areas in one umbrella term. Whilst the bill calls itself conversion therapy, it actually refers to several types of conversion practices, only one of which we would recognise as conversion ‘therapy’. But it does also include us as thera...

Kinky Clients and The Origin Story

29 January 2023

This month's GSRD guest blog comes from Bay Whitaker. Bay Whitaker is a counsellor and Director of the small group practice Sheffield Central Counselling (link sheffieldcentralcounselling.co.uk) since 2008. She identifies as cishet and kinky, and has been involved in Clinical Discussion groups and CPD around therapy for kinky clients for over 10 years. If you’re kinky, and over the age of about 30, I’m betting you’ve wondered about the origin story behind your kink. The story th...

Queer Disorientation: The Loss of the East

15 January 2022

This month's article on queerness and therapy comes from Ronete Cohen. It is a longer article than some of our other offerings have been but incredibly interesting and we hope you enjoy it. Ronete Cohen (she/her) is a psychotherapist who works with individuals and relationships. She is a Pink Therapy Clinical Associate and specialises in the intersections of GSRD (Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversities), race, culture, neurodiversity and disability. She has specialist training in t...

So, you have an Adult Baby as a Client…

09 March 2022

Claire Maskery is a Person-Centred and experiential psychotherapist who works part-time for the NHS and in private practice, specialising in developmental trauma http://www.clairemaskerytherapy.co.uk She writes: This post is about sharing some of my experiences of working with clients who identify as regressive adult babies. I’ve been a practicing psychotherapist for about six years, but I’ve worked with adult babies for longer. I accidentally fell into working with this client group and ne...

What is affirmative therapy, and is it person-centred?

29 September 2021

By Sam Hope Sam Hope is a non-binary, BACP accredited therapist and author of Person-Centred Counselling for Trans and Gender Diverse People, available now. Their website is sam-hope.co.uk The UK government just announced there will be a public consultation regarding the banning of conversion therapy – therapy to change someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Sadly, this has already initiated an outpouring of misinformation, often centred on the idea that the ban would...

Working with queer clients: Three Top Tips

09 August 2021

Working with queer clients: Three Top Tips Meg-John Barker 1. Reflect on your own relationship with queerness Before working with marginalised clients of any kind it’s vital to reflect deeply on our own relationship with the systems of oppression which impact them. With queer clients this particularly means heteronormativity and related gender and relationship norms. Deep reflection is about more than educating ourselves about these areas academically, or immersing ourselves in relevant p...