This is Day 1 of the three-day training* 'Cultural Competency in Counselling People with Gender, Sex and Relationship diversities' with Tina Clark, Client Centred Counsellor and Sex and Gender Diversities Therapist.
Each day focuses on one area – Gender, Sexual Orientation or Relationship – and is devised as a standalone, whilst relating to common themes running across the series. Workshops will comprise information giving, discussion, individual and group work.
Traditionally, our culture has operated on a binary model of gender – i.e. you are either male or female. Presently society is a moving toward an acceptance of gender that is based on phenomenology (subjective experience) rather than taxonomy (categorisation) and consequently broadening in perspective. As with all cultural transitions, this presents some challenges to both individuals and society.
The ‘person of tomorrow’ (to use a phrase of Carl Rogers’) may actually be free to choose where they fit regards gender, rather than having this prescribed for them. However as counsellors, it is important we respect the client’s perspective, be it traditional or contemporary, make no assumptions about what gender means to the client, but be open to their personal experience.