• 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 gender and sexual diversity clients? 
• Would you be interested in updating your knowledge and have an opportunity to work on your values, belief and attitudes in this area?

Attendance at individual weekends is also possible, subject to availability, but priority is given to people booking for the whole course.

The course is primarily aimed at qualified counsellors, psychotherapists, counselling and clinical psychologists, but may be helpful for other helping professionals who engage in providing psychosocial support for gender and sexual diversities.  The course can also be attended by therapists-in-training.    There are no written assignment requirements for this course but there is extensive pre and post course reading which participants will get access to upon booking. 

Module One

Dominic Davies & Dr Victoria Holt - Saturday 20 October 2012 from 1pm to 7pm.

This day seeks to help participants understand more about binary versus continuum models of sexual and gender diversity and how these interact with other contexts that clients may bring, such as age, ethnicity, religion, class etc.

You will also be able to gain an appreciation of the richness and diversity that exists in the LGBT communities and the contradictions and similarities that different groups within these communities may have and develop a greater understanding of the social contexts that gender and sexual diversities live within in contemporary British culture.

Models of Sexual Diversity Therapy

Dominic Davies  - Sunday 21 October 2012 from 10am to 5pm

Will explore some of the different models of how to work with sexual and gender diversity clients and therapeutic guidelines will be offered and critiqued.

The workshop will be a mixture of pre-course reading, didactic inputs, experiential learning, group discussions and plenty of opportunity for participants to explore their own ideas and questions in relation to this subject as well as LGBT cultures, concepts and practices.

Module Two

Olivier Cormier-Otaño - Saturday 17 November 2012 from 1pm to 7pm
How external influences of race and ethnicity, class, age and other variables impact the development of GSD clients and how to work with these issues.

Exploring the theme of identity/ties - Looking at our own identity/ties, building on our knowledge of what identity means we will move into a more personal exploration of identity using an experiential exercise to discuss identities in the room.
 
Using models of social identity formation focussed around the development of multiple identity/oppression and the concept of intersecionality to examine how accurately this reflects the experience of those in the room/clients. This will include a discussion of the experiences of GSD people who experience additional oppression around issues such as race, class and disability. We will look at the experience of being an outsider from within the context of working with multiple identities and the insider/outsider experience. We will also explore what healing from oppression and finding an 'authentic self' mean in this context.

Working with Internalised Oppression and Shame
Tim Foskett- Sunday 18 November 2012 from 10am to 5pm 
'Internalised oppression' refers to the whole array of ways in which we have taken into our psyches and forms of 

thinking and being, oppressive ideas, attitudes, behaviours and feelings which are mostly unconscious. These are responses to external systems of prejudice towards sexual diversities which we have all grown up with.

Clinical manifestations of these range from anxiety states to self hatred and include rationalisation, erotophobia, homophobia, denial, projection, rigidity, overextension, addictions and self harm. 

Anyone working on their own sexual development, or with others from gender and sexual diversities, needs to increase awareness of these issues and be ready to work creatively with them. 

We shall examine how we have been affected personally and as professionals and share strategies for effective management.

Module Three

Coming Out
Deirdre Haslam and Olivier Cormier-Otaño - Saturday 8 December 2012 from 1pm to 7pm 
Theoretical and experiential work based on:

• impact of difference - i.e. race/ethnicity, gender, disability, age, class -  on the process of coming out, the concept of developmental lag and its impact on the coming out process.
• impact of previous heterosexual relationships
• the coming out process within couples
• Wilber's 4 Quadrants and the impact of the social and cultural environment on coming out