Pink Therapy Ageing Workshop

This workshop explores the experience and psychic world of the older LGBT person. We will think about the specific interests and needs this client group might bring to therapy, and explore ways of working. The likelihood of working with a significant age difference in the therapy room can stimulate feelings and associations for both client and therapist, and we will explore the meaning of this. The approach will be informed by ideas from primarily psychodynamic theory, and also by social constructs of ageing. We will consider the essentially ageist nature of western society, and how LGBT people may be both similar and different to heterosexuals in their developmental needs and experiences as they grow older, and how these might be explored within the therapeutic relationship.

We will explore relational life and needs (including the challenges of long term couple relationships, inter-generational relationships, and the experience of ageing alone); the wider social and cultural arena (including the youth-oriented dynamics of the gay scene and the place of the older person); sex and sexuality (as seen by self and others); and the dynamics of the client/therapist relationship.

The day will involve discussion in larger and smaller groups and experiential exercises in order to explore these ideas.

AIMS: the aims of the day will be

to explore the identity and needs of the older LGBT man and woman
to think about ways of working therapeutically with this client group
to reflect on theoretical concepts that underpin our work with the client group
to consider our own experiences and attitudes in relation to ageing and how these might impact on our client work and relationships.

OBJECTIVES: the objectives of the day will be for participants

to have developed greater understanding of the issues affecting older LGBT people
to have explored theoretical ideas and their application in therapeutic work
to have considered their own attitudes and experiences in relation to ageing and later life and how these might affect therapeutic work with older LGBT clients.

DAVID RICHARDS is a psychodynamic psychotherapist (UKCP & BACP registered) with extensive experience of working with older people and with LGBT men and women. He has managed a voluntary sector counselling service for older people since 1998; and has managed a major project developing services for older LGBT people since 2005. He also runs private psychotherapy practices in Central and East London, and lectures and supervises on various counselling/psychotherapy courses. He has a particular interest in issues of identity and sexuality.

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