Respecting Diversity in Relationship Framework

This is the final day 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.

The most accepted model of relationship in our culture is monogamous marriage or partnership; until recently this model was exclusively heterosexual. The notion that non-monogamy could be equally ethical still eludes many of the population – having multiple partners being associated with promiscuity and infidelity. Additionally our frame-work for relationship has focused on sexual practices, thus explicitly and implicitly excluding those who are intimate in other ways.

Whether we are working with people as individuals or specifically with relationships it is helpful to be able to meet people in diverse relationship configurations with equanimity. In order to do this we need to understand that no ethical framework for relationship is superior to another, and that most human relationships offer both the capacity to enrich lives or abuse them, regardless of configuration.

This workshop will:

• discuss the diversities of human love in order to enable greater understanding of human relationship

• expand vocabulary and understandings of different relationship configurations

• bring into awareness the potential prejudices that could block unconditional positive regard and empathic attunement to our clients

• work with vignettes on some of the personal and social issues that diverse relationship configurations raise in counselling*

For further info on the event, the facilitator or how to book, visit PCT Scotland