As a Counsellor, Therapist or Mental Health Professional who works with GSRD clients, it’s likely you’ll receive requests for support from individuals who are struggling with matters of identity and believe that conversion or reparative therapy offers a solution.

You may also encounter clients who’ve been affected by the harmful, discriminatory practices of SOGICE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts), which often place sexual or gender identity in direct conflict with core religious or cultural beliefs and reinforce a position that there can be no reconciliation.

If you’re keen to provide an affirmative welcome to all GSRD clients it’s essential to be equipped with the therapeutic knowledge and understanding to support individuals who present with distress or conflict about matters of identity. With Pink Therapy’s ‘Working with sexuality and gender conflicts’ online-learning CPD module you can be confident that you can offer an ethical approach, even to clients who initially present for therapy with fixed ideas about the change they require.

This module draws upon a wide range of sources, including the experience of SOGICE survivors, to enable you to get to the core of this highly controversial and ethically sensitive area of therapy. You’ll be encouraged to identify how you can create a safe therapeutic space to explore identity conflict with your clients, consider case formulation and critically appraise a number of therapeutic models that can inform your work.


This 15 hour CPD module offers you the opportunity to:

  • explore a wide range of views about SOGICE and understand the negative impact of these discriminatory practices through the experiences of survivors
  • understand the legal and ethical positions around SOGICE and consider how harmful practice can be eliminated so that GSRD clients can access safe, ethical support when they experience a crisis of conflict that involves their sexual or gender identity
  • identify what motivates GSRD clients to seek SOGICE and understand the internal and external factors that may contribute to a request for therapy
  • establish how you can forge an effective therapeutic alliance with GSRD clients who are struggling with the distress of identity conflict so that they can access therapy that will not reinforce the harmful impact of discrimination
  • understand the complexities of intersectional identity conflict and explore therapeutic approaches and interventions that you can apply in your clinical practice to support clients on a path towards integration and personal authenticity

Candidates who submit and pass a short set of tutor-marked questions will achieve a Certificate of Study worth 15 hours of CPD credit from Pink Therapy.

About the Author: 

Jo Russell, is a senior accredited psychotherapist (NCS) in private practice in Glasgow, working principally with clients of diverse gender, sex and relationship styles.

A therapist since 2004, Jo has previously worked as a music teacher and a missionary, and has extensive experience in training and working with groups. She has an MSc in Counselling Studies (Advanced Practice) from Edinburgh University, is a graduate of the Pink Therapy Post-Graduate Diploma, an Advanced Accredited Sexual Diversity Therapist (Pink Therapy) and a Clinical Associate of Pink Therapy. Jo is asexual.

Purchase the course here.