Description
Book SynopsisThe first peer-reviewed book of its kind, this important volume addresses a current gap in the field of gestalt therapy: that the practiceand psychotherapy more broadlystill suffers from pervasive hetero- and cis-normativity.
This book offers gestalt-therapy-based research and training material on gender, sex, and relationship diversity (GSRD), including chapters on a variety of GSRD issues and how therapists can become more GSRD-sensitive. The contributors position themselves across the whole spectrum of GSRD and offer their voices as an invitation to further queer the gestalt community with diverse content ranging from academic, research-oriented pieces to experiential, reflective perspectives. Featured chapters explore topics including gender-radical clients, sex and sexuality, relationship diversity, integrating GSRD and gestalt therapy, and addressing heteronormativity in gestalt therapy training.
Queering Gestalt Therapy is for everyone who is interested i
Trade Review
'Queering Gestalt Therapy is a truly pertinent and seminal contribution to the field of psychotherapy, irrespective of therapeutic orientation and training. This volume offers readers a breadth of understanding in its leading-edge discussion of the complexities and nuances in considering gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationship diversities. Readers will be rewarded with an essential broadening of awareness-informing-understanding, perspective, and clinical practice across the human landscape.'
Allan Singer, Psychotherapist in Private Practice, Boston, MA, USA
'Thanks to all who contributed to this timely anthology. I was simultaneously enlivened and brought up to date on reading through the diverse voices of contributors. This book makes an important and belated addition to our gestalt field. Anyone practising gestalt therapy with a general population today needs to read it.'
Malcolm Parlett PhD, Author of Future Sense, former editor of the British Gestalt Journal
'Queering Gestalt Therapy is the book missing from the Gestalt reading list. It manages to unfold a new perspective on the subject matter using Gestalt theory, whereas it invites the reader to take a closer look in each author’s personal world that contains the meticulous experience on working with gender radical clients. It is a highly recommended book for all mental health practitioners, regardless their school of thought, as it will embellish their professional practice.'
Maria Tzioni, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Yoga Instructor
Table of ContentsWelcome Everyone 1. Understanding Gender Radical Clients 2. Gender-identification 3. Holding Uncertainty so that it can be Thought About: Relational Gestalt Therapy with Gender Creative Children 4. The Drag and Queer Years as a Means of Developing a Therapeutic Self: Bringing Street Work in the Office 5. Experiment and Phenomenology in Treating Gender Dysphoria 6. 'Selfish and Destructive': Where does the late-in-life lesbian seek therapeutic support? 7. A Gay Son and His Dying Straight Dad: An Account of Ambiguous Loss and the Embodiment of Homophobia 8. Activism and Therapy 9. Compulsive Sexual Behaviours: Moving Beyond the Frontiers of Addiction Thinking 10. Queering Relationships 11. LGBTI in Rural Ireland: Secret Lives Creatively Lived 12. Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) Sensitive Gestalt Psychotherapy 13. ‘I assumed that it was a man she was in love with’: Heteronormativity and Queer Experimentation in Gestalt Therapy Training
