Workshop Dates 

Workshop 1 - Sexuality, Gender and Sex – What’s the Difference?

Friday 1st November, 10-12.30PM

Workshop 2 - Gender Neutral Pronouns – Building Your Confidence

Friday 15th November, 10-12.30PM

Workshop 3 - Heteronormative Society – Impacts on Client Mental Health

Friday 29th November, 10-12.30PM

Workshop 4 - Cisnormative Society – Impacts on Client Mental Health

Friday 6th December, 10-12.30PM

Workshop 1

Sexuality, Gender and Sex – What’s the Difference?

Friday 1st November, 10-12.30PM

Does the difference between sex and gender confuse you? Perhaps when we put gender expression, and physical and emotional attraction into the mix you are left even more confused?

This workshop will simplify all these terms and help you learn some of the key terms around sexuality and gender, leaving you feeling more confident to work with clients who may have questions around their own identity and what labels (if any) they might want to use to describe them.

There will be space for personal reflection where you will be encouraged to think about your own relationship to gender and sexuality. Then, in virtual small groups, you will have the opportunity to explore where you may fit on each spectrum using The Gender Unicorn model.

We will end with thinking together as a whole group about how this knowledge might be helpful in the counselling room with our clients.

Workshop 2

Gender Neutral Pronouns – Building Your Confidence

Friday 15th November, 10-12.30PM

Do you struggle to understand the use of ‘they’ as a gender neutral pronoun? Perhaps you find using it uncomfortable and unfamiliar? In this workshop we will explore together the background of ‘they’ as a pronoun and why it’s important to increasing numbers of clients we see in the counselling room.

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We use pronouns all the time when we refer to our clients in supervision (perhaps without even thinking about it) but how many of us have asked our clients what their pronouns are?

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Looking at case studies we will learn together as a group how/when/if to ask clients their pronouns and what to do if we make a mistake.

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Then, putting all this knowledge together, we will end with some virtual group work where you will get the opportunity to practice using the ‘they’ pronouns with some short role plays.

This interactive and experiential workshop will give you some basic understanding and confidence around the importance of pronouns in counselling and everyday life.

Workshop 3

Heteronormative Society – Impacts on Client Mental Health

Friday 29th November, 10-12.30PM

Have you worked with many lesbian, gay or bisexual clients? How do you know? Did they tell you? Perhaps you inadvertently assumed they were straight …

In this workshop we will explore the impact of the society we live in, and how it can cause us, as counsellors, to automatically assume that clients will desire the ‘other gender’.

Through group discussions of case studies, we will learn the meaning of the terms heteronormative and bierasure, and how these can have a daily impact on our clients who are lesbian, gay or bisexual as they battle through the world having to continually decide whether or not to ‘come out’ each time they are in a new situation, including with you, as their counsellor.

Bringing this awareness together we will end with an interactive activity where we will discuss the impact this can have on our clients’ mental health.

Workshop 4

Cisnormative Society – Impacts on Client Mental Health

Friday 6th December, 10-12.30PM

A deep voice on the telephone or a female name on an email often pushes us as counsellors to assume a client’s gender. This is the result of us all living in a cisnormative society where we have learned to automatically assume gender unless corrected.

In this workshop we will explore the impact of the society we live, in asking ourselves questions such as:

• Have you worked with many trans or non-binary clients?
• How do you know?
• Did they tell you?
• Perhaps you inadvertently assumed they were cisgender (not trans) …

Through group discussions of case studies, we will discuss how our cisnormative society can have a daily impact on the mental health of our clients who are trans, non-binary or questioning, as they battle through the world having to continually decide whether or not to ‘come out’ each time they are in a new situation, including with you, as their counsellor.

Bringing this awareness together we will discuss how you can take this learning forward to feel more confident in creating a welcoming and safe space for trans and non-binary clients in your counselling practice.

About Chloe Foster

As a counsellor in my private practice, Sussex Rainbow Counselling, I specialise primarily in gender and sexuality within the LGBTQ communities. 

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My passion for working in this area began before my counselling career through my work in several LGBTQ organisations: Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard, MindOut and Allsorts Youth Project.

I love working as a trainer and have over 12 years’ experience which includes training LGBTQ volunteers to run community events to raise awareness of mental health stigma, training young people to run mental health awareness sessions in schools and colleges, training volunteers to teach English abroad and training team leaders of UK and international community team projects.

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Since completing advanced training in online counselling I have been adapting my LGBTQ Awareness workshops to offer them online. This is continuing to bring a more accessible way of gaining CPD and helping fellow counsellors become more confident in working with sexual and gender diversity.

About onlinevents

Sandra and John are a sibling team who are proud to be serving the helping professions for more than 10 years with online interactive learning. The workshop programme is being offered alongside the onlinevents CPD library which we believe is the world’s largest online library of video and audio learning, with instant certification for the helping professions including counsellors, coaches, teachers, supervisors and nurses.

The library is home to more than 800 hours of conferences, workshops and interviews contributed by hundreds of colleagues from all over the world and has issued more than 10,000 Continuing Professional Development certificates.

When you watch an onlinevents video or join one of our workshops you are part of a community of more than 40,000 colleagues from all over the world who have engaged with our learning resources.

Why Online Workshops?

We are acutely aware that for many colleagues in the helping professions travel is extremely difficult due to time, money and health constraints. We are developing this programme so that the workshops offered by experienced trainers from all over the world can also be accessed by you from the comfort of your own home

This workshop will be hosted in the Zoom meeting platform which has all the resources we need to create an experiential group learning environment. The workshops will have access to an online group room, breakout rooms for small groups, whiteboards for creating and sharing resources and the capacity to communicate with voice and text.

How Do I Attend the Workshop?

One week before the date of the workshop you will receive an email which will include a clickable link to join the workshop. About 10 minutes before the workshop is about to begin please goto this email and click on the link. This will open the Zoom meeting on your computer or mobile device.

When you register for the workshop you will receive an email with an invitation to meet a colleague from the onlinevents team in Zoom who will help you orientate to the Zoom environment. Because the workshop will require the use of the camera and microphone on your computer or mobile device we want to help you feel confident using your technology.

Please note that we are requiring that all workshop participants meet with a colleague from the onlinevents team before participating in the onlinevents workshop programme so that the workshop can begin and run smoothly. Any colleagues who do not respond to the invitation for the pre-workshop meeting will not be able to join the workshop. This pre-workshop meeting will prepare you to attend this workshop and any other onlinevents workshop that you choose to register for. You wont need to attend one meeting per workshop.

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