LGBTQ+ minorities experience significantly higher rates of mental health difficulties than their cis-heterosexual counterparts and a corresponding need exists for more therapists informed to work with queer people, especially gendered minorities whose experience of mental health can be extremely fragile. Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) has been documented as an effective approach to meet the therapeutic needs of trans clients (Westmacott & Edmonstone, 2020) and therefore EFT therapists could be well placed to provide positive and helpful therapeutic experiences to this client group.  What do therapists need in order to do this?

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This workshop combines information and instruction on LGBTQ+ inclusive practice and proposes a framework for working with queer clients using an EFT approach. The workshop includes both didactic and experiential teaching, uses videoed examples and live demonstration, and encourages therapists to reflect on their own self that they bring to this work. It will cover:

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• Encountering the queer community in 2025

• Reflection on therapist's concept of gender and sexuality

• Creating a queer inclusive therapeutic workplace

• Theory of Minority Stress 

• EFT in the queer context

• Working with queer families

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Participants will leave this workshop with an appreciation of the nature of queer affirmative practice and the suitability of an emotion focused approach for this work. Participants will also gain insight into the experience of gender and sexual marginalisation and their own attitudes toward diversity.