Queering Gestalt Therapy: An Anthology on Gender, Sex & Relationship Diversity in Psychotherapy

165 Pages·2023·2.415 MB·English

by  Ayhan Alman, John Gillespie, Vikram Kolmannskog

‘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 consid-
ering 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 simulta-
neously enlivened and brought up to date on reading through the diverse
voices of contributors. This book makes an important and belated addi-
tion 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
The first peer-reviewed book of its kind, this important volume addresses a
current gap in the field of gestalt therapy: that the practice—and psychother-
apy more broadly—still suffers from pervasive hetero- and cis-normativity.
This book offers gestalt-therapy-based research and training material on gen-
der, sex, and relationship diversity (GSRD), including chapters on a variety of
GSRD issues and how therapists can become more GSRD-sensitive. The con-
tributors 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, reflec-
tive perspectives. Featured chapters explore topics including gender-radical cli-
ents, 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 in gender, sex,
and relationship diversity, especially as they relate to gestalt therapy practice.
This book will be especially useful for therapists, supervisors, coaches, and
students of gestalt therapy.
Ayhan Alman is a queer psychotherapist with a Muslim, Middle Eastern
context, and western upbringing. He trained as a gestalt psychotherapist at
Metanoia Institute in London. Therapeutically, he is interested in how prej-
udice and bias impacts on the mental health of marginalised communities.
John Gillespie is a gestalt therapist based in London. He is a founding direc-
tor of New Gestalt Voices and longstanding editor of the NGV International
Journal. He works as a freelance consultant in the charity/public sectors,
combining this with low cost therapy work.
Vikram Kolmannskog, Dr.Philos., is a queer-of-colour professor, gestalt ther-
apist, and writer. He trained at, and currently works as a professor at, the
Norwegian Gestalt Institute. In addition, he has a private therapy and super-
vision practice near Oslo and offers training both nationally and internation-
ally. He is the author of several books, including The Empty Chair: Tales from
Gestalt Therapy (Routledge, 2018).

Queering Gestalt Therapy
An Anthology on Gender, Sex &
Relationship Diversity in Psychotherapy
Edited by Ayhan Alman, John Gillespie
and Vikram Kolmannskog
Designed cover image: © adike/Shutterstock
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ayhan Alman, John Gillespie
and Vikram Kolmannskog; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Ayhan Alman, John Gillespie and Vikram Kolmannskog
to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
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Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Alman, Ayhan, editor. | Gillespie, John (Psychotherapist), editor. |
Kolmannskog, Vikram, editor.
Title: Queering gestalt therapy : an anthology on gender, sex &
relationship diversity in psychotherapy / edited by Ayhan Alman, John
Gillespie and Vikram Kolmannskog.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022047724 (print) | LCCN 2022047725 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032371092 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032371108 (hardback) | ISBN
9781003335344 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gestalt therapy--Case studies. | Sexual
minorities--Psychology. | Sexual minorities--Mental health.
Classification: LCC RC489.G4 Q44 2023 (print) | LCC RC489.G4 (ebook) |
DDC 616.89/143--dc23/eng/20221223
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022047724
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022047725
ISBN: 978-1-032-37110-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-37109-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-33534-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003335344
Typeset in Times New Roman
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword xi
LYNNE JACOBS
Welcome Everyone xiii
AYHAN ALMAN, JOHN GILLESPIE AND VIKRAM KOLMANNSKOG
1 Understanding Gender Radical Clients 1
DANIEL MORRISON
2 Gender Identification 12
ELSA ALMÅS
3 Holding Uncertainty So That It Can Be Thought About:
Relational Gestalt Therapy with Gender Creative Children 27
DOMINIC HOSEMANS
4 The Drag and Queer Years as a Means of Developing
a Therapeutic Self: Bringing Street Work in the Office 37
PARVY PALMOU
5 Experiment and Phenomenology in Treating Gender
Dysphoria 46
REBECCA WALETICH
6 ‘Selfish and Destructive’: Where Does the Late-in-Life
Lesbian Seek Therapeutic Support? 62
MIRIAM GRACE
viii Contents
7 A Gay Son and His Dying Straight Dad: An Account
of Ambiguous Loss and the Embodiment of Homophobia 74
PAUL V. RICKETTS
8 Activism and Therapy 86
SANJAY KUMAR
9 Compulsive Sexual Behaviours: Moving Beyond the
Frontiers of Addiction Thinking 90
SILVA NEVES
10 Queering Relationships 101
DANIEL MORRISON
11 LGBTQIA in Rural Ireland: Lives Creatively Lived 112
BILLY DESMOND
12 Gender, Sex, and Relationship Diversity (GSRD)
Sensitive Gestalt Psychotherapy 121
AYHAN ALMAN
13 “I Assumed That It Was a Man She Was in Love With”:
Heteronormativity and Queer Experimentation in
Gestalt Therapy Training 134
VIKRAM KOLMANNSKOG
Index 145
Acknowledgements
This project has been longstanding, and we have leant on a lot of others in
the making of it. We want particularly to thank those who contributed peer
reviews and whose support was instrumental in getting the chapters to the
high standard they are. We acknowledge thus the support from Dr Bernadette
Latuch, Schrusch, Dr Kamila Bialy, Dr Rhys Price-Robertson, Dr Melissa
Sedmak, Chris O’Malley, Dr Adam Kincel, Koyote Millar, Dr Saya
Karavadra, Steve Ausbury, and Andrés Lekanger (Chemfriendly Norge).
We want to thank New Gestalt Voices for providing a home and platform
for developing the book and soliciting initial contributions.
The GSD special interest group of IAAGT (The International Association
for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy) particularly co-chairs Dr Daniel
Bak and Billy Desmond were incredibly supportive of the project in the early
days – they believed in us, and the group helped shape this from seed of an
idea into the full-grown book it is today.
Likewise, we owe thanks to Dr Leanne O’Shea for her early encourage-
ment and offers to support the development of this project.
And we would like to thank Dominic Davies of Pink Therapy for provid-
ing additional contexts around GSRD terminology and its evolution, as well
as Dr Alex Iantaffi – one of the co-authors of ‘Life isn’t binary’ – for their
support with GSRD theory.
There are many more people and organisations in the psychotherapy field
like Pink Therapy, to whom we owe credit for having innovated around
GSRD issues, and without whom this book would undoubtedly not have
taken the shape and form it has. We owe debts of gratitude to all who have led
with their own truths and vulnerability in educating us as authors and the
wider psychotherapy field in how to work with GSRD clients.
Additionally, we each have drawn on our own personal supports that have
held us above water in those moments when aspects of our queer identities
have not been supported elsewhere in the psychotherapy world.
I (John) particularly wish to thank members of my supervision group at
‘London Friend’ – Keith Barber, Sarah Reilly, Alec Scott Rook, and Hillary
Ratnasabapathy for the love and support they consistently gave me. Likewise,
I want to thank fellow editors Vikram and Ayhan for their support.