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Gay & Lesbian and Multicultural Focus

 

Less then twenty-five years ago, the World Health Organisation considered homosexuality to be a mental health issue! And thank-goodness we have come a long way since then but still we have a way to go before every person is valued and accepted for who he or she or is; and where every counsellor/therapist can view individual difference outside the heterosexual lens of what is ‘normal’.

  

What We Believe and How We Work

 

At Mindful Relationships, we are not interested in pathologising difference, indeed we recognize, acknowledge, and accept difference as an integral part of who you are; a part of our society, you belong!
What is ‘sick’ is society’s attitude. We believe that when individuals have to live with stigma and oppression this can have a negative effect on their ability to have a meaningful and happy relationship with themselves and others.

 

Our aim is to help our clients feel supported and at ease while they find their way through some of the 'tough stuff'. The roots of negative feelings such as shame, disgrace and guilt are uncovered and dealt with. Rapid Exposure Tapping has been an invaluable tool in our therapeutic work with lesbian, gay and bisexual people; as well as with individuals and/or couples who are experiencing the pressures of understanding and dealing with either their gender or sexual identity.

 

What You Can Expect

 

At Mindful Relationships we offer our lesbian, gay and bisexual clients and individuals who are exploring their gender and sexual identity, a safe place to understand and address their issues in a supportive and non-judgmental way. Through careful and focused discussion with our counsellors our clients are able to look at ways of dealing and resolving problems. Some of the issues that our clients talk about are:

 

• Exploring and understanding sexual or gender identity
• Coming to terms with and accepting sexual and gender identity
• Coming out
• The impact of sexual or gender identity upon their relationships
• Sexual and emotional intimacy within a couple relationship
• Having children and beginning a family
• Parenting concerns
• Step-parent families
• Separation and Family Law Mediation
• Harassment in the family, school or at work
• Substance and alcohol misuse
• Depression, stress and anxiety

 

All our work with you is completely confidential. We have a confidentiality policy that we will explain to you at your first meeting with us.

After you contact Mindful Relationships we will arrange a mutually convenient time to meet with you. At this initial session one of our therapists will explain more about us and our services. We can also explore whether or not therapy is right for you and what we can offer and you can make sure we are the right people for you! We welcome any questions you may have about counselling and our services.

If you need immediate phone support please call Gay & Lesbian Counselling & Community Services of Australia on 1800184527  www.glccs.org.au or Lifeline on 131122 www.lifeline.org.au

 

Multicultural Focus

 

Research, experience and observation tell us that individuals, couples and families from ethnic minority groups are less likely to make use of counselling and therapy services.  

They are also much more likely to be underserved by other high quality mental health resources and are often over-represented in mental health centres. At Mindful Relationships we aim to change this. Our services are indeed used by people from many ethnic origins, including:

 

• Greek
• Italian
• Iranian
• Indian
• Pakistani
• Russian
• Eastern European

 

We strive towards offering all our clients, irrelevant of their religion and ethnicity, a service that embraces many social differences, including:

 

• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Sexual preference
• Social class
• Age
• Religion
• Disability

 

At Mindful Relationships we recognize that each person and/or family has many different cultures or identities. Our clients belong to many different groups, all of which influence their:

 

• Perceptions
• Beliefs
• Feelings
• Thoughts
• Behavior

 

Our differences make us unique as well as the same as other people. Our therapists are mindful of this concept, there are things we don’t know and things that we think we know about you that preserve the stereotypes. Our job is to ensure that we start from a neutral position and maintain neutrality with each client throughout the work! We do this by making sure we continually examine our own awareness, attitudes, knowledge and skills. While we use some specific theories and techniques for multicultural and diverse clients, including Multicultural Counselling and Therapy (MCT) and Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM) there are five basic qualities that our therapists employ (Rogers 1957):

 

• Respect for the client-the client is capable!
• Genuineness-counselling is a real relationship between client and therapist
• Empathic Understanding- the therapist needs to be able to convey empathy in a culturally consistent way
• Communication of empathy, respect and genuineness to the client- the therapist’s understanding of cultural differences is essential here

 

 

Can We Help You?

 

Yes, if you think that because of your difference i.e. your culture, ethnicity or gender identity, you will not be heard, respected or understood and that counselling will not work for you, think again! We can help you, we will help you to explore, understand and look at ways to deal with and resolve your problems such as: 

 

• Straddling two cultures
• Which culture do I belong to?
• Who am I? I don’t fit in
• Feelings of low worth
• My parents don’t understand me
• Why don’t my children follow our traditions and culture
• What will my community think and say?
• Arranged marriages

• Separation and Divorce
• Post separation parenting
• Was that racism and/or a racist remark?
• Dealing with racism at home, school and at work
• Depression, stress and anxiety

 

Services That We Can Offer:

 

• Individual Counselling
• Family Law Mediation
• Couple Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Parenting children and adolescents
• Depression, Stress and Anxiety Counselling

 

Your unique difference including your ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and age is what makes you and we will strive to understand and respect this. We will work with you to find solutions that match who you are.

Our services are confidential and this has been of particular concern for some of our clients from ethnic backgrounds, where communities can be tightly structured and sometimes clients are worried about their community‘s view about their problems, as well as counselling. If you need support and help from therapists who are sensitive, aware, knowledgeable and skilled at working with people from different experiences and from diverse background, then please contact us for more information.