January 31, 2005
by Angela Hussain

A new scheme to help "celebrate" sexual diversity within the clinical psychology profession has been described in a journal paper.

Writing in February's edition of Clinical Psychology, the paper also describes how one-to-one personal advisors can enable gay, lesbian and bisexual trainee clinical psychologists to talk through any incidents of homophobia and the feelings of being "unique and isolated from other trainees."

The scheme was established by staff and trainees from three British Psychological Society-accredited clinical psychologist training courses within the north Thames region, together with other clinical psychologists.

The role of the volunteer personal advisers, who are clinical psychologists, is to offer advice, advocacy and support to lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) trainees.

The advisers help provide a "positive space where issues related to sexuality and clinical training can be discussed."

The paper's authors - Jane Gibbons, Catherine Butler and Robert Watson - claim existing support for clinical psychologist trainees fails to address specific LGB-related issues.

They wrote that LGB trainees were "struggling to find a voice within a dominant culture of assumed heterosexuality."

They also highlighted a lack of 'out' LGB psychologists who can act as role models.

They also added that the personal adviser scheme fitted a requirement that clinical psychologist training courses appreciate the relationship between personal and professional development, including how one's experience relates to the work of a clinical psychologist.

They wrote: "We hope that this new initiative goes someway to bridging the gap between the personal and the professional and provides trainees with a place where these dual identities can become more integrated.

"We also hope that we are providing an example of a place where sexual diversity can be openly celebrated and fully recognised by the professional of clinical psychology."

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