The Guardian newspaper has an article just published (December 15 2023) about the number of men entering the therapeutic professions.
We need more cis and trans men, more trans women, more from the LGBTQ+ community generally, more people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, people with disabilities, and more from working class backgrounds in the fields of psychotherapy and counselling. To achieve this needs will, focus and money.
I used food banks to survive my training and cope with the costs involved. I’m proud to be a working class, gay, nonbinary person with disabilities; to be able as a therapist to help anyone but also at times to fully understand certain experiences some of my clients have, given my own lived experiences of disadvantages, discrimination and, at times in my life, devastating poverty.
I still can’t afford to go on to Higher Education study at university to become a psychotherapist or systemic therapist. I don’t have upwards of £20,000 to gain a medical qualification, having studied English, Theatre and Creative Writing earlier in life. Thankfully my route via Further Education this time equipped me with what was needed to be fully qualified as a counsellor, though it did cost me a great deal of money offputting to many from my socioeconomic background and on (in my case, disability) benefits.
We can’t fully understand everything ever, but clients deserve to be selective if they so wish, based on finding a therapist they won’t have to explain the often inexplicable and complex to, such as coming out trauma or autistic meltdowns or what it’s like to be judged based on things no one should be judged on. “I understand” should always be a true statement. Where it can’t be, it has to be “I can’t understand that, but I’m hearing the pain of it and would like to gain a better understanding from you.”
This is no dig at those who are, but cisgendered, white, heterosexual, married, middle- to upper-class women, especially those with long blonde hair, have long been extremely well represented. This is fact, not intended offence. The really good therapists fitting the description are very much aware of this and on board with the need to improve diversity.
xph therapy offers integrative counselling, which means working with multiple therapy types, including CBT, psychotherapeutic and person-centred to develop a therapeutic pathway just for you, whatever outcome you’re hoping to achieve. Get in touch in a variety of ways. See the contact page for more info.