Queering 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 prejudice and bias impacts on the mental health of marginalised communities. John Gillespie is a gestalt therapist based in London. He is founding director 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 therapist, and writer. He trained at, and currently works as a professor at, the Norwegian Gestalt Institute. In addition, he has a private therapy and supervision practice near Oslo and offers training both nationally and internationally. He is the author of several books, including The Empty Chair: Tales from Gestalt Therapy (Routledge, 2018).

• Welcome Everyone 1. Understanding Gender Radical Clients 2. Gender-identification 3. Holding Uncertainty so that it can be Thought About: Relational Gestalt Therapy with Gender Creative Children 4. The Drag and Queer Years as a Means of Developing a Therapeutic Self: Bringing Street Work in the Office 5. Experiment and Phenomenology in Treating Gender Dysphoria 6. 'Selfish and Destructive': Where does the late-in-life lesbian seek therapeutic support? 7. A Gay Son and His Dying Straight Dad: An Account of Ambiguous Loss and the Embodiment of Homophobia 8. Activism and Therapy 9. Compulsive Sexual Behaviours: Moving Beyond the Frontiers of Addiction Thinking 10. Queering Relationships 11. LGBTI in Rural Ireland: Secret Lives Creatively Lived 12. Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) Sensitive Gestalt Psychotherapy 13. ‘I assumed that it was a man she was in love with’: Heteronormativity and Queer Experimentation in Gestalt Therapy Training

'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 considering 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 simultaneously enlivened and brought up to date on reading through the diverse voices of contributors. This book makes an important and belated addition 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 is the book missing from the Gestalt reading list. It manages to unfold a new perspective on the subject matter using Gestalt theory, whereas it invites the reader to take a closer look in each author’s personal world that contains the meticulous experience on working with gender radical clients. It is a highly recommended book for all mental health practitioners, regardless their school of thought, as it will embellish their professional practice.'Maria Tzioni, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Yoga Instructor