Queering Psychotherapy

‘The discipline of psychotherapy is unavoidably implicated in the structure of the society in which it operates. The only way to ensure it doesn’t replicate embedded social inequities and harms is for it regularly subject itself to intense critical examination from a wide diversity of perspectives. Queering Psychotherapy is a shining example of this kind of inquiry and should be a compulsory read for anyone in the field, however they choose to identify.’

‘The space of therapy can feel claustrophobic. If you’re queer or trans and working with a heteronormative therapist, the room itself can feel airless especially when you are trying to establish a workable relationship and understanding about your identity. An airless room fraught with misunderstandings. This book is a reservoir of information, knowledge and professional understandings which seek to widen out that space into a comfortable queer landscape. Invaluable.’

‘Queering Psychotherapy is a dynamic collection featuring important, intersectional perspectives. It tackles big topics, such as trans desire, lesbian erasure and navigating shame, with nuance and care. Brimming with powerful insights, this book is a vital resource for professionals and fascinating reading material for us all.’

‘A stirring and necessary contribution to the field! In this liminal time, when a new generation of clients and students are calling psychotherapists and training institutions to accountability, Queering Psychotherapy can offer a compelling compass for reorienting and reimagining our field. The collaborative format of the book embodies the message vividly, by calling us all in, to critically and heartfully join the creative project of querying and queering the underpinning of our theories and practices.’

‘Passionate, thoughtful and opens a much-needed discussion with the mainstream therapeutic community who often do not understand the needs and lives of LGBTQI+ clients.’

‘An outstanding book […] Czyzselska presents the lesser-heard voices of black feminists, trans and gender-expansive clients, queer sex workers, intersex individuals, lesbian patients and queer and trans children. […] This book tasks us all to think about our positions and privileges and to question the status quo.’

‘In Queering psychotherapy, Jane C. Czyzselska presents a powerful series of conversations that challenge the normative structures and assumptions that govern modern psychotherapy. […] The book is written in a captivating style, composed of conversations between the editor and scholars and psychotherapists who hold a range of racial, sexual, and gender identities. The rich integration of critical race and feminist/womanist theories alongside psychotherapy practice theories makes the book a compelling read for those who are interested in how critical theories can be used to inform clinical practice. […] Ultimately Queering psychotherapy is a compelling text that problematizes some of the core assumptions underlying psychotherapy practice with members of the LGBTIQ+ community. The text is extraordinarily thoughtful in its multi-level and intersectional approaches, intensively engaging with critical race, feminist/womanist, and queer theories. The book is also unique in its extensive representation of the perspectives of individuals holding minoritized racial and gender identities. I eagerly await an expansion of the core concepts of this text, which will more directly and explicitly guide psychotherapists’ applications of these concepts with their LGBTIQ+ clients.’

‘This excellent book takes an intersectional approach in the understanding of psychotherapy through a queer lens and is essential reading, therefore for those who are from the LGBTQ+ community or are working within said communities such as myself. That this book has been brave enough to include such a wide range of voices and perspectives, angles, cultures, and races is a testament to just how psychotherapy can come together when it steps outside of the heteronormative, able-bodied, white, middle class constraints within which it has been entangled almost since its inception. This book is essential reading and needs to be studied on courses around the country.’

‘I would heartily recommend this book to any therapist, and especially ones who are working with gender non-conforming clients. It ploughs thoughtfully and provokingly into territory which is more often the domain of soundbites than sustained analysis, and in doing so raises many pertinent questions for therapists. Even as someone who has decent experience with trans clients and who has attended several training events on the topic, I found myself thinking about things in a very different way than before, and that is very much to the book’s credit.’

Jane C. Czyzselska (they/she) is a relational integrative psychotherapist and counsellor in private practice. They are also a journalist, a writer, and a trustee of The Relational School.