This issue celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month, with a theme of new thinking running through much of the content. It made me reflect on the conflicting emotions often created when we come across ideas that genuinely challenge us to reflect on what we believe. I was interested to read in a recent PsyBlog, Dr Jeremy Dean鈥檚 long-running digest of psychological studies, about research that shows that even people who value innovative thinking have an unconscious bias against new ideas.1 Although we may justify our resistance by labelling new ideas as 鈥榳rong鈥�, often we are reacting to a fear of the new 鈥� known as neophobia 鈥� and to the uncertainty that comes with change.
The aim of much of the writing in this issue is to gently invite us to 鈥榝eel the fear鈥� while remaining open to considering key issues from a fresh perspective. For instance, what if we let go of the belief that marriage or romantic partnerships matter more than other relationships? In 鈥楻elationship anarchy in the therapy room鈥�, Emma Hacking challenges society鈥檚 conventional relationship hierarchy, and also argues that it鈥檚 time we stepped off the 鈥榬elationship escalator鈥�, the notion that there is a set pathway of progression for a successful relationship, and that a relationship has failed if it changes or ends.
Meanwhile in our 鈥楤ig issue鈥� article, 鈥楢re you GSRD competent?鈥�, Silva Neves invites us to check our 鈥榟eteronormative, mononormative and cisgenderist鈥� biases to a number of hypothetical scenarios including this one: 鈥業f a gay man told you that he goes to sex clubs every weekend to have unprotected sex, how would you feel? Might you perceive this client as self-harming? Or perhaps a sex addict? Or would you be curious about how this sexual behaviour could actually be normative and functional for them?鈥� Demonstrating 鈥榗ultural humility and cultural competence鈥� is one of six core principles of GSRD therapy, an emerging modality recently described and defined by Silva and co-author Dominic Davies in the fifth edition of The SAGE Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Silva鈥檚 article is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in assessing or developing their GSRD competence.
"Research shows that even people who value innovative thinking have an unconscious bias against new ideas"
Perhaps one of the more challenging areas of new thinking for many of us is around the concept and definition of gender. Our 鈥極pinion鈥� piece in this issue by John Reilly-Dixon and Sarah Ellis is one of the most clearly articulated arguments I have read for taking a trans-affirmative approach and a 鈥榥on-pathological model of care built on difference not deficit鈥�.听
Mental health problems, cancers, heart disease, asthma and other health issues disproportionately affect minority people pushed beyond their capacity to cope, says Paul Mollitt in his article on 鈥楳inority stress鈥� 鈥� not a new idea but one that is still relatively unknown. I would like to thank Paul for sharing his experience of the long-term health impacts of his internalised homophobia growing up gay in the 1980s. His aim in writing the piece, he says, is to make our profession more aware of when minority stress is presenting in clients, so minorities don鈥檛 鈥榟ave to wait for their body or their minds to break down鈥� before they get help.
As always, I welcome your feedback 鈥� do get in touch by emailing therapytoday@thinkpublishing.co.uk
Sally Brown Editor
