Dean Richardson Specialist Counselling

As a gay male, I wanted to talk about my civil partnership in private. It helped to put some matters from the past to rest.

Contact Dean Richardson

Private Counselling for Lesbian, Gay, Transgender & Bisexual.
Dean Richardson MBACP(Accred), UKRCP Reg – LGBT Specialist Counsellor.
Specialist LGBT Counselling for Hampshire & Skype.
Why Consider a Specialist LGBT Counsellor?
LGBT Couples Counselling.
LGBT Individual’s Counselling.
LGBT Support Groups.
LGBT Skype Counselling .

Private Counselling for Lesbian, Gay, Transgender & Bisexual.

Dean Richardson MBACP(Accred), UKRCP Reg – LGBT Specialist Counsellor.

LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Individuals.)

With over thirteen years’ practical experience working in Hampshire, Dean Richardson set up his private Portsmouth counselling practice to specialise in working with gay / lesbian / transgender/transvestite and bisexual clients in therapy.

There are very few private Hampshire counselling practices that specialise in gay & lesbian clients, and Dean offers three primary Hampshire LGBT services in his practice in Southsea (south of Portsmouth, PO5, 4 miles from M275 J12):

LGBT Individual’s Counselling
LGBT Couples Counselling (same/mixed gender & same/mixed sexualities)
LGBT Support Groups

… these LGBT-therapy services are available to anyone in Portsmouth, Southsea, Southampton, Fareham, Gosport, Havant & Hayling Island, northwards to Petersfield and eastwards to Chichester.

Specialist LGBT Counselling for Hampshire & Skype.

Counselling focussed specifically on lesbian, gay, trans and bi clients isn’t just about understanding an LGBT-lifestyle and same-sex life-choices. For one thing, a counselling speciality involves an understanding the language characterised by LGBT lifestyles (“BDSM”, “PEP”, “CBT”, “S&M”). It involves knowledge of appropriate LGBT psychological-related studies, as well as having a reliable core psychotherapeutic framework that’s appropriate for the therapy being sought.

By choosing Dean Richardson – offering LGBT-specialist counselling in Hampshire – you’re beginning to tick the right boxes for gay people with specific therapeutic needs.

Why Consider a Specialist LGBT Counsellor?

The following are just just some of the reasons why choosing Dean as your Specialist LGBT Counsellor for same-sex relationship- or simply individual- needs is worth considering.

Whilst it’s accurate that most therapists in Hampshire could work with most clients in the local areas, LGBT people sometimes seek counselling from a specialist LGBT private counsellor for specific reasons.

Perhaps not least is to seek a sense of assurance that the counsellor understands and empathises with LGBT social, sexual & community conduct and that this type of counsellor is sought after to convey the sense of understanding to the LGBT individual or couple that is sometimes not experienced from a generic-practice counsellor.

Most counsellors will work with LGBT people. Dean Richardson is an LGBT Counsellor. Spot the difference?

Within many therapies, the idea of the “therapeutic alliance” is an important concept. In its basic form, it is the relationship between client and therapist where the therapeutic work is achieved, regardless of the therapist’s technique or the therapist’s model or level of skills. Part of this alliance is based out of trust: the therapist has to prove they are someone who can be trusted, and sometimes this proof is required during the most very difficult parts of the therapy work.

Whilst there is therapeutic benefits in an LGBT client imagining that a specialist LGBT counsellor will immediately be understanding & trustworthy, I would suggest that it is the qualities of the therapist who handles this imagination that is paramount during the initial part of the therapy. Yet, an LGBT-specialist counsellor can still offer an empathic understanding of the client or couple’s real world that other therapists may not be able to.

LGBT Couples Counselling.

$\"I Bet It\$

"I Bet It's `Can't Get You Out of My Head`" © CarbonNYC

When gay, lesbian or mixed-orientation couple relationships suffer conflicts & breakdowns and partners wish to engage a professional to help them understand what may be going on, LGBT couples may prefer to work with someone who is also member of their own sexuality group.

Couples choose counselling due to experiencing a negative recent event, or one from years ago, infidelity, mistrust, life stages, birth, ageing, death, wishing to separate and so on. Some relationships struggle to manage certain conflicts.

The counsellor is a neutral participant who doesn’t impose solutions. Instead he offers observation, curiosity and therapeutic hypotheses about the relationship’s behaviour – and invites the couple to take on similar acts to help perturb the unsatisfactory behaviour.

In aiming to help the couple help themselves in understanding what’s going on in their relationship, the couple can teach themselves to become unstuck and move through relationship problems. With new information a couple can notices differences and use these to make changes (by themselves) for the better.

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LGBT Individual’s Counselling.

"Gay pride 2011 à Toulouse" © Guillaume Paumier

Whilst it’s true that a gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual or “questioning” person may be able to work with most any counsellor, some LGBT individuals choose to work on personal matters with a counsellor who also identifies as a member of the individual’s sexuality group.

All sorts of LGBT&Q individuals come to counselling for all sorts of reasons. Those experiencing a negative recent event, or one from years ago, unexplained behaviour, infidelity, mistrust, life stages, relationships, aging, death … they all have an impact on an individual’s life – and counselling is there when you have temporarily lost your ability to manage on your own.

The topic of your sexuality may not be the focus of your counselling and this is perfectly natural. Sometimes the LGBT client simply wishes to talk about particular struggles in their life without feeling as if they have to explain their life choices or define their choice of words for their counsellor to understand.

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LGBT Support Groups.

"Circle of Friends" © Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

Sometimes, joining a therapeutic support group can help the LGBT individual recognise that they’re not struggling with their problems alone.

Groups not only discuss problems similar to each group member, but can also discuss “non-problems” (i.e. by the group discussing matters that are not the individual’s problem, the group can helpfully demonstrate life-management skills that are different to an individual’s personal difficulties).

Groups can be homogeneous (all members share similar personal-problems) or heterogeneous (members exhibit different problems), a closed group (the group starts with the same members that it finishes with) or open (the group allows new members to join and others to life during the life of the group).

Dean Richardson’s support groups can either be created “On Demand” – (a minimum of 4 & maximum of 8 participants are required for a new group) or, if a suitable open group is already running, you may be able to join an existing group.

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LGBT Skype Counselling .

Sometimes you find your ideal counsellor … and he works 100s of miles away from you. Fortunately, you can access Dean Richardson’s LGBT counselling services from your camera-enabled computer or Smartphone.

Simply install the free Skype software, and you can engage in counselling sessions with Dean using video conferencing.

Gay & Lesbian Couples who are in a distance-relationship can also make use of Skype Couples Counselling – as Dean supports group conferencing (both of you – along with Dean – using Skype simultaneously with everyone seeing the other two people on their screen). Dean’s LGBT Skype Couples Counselling services is also suitable for couples of mixed-gender & mixed-sexuality (e.g. gay male and straight female intimate relationship).

What’s Skype counselling like? Initially some people find video conferencing a little unusual, but a handy tip is that if you maximise the video window, looking at the computer feels like the person is in the room as you.

Want to work with Dean, but are unable to get to his Portsmouth location? Consider Skype Counselling.

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