LGBT Exclusive: Couple Counselling
Trust Gay Relationship Counselling from the Independent, British Gay Couple & Group Counsellor of 22 years Expertise. Discover (re-)solutions both useful & beneficial to your partnership.Dean Richardson MNCS(Accred/Reg) is an excellent British Therapist centred around Hampshire, Sussex & Dorset. Offering Real-time Video Counselling exclusive to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Asexual & Queer Couples, plus Polyamorous Groups, over Zoom & Skype. Feel assured from this impressive portfolio. Perfect for cisgender, transgender or gender-agnostic.…so much more than just another ally. Counselling Services for LGBT+Book an Appointment
My mother used to say: “it’s impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.”~ Jennifer (“Jenny”) Finney Boylan.
It’s Going Wrong?
Do you want to know why LGBT Couple (and poly/non-monogamous group) Counselling is so crucial in same-sex relationships, whether the partners identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, fluid, queer, trans, agender?
Let me share with you the real story…
You aren’t the first gay couple to think about seeking counselling. You might be be first in your social group to seek a counsellor who focuses on LGBT. You don’t have to feel embarrassed about seeking support from a qualified therapist. Any intimate relationship can have tension, conflict, disputes, acting-out, sexual-engagement difficulties, and/or abuse. However, as LGBT people, we may be experiencing difficulties in our relationships as a result of issues during our formative years…
…as we watched our parents’ behaviour, we didn’t learn enough to know how to manage our distinctly different, intimate & sexual relationships!
Applying Ineffective Relationship Behaviour
Without realising it, as LGBT we’ve likely been attempting to apply heteronormative insights gained from our early years. Over the years we’ve casually observed behaviour from our parents & caregivers. Today we try and employ approaches that – by instinct – we’re borrowing from formative years.
Unfortunately, our mitigating behaviours have repeatedly proven to be off-kilter with our unique relationship demands. We didn’t understand why the techniques we use to settling LGBT relationship problems has continued to be so ineffective over the years.
In short, we’ve been using straight tactics that aren’t always appropriate for our queer relationships.
Few LGBT Role Models to Follow
As LGBT /QIA+ folk, we haven’t had many LGBT role models to look up to until relatively recently. Our schools have let us down by teaching heteronormative sex education. When we apply straight behaviour to our LGBT intimate relationships could end up in unnecessary fights for which we have not been prepared.
As LGBT /QIA+ we had to develop our own relationship concepts & frameworks! Techniques for intimacy that work for our LGBT couple relationships and polyamorous groups. Many of us, understandably, find this transition a difficult thing to achieve.
We needed some assistance.
Dean Richardson MNCS(Accred/Reg) provides a exclusively non-heterosexual therapy service called LGBTCoupleCounselling.co.uk, which could be the therapeutic boost you’ve been looking for… together.
A Better Fit ~ Counselling Gay Couple
It may matter less whether you are seeking counselling for a gay couple, a lesbian couple, or a mixed-sexuality couple or group. It may matter more that you’ll want to know if my service is the Better Fit for your relationship than, say, other more-generic therapy services.
I can help you with making an informed decision. Let’s highlight some pages for you (see the top menu for further details)…
Plus:
Werking it Together
So… I can’t emphasise this enough:-
This British online counsellor, who specialises in working therapeutically with LGBT /QIA+ Couples & Groups, can help lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, fluid, and asexual relationships that are struggling to stay together. Sure, sometimes couples break-up, get back together, and then break-up again. Yet, working together in therapy, we can examine what is impeding the development of a stable partnership for your and your intimate partner(s) and help you manage to resolve conflicts both now and in the future too.
But this isn’t just any relationship we’re talking about… it’s yours!
A (Re-)Solution to your Problems
Meeting with British Couple/Group Relationship Counsellor Dean Richardson MNCS(Accred/Reg) online with Zoom / Skype can help both sexuality-diverse and gender-diverse people with the following…
(a) Learn to uncover and comprehend what’s actually going on beneath their erratic relationship behaviour and disagreements,
(b) Learn how to solve challenges in a creative and methodical manner,
(c) Learn to evaluate various responses to their relationship’s demands, snuffing out not only old but emerging disputes when they arise in the future.
This is what you’re searching for
In layman’s terms, a couple or group gets lost and can’t see the forest for the trees. They invite Dean, their relationship counsellor, to join them in looking at their wood. They want him to assist them in noticing what they aren’t seeing (or what they may be turning a blind-eye to).
Discussions inspire choices for learning and possible improvements. We’ll begin to look at what hasn’t been seen before.
The couple leaves counselling with plans already underway that are transforming their wood.
As a result, LGBT couples develops newer ways of becoming curious about their relationship behaviour. Curiosity (in tandem with our partner(s)) becomes a strong relationship-transforming and preserving tool.
There’s a free, added benefit: Dean’s therapeutic approach, which the clients will adapt for their own use, can continue to aid couples and groups long after they’ve finished counselling.
Trusted & Experienced LGBT Therapist
h You’re interested in an experienced gay therapist who is knowledgeable about LGBT/QIA+ and mixed-sexuality lifestyles. By now you’re becoming curious to learn you why you’d choose Counsellor Dean Richardson MNCS(Accred/Reg). As a British specialist counsellor of 22 years experience, does Dean’s approach seem trusted by the needs of queer couples & groups?
I might have an answer to this…
Hi – I’m Dean… and I’m an actual Gay Relationship Counsellor! 👋🏻 (polite applause from the audience)
Although most professional counselling membership organisations (at least recently…) frown upon their members declining to work with lesbian and gay people & other diverse sexuality/gender folk, they let their member counsellors decide for themselves when they will decline to work with your relationship (e.g. citing religious beliefs, or personal judgements etc).
Frown upon? 🤔 Uh huh! 🤦🏻♂️
Even in 2021 – and with the Memorandum of Understanding #2 in place – I believe that those attitudes are considerably last-century!
Transparently LGBT
You may have seen on Google some couple/group relationship therapy services advertising sentiments such as: “biblical traditional marriages”. I’ve wonder to myself if “biblical” is code for: “We work with heterosexual only” 🤷♀️
The therapy approach that I use with LGBT/QIA+ couples and groups means I don’t take a judgemental position about “what a normal couple would do here is…”. Instead I employ an effective, therapeutically neutral, systemic approach (science bit: “circular questioning”) that allows the relationship to begin to discover their own effective resolutions to their own relationship conflicts.
A Distinct Approach to Relationships
Here’s something you need to know…
Graduate counselling qualifications provided by a majority of British training institutions cover only the skills needed to work with an individual and only in person. This can leave self-described “fully qualified” counsellors with insufficient understanding of the distinct needs of human relationships in therapy, as well as a poor understanding of how to offer the best service to clients over video communication.
Couple Counselling and Group Therapy is not the same approach as “individual counselling… but with a few more people attending” (as I once heard it described by a trainee during a relationship therapy course). I mean… yikes! 😲
This is where Dean’s distinct qualifications and practice are different.
What makes Dean a Different Counsellor
Dean Richardson is not just a counsellor; he is a Fully Qualified and Experienced Relationship Counsellor (Dip PSychodynamic Counselling (Chichester); PGDip systemic / psychodynamic Couple Counselling (Chichester); National Foundation in Group Therapy: Institute of Group Analysis (London) – read about Dean’s qualifications).
He’s also a fully Independent Counsellor (not associated with organisations that process therapy en masse, nor foreign therapy services who can’t spell “Counsellor” in their advertising 🤣).
Not done yet… he’s also an experienced Internet Video Web Counsellor having 14 years of actual experience working with remote clients over Zoom, Skype etc.
Spot any differences over your local counsellors, yet?! 😉
Dean’s private counselling practice, as part of his ongoing professional development, focuses on the therapeutic, psychological, and developmental requirements of lesbian and gay couple/group relationships. Dean’s primary focus is LGBT/QIA+ counselling.
LGBT/QIA+ Couple & Group Counsellor:
Dean Richardson MNCS(Accred/Reg)
What you might ask Other Counsellors
Even if you choose not to work with Dean, it’s worth asking every counsellor you interview: “what qualifies you to work with our relationship (on webcam)?” Listen carefully to the counsellor’s reply: how do you feel about what you’re hearing? Your intuition may be able to tell you if the counsellor is a good fit for your specific relationship needs.
Queer Services – British, Local & Remote
NOTICE: Video Couple & Group Webcam Counselling Services continue unaffected, whilst face-to-face services are suspended.
Queer couples & groups searching for counselling services nearby may not have considered the remote therapist option.
After working exclusively in charity for over ten years, Dean opened his 2010 private counselling practice originally for: Counselling for Gay Couples. A bespoke therapy service specialising in LGBT/QIA+ couples in long-distance relationships. This therapy service focused on the distinct needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid and many other queer-style relationships.
Expanding Video Services
To support the 2019 British National Emergency, Dean expanded his remote Zoom & Skype Video Counselling for LGBT Couples services, adding additional appointments. Webcam counselling respects your discretion and privacy when calling from the safety of your home or office; it proved to be popular for LGBT couples staying at home and looking for a safe, reliable, British video relationship counselling service created especially for our kinds of relationship.
LGBT Couple Counselling was available within the therapy rooms near the main Havant, Hampshire shopping centre but, due to Lockdown, no longer. Dean’s service for LGBT/QIA+ Couples and Established Groups continues to be centred around Portsmouth, Hampshire (UK) and, since 2020, is available exclusively via Internet telecommunications using free apps such as Zoom, Skype and others.
Help with Separation…
…sometimes!
The goal of counselling isn’t to make partners stay together. Counselling is about assisting a relationship with (a) identifying what they want from each other and (b) working in counselling sessions (and homework) to bring that about.
This means that some couples and groups use counselling to separate. This is as valid a choice as any about how you might use counselling.
Whatever the relationship wants, we’ll talk about this in detail at the beginning of our work.
Therapy for Groups & Couples
LGBTCoupleCounselling.co.uk offers relationship counselling for both established polyamorism / non-monogamous groups and couples (whether they’re in a polyamorist relationship, an open relationship or are a committed couple).
Counselling sessions are (at a minimum) weekly and arranged for the same day and time (from your choice of available weekly appointments).
Optionally, you may wish to discuss coming to sessions more than once a week. There is also the option consider longer sessions (90 minutes are available by prior arrangement). Discussing these with Dean may help you make an informed decision that’s right for you.
How long is the work: our counselling work together continues for as long (or as brief) as we think it’s helpful… one aim is to make the counsellor (me!) redundant & unnecessary to the relationship going forward.
Fees are due on the day of the session (credit & debit cards payable via PayPal, Bank App payments, BACS transfers).
Ending counselling: rather than one day saying “we’re ending counselling today” it can be helpful to bring up the idea of ending counselling first. Sometimes the need to end may be a mask for something else (avoiding a difficult conversation, fear about what a topic might bring up, difficult feelings, loss etc) and it can be helpful to distinguish, together, what ending may mean in our work and for your relationship. We’ll talk about these matters with some thoughtfulness and planning.
Contents
- 1 LGBT Exclusive: Couple Counselling
