Therapists and Counsellors Network
Deirdre MacGinley
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- Location: Online
- Offers online appointments: Yes
- Gender: cis woman
- Ethnicity: white British
- Sexuality: lesbian/queer femme
- False Under Sixteen
- False Sixteen to Eighteen
- True Over Eighteen
- False Families
Practice description
Are you the partner / parent / child of someone who is exploring being trans or non-binary? You may want to be supportive, but their journey is likely to bring up issues for you that you may not yet be comfortable exploring directly with your loved one.
You may worry about their safety and comfort in the world, in your communities and how this may impact you and any children. You may worry about their fertility future, and grieve the loss of a future that you had imagined. As their partner you may have difficult feelings about changing sexual attraction towards them and not know how to navigate this.
Counselling with me can help you to deepen your relationship with the trans/non-binary person in your life. I work by welcoming you as you are, and that includes your more ‘unacceptable’ thoughts and feelings. Squashing things down doesn’t make them go away. You can learn how to talk about your concerns, listen more fully to their experience and navigate a new more real relationship, wherever that takes you. You may even find that this process sparks off a journey for you to explore parts of yourself you have ignored over the years, to be more yourself.
I don’t just work with families and partners; trans and non-binary people are very welcome. I am a queer cis woman, and have been a member of the LGBTQ community for 40 years, working with community groups for 30 years, and have been a a counsellor specialising in LGBTA people since 2018, As the years go by I find I become even more open-minded about the many different ways we all have of living and loving; and that includes working with straight cis people in a queer way!
Therapy qualifications
Certificate in Counselling - Gestalt Centre, London. Diploma in Counselling - Gestalt Centre, London. Certified Counsellor Online and Telephone Counselling - Counselling Tutor. Certificate in Psychosexual Health - Centre for Psychosexual Health. Sexuality training - Spectrum Therapy Centre. Trainings: Issues of sexuality and gender : Urban Tantra - Barbara Carellis; Pink Therapy; Shakti Tantra; Wheel of Consent; Rebecca Lowrie; London Faerie; Psychosexual Somatic Therapy; Tavistock Relationships; Working Alongside Trans, Gender Diverse & Questioning People - Gendered Intelligence; Mind Out and ELOP. Issues of race, racism and white fragility - COSRT, Mind Out, BetterHelp, Tavistock, Kinship Care, on-going peer group.
Other therapy skills
I have over 40 years’ life experience of being a member of the LGBTQ+ community as a lesbian/androgenous dyke/queer femme. As time has gone by, I have become even more open-minded about the many different ways we have of living and loving. I have undertaken additional training in gender, race, sexuality and sex, because acceptance matters to me.
General skills
I work with trans people, gender questioning people, their partners, and adult children. I work on issues around sex, identity, intersections of identity, coming out to yourself, coming out to others. As well as life transitions such as aging, having children, and bereavement.