Explains Peggy Koh, a counsellor of SPACES, “There will definitely be psychotherapeutic issues emerging with greater frequency as Singaporean society grapples with this new benchmark of tolerance. On the one hand - homosexuals, who may or may not have come to terms with their sexual orientation, will be thrown a myriad of issues that they suddenly have to handle. On the other, homophobia could escalate to the point where societal discrimination and hate-acts become frequent.

Therefore, we want to organize a conference at this early stage, to slowly equip invited counsellors,social workers and teachers with skill-sets to handle such situations if they do arise.”

This groundbreaking conference is supported by an A-list of professionals who have extensive knowledge and experience in working with gay men and women. And to further augment the practical nature of the workshops, SPACES has requested the assistance of People Like Us (PLU), a local online gay group, to volunteer well-adjusted gay men and women to speak on their experiences in integrating their sexual orientation with the mainstream society.

“We are glad that SPACES has taken the first step in organizing an open, non-judgmental platform for professional counsellors and teachers to find out first hand about issues that concern us,” says Alex Au of PLU. “Besides having to come to terms with our sexual orientation, homophobia is a very real problem that all of us face every day of our lives. We hope that through this conference, our psychotherapeutic and educational workers in Singapore will have a better grasp of the situation and be able to work with their clients more effectively.”

 
 Topics

Topics in the conference will include:

• Psychotherapeutic issues arising in gay identity development

• Systemic therapy with lesbian and gay clients

• Ethical issues in working with gay and lesbian clients

• Homophobia and the psychological impact on straights, gays and lesbians

• Homophobia and safer sex - information counsellors need to know

• Small group break out sessions for participants to interact with gay and lesbian individuals to explore their identity development process.