MISSION
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Providing a platform to demonstrate the unity within the queer communities.
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Representing the concerns of queer children, adolescents, adults and older adults across all cultures, religions, classes, abilities and ethnic backgrounds.
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Ensuring a balanced, psychological perspective is provided for psychologists, psychology users and the public on queer issues; amplifying minoritised voices and views.
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To identify and oppose conversion therapy in all its forms.
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Challenging psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy communities to ensure their violations of the past with queer communities are not repeated today.
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Ensuring the depathologisation and destigmatisation of queer people.
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Challenging the social causes of poor mental health, distress and poor wellbeing for queer people.
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Reclaiming queer people's expertise on ourselves.
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Providing public access to a directory of psychologists and other psychology using professionals who use LGBTQIAPK+ affirmative-exploratory approaches
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Responding to legislation, research and (dis- and mis-)information.
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Publishing research, training and guidance for the community of mainstream psychologists and psychology users working with queer people.
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Ensuring the highest of standards, ethics, accessibility and efficacy of services offered to queer people.
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Encouraging cultural change within mainstream psychology to be inclusive of queer values, character, perspectives and expertise.
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Being inclusive of all users of psychology in the queer community in allied disciplines such as teaching, nursing, occupational therapy, social work, therapy and family therapy, management, leadership, human resources and other roles.
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Avoiding adopting organisational memberships, partnerships or operational/financial structures that impose limitations on the independence of our position on queer issues.
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Observing and upholding the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy in the UK Version 2 (2017) and when appropriate becoming a signatory.
01
SELF
REPRESENTATION
Taking control of how LGBTQIA+ people are thought about, spoken about and constructed in psychology and society
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UNITY AND
INCLUSION
Reinforcing the solidarity in LGBTQIA+ communities
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ACTION
Taking meaningful action and making a meaningful contribution
About PSIQC
We need more than just talking and thinking from psychology.
The last ten years have seen an explosion in LGTBQIA+ hate on the streets, in the media and in politics. Once again LGBTQIA+ people are being used to bolster weak governments, and to reinforce cultural superiority for the mainstream. The brunt of the assault has been borne by our trans siblings, who have shown bravery, beauty and resilience against well-resourced and largely unchallenged opposition.
Currently the narrative on trans and broader LGBTQIA+ issues is dominated by untrained, inexperienced cisgender and heterosexual voices. They generally have no lived experience and no/little specialist knowledge. Their ill-informed and bigoted views are much easier to share in three-minute interviews or on 30- second clips on social media apps than the complex realities of gender identity and sexuality. The message of welcoming acceptance and solidarity our youth should be receiving from their LGBTQIA+ community is being lost.
In psychotherapy too, once again, historically harmful models and bigotry find their way into the treatment of trans youth. Therapy organisations begin to wilt in the heat of objection from their anti-trans members, and refuse to support a ban on conversion therapy; a well established ineffective, harmful and unethical practice. The well evidenced increase in suicide risk and mental health difficulty for trans youth is denied in order to invalidate the need to act in a timely fashion in their care so that these unevidenced long term therapy models can be used. This, in turn, delays effective medical treatment. Therapists ignore the voiced concerns of the LGBTQIA+ communities that these approaches are, in effect, conversion therapy.
This has to stop. Psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists must show an ability to learn from the past mistakes of their profession. We must listen to the lived experience of the people who have been harmed by therapy, conversion practices and bigotry.
Psychology and psychologists have a crucial role in helping the public, and governments, to understand the constructed nature of sex and gender. That these categories and their associated entitlements are chosen by society, and that they can and should change so that all people can live in safety and peace. We are in a unique position to undertake research that is meaningful, to create an unbiased narrative from extant research, and to challenge misinformation and bigotry where we find it. By simply being true to our training and our methods, we can enable diveristy to exist safely in society.
PSIQC is a society of psychologists and psychology users who wish to reset the balance. We are a new organisation, and we will be expanding our activites as we grow. For the time being, our main job is to find ourselves as a community and start organising.
Founder: Dr Rob Agnew, Clinical Psychologist (he/him)
Co-founder: Dr Lorna Hobbs, Clinical Psychologist
Co-founder: Carole Carter, Coaching Psychologist (they/them)
Become a member
We accept all applications from professionals psychologists and psychology users who hold fully trans, non-binary and gender-fluid inclusive views.
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Inclusion in the directory of affirmative-exploratory psychology practitioners (where applicable)
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Use of the post-nominal letters MPSIQC or PPSIQC
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Connection to leading experts in LGBTQIA+ psychology
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Invitation to meetings, events and conferences
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Participation in responses to changes in law, government policy