ABSTRACT
Lesbian and gay men are frequent users of therapy (Bieschke et al., 2000) and transsexual clients need to see a therapist as a requirement to gain access to gender reassignment treatments, as well as for numerous other reasons (Hovell & Davidson, in press). However, training in issues relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual (LGBT) people, and guidance on how to work with them in a respectful and enabling way, is only now beginning to develop within psychology, counselling and psychotherapy (Shaw et al., 2008). In addition to this, even less is written or researched into heterosexual sexuality (with the exception of Denman, 2004) as the dominant sexual group, which remains predominantly uncritiqued or explored. Within this group, gender roles are taken as ®xed and stable (discussed in depth in chapter 1) and so therapists rarely think about those who fall outside these dominant heterosexual or gender norms.
