ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Pagans negotiate issues of self-disclosure, authenticity and identity in therapeutic relationships and contexts, and how this impacts upon the therapeutic process. It draws on the author's ongoing research on Pagans and mental health, together with responses to a questionnaire on issues surrounding Pagan identity, the first stage of which was reported on in Vivianne Crowley. The chapter argues that while Paganism is becoming more recognised in Britain as part of the spectrum of belief and practice of a multicultural society, lack of knowledge of and negative attitudes towards Paganism can create difficulties for Pagans in engaging in therapeutic relationships. Paganism differs from many other minority religions in that it is not the creation of a charismatic leader. Paganism is a 'bottom-up' grass-roots movement with nuclei of leadership and influence, which Michael York has characterised as a 'Segmented Polycentric Integrated Network'.
