Published work

LGBTQIA+ MENOPAUSE

Lancet ‘The Art Of Medicine’ article

My article ‘LGBTQIA+ Menopause – Room for Improvement’ was published in The Lancet in October 2022. [No paywall, but you need to register to read.]

Evidence to UK Parliament

I gave written evidence to the House of Commons Women & Equalities Select Committee about the LGBTQIA+ experience of menopause (ref: MEW0087).

Peer reviewed research

My research paper ‘How can therapists and other healthcare practitioners best support and validate their queer menopausal clients?’ is published in the COSRT in-house journal Sexual & Relationship Therapy, which is part of Taylor & Francis. Direct link here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2021.1881770

If you’d like to find out more about LGBTQIA+ approaches to menopause, please go to my other website queermenopause.com.

BOOK CHAPTERS

What is Normal? Psychotherapists Explore the Question (2020)(First chapter: ‘The New Normal’)
Still Hot! 42 Brilliantly Honest Menopause Stories (2020)(pp 197-207)

LANCET PSYCHIATRY

Sex Work – Society’s transactional blind spot
The collective denial about the transactional nature of relationships, the gendered aspects of this, and a call for improved understanding and acceptance of sex work.

Enlightenment: Spiritual or rational?
An exploration of the tensions between spirituality and skepticism.

BDSM: Psychotherapy’s Grey Area
Mainstream psychotherapy’s resistance to BDSM, and how this is harming clients and patients.

Social media – Toxified by rage
An examination of the sense of agitation that increasingly pervades in parts of the online world, and an attempt to unpack why people are expressing so much anger.

Wanting to be normal
In this piece I wanted to explore, with special reference to psychotherapy, the feeling of belonging that so many people feel they have missed out on in life.

Acid Test (LSD, Ecstasy and the Power to Heal) by Tom Shroder (Book review)
Inspiring account of the therapeutic use of LSD and MDMA, and its troubled history.

The Sober Truth (Debunking the Bad Science behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry) by Lance Dodes
(Book review)
Incisive and detailed critique of the 12-step model of recovery.

THE LANCET

Cinderland by Amy Jo Burns (Book review)
[Content warning] Powerful memoir about surviving large-scale child abuse in a small US rust belt town.

The Institute of Sexology exhibition at the Wellcome Collection (Exhibition review)
Entertaining and informative, if incomplete, tour round the history of modern sexology.

Seeking Asylum by Barbara Taylor (Book review)
Fascinating memoir by an academic who was in analysis for 20 years, and was also an inpatient at the old Friern Hospital in North London.

COUNSELLING DIRECTORY

Some myths and half truths about orgasm
An examination of the many unhelpful ways that orgasm is presented in our culture.

Surviving your first Christmas without alcohol
Seasonal advice. December (or any other holiday period) can be a challenging time if you’ve decided to stop drinking.