This speaker series is organized by a group of Creative Arts Therapy graduate students at Concordia to offer supplementary special topics education regarding sexual and gender diversity. These are important issues which are not adequately covered in current course curricula but are essential considerations for training culturally sensitive therapists. As a population with a high proportion of mental health challenges, who also experience the effects of psychiatry pathologizing identities in the recent past or present, the Creative Arts Therapies are well situated to be an accessible and approachable service offered to such groups.
The student group Queer CATs is hosting this speaker series to increase visibility, understanding and inclusion of the lived experience of queer therapists and queer people seeking therapy. This speaker series is intended to reach out to allies and interested students, as well as faculty who might be interested in expanding their cultural competence in approaching these topics in the classroom.