Even Professional Bodies Get it Wrong Sometimes
As professional therapists, we are also considered to the professional communicators. This means that we are meant to be thoughtful and to choose our words with care and attention. We are also human beings and have the same faults as everyone else and sometimes we say things that we should have through through further.
The idea of gender identity is a very important area of study and consideration. In a report commissioned by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, it was stated by Dr Meg-John Barker a non binary academic at the Open University. One of the conclusions drawn in this report is that “northern women are not ’emotional and caring'”
Now of course these things can often be taken out of proportion and misconstrued. Indeed, this is the standard response from many organisations as well as government. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy are to be commended that they have come out immediately to apologise for any offence caused by this report. Like I said at the beginning, gender is a complex area of study and is still something that the public and professions are working through to find appropriate language to discuss. It is only by making mistakes do we actually learn enough to move forward successfully.
