Course Background:

The terms “difference” and “diversity”, surprisingly, have seldom been defined within counselling and psychotherapy circles. In 2004, the Equality and Diversity Forum of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy produced a working definition of the concepts and ventured a listing of those groups deemed to be privileged, “different” and “diverse” within society.

“There are particular groups which are privileged in U.K. society. These groups represent the often-unexamined norm from which ‘difference’ is defined.

For example:

Advantaged/Norm includes white people, heterosexual people, able-bodied people, men and people of working (income generating) age.

By contrast:

Disadvantaged/ different includes black and minority ethnic people, lesbian, gay and bisexual people, disabled people, women, young people/older people/ unemployed people…."

More recently, Roy Moodley & Dina Lubin (2008) have introduced the notion of stigmatised identities of diversity and define these as: race, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion and age.

Working within the field of diversity requires counsellors and psychotherapists, be they from either the  advantaged/ norm  or disadvantaged/different groups within society, to have cultural, social, linguistic and political knowledge, awareness and skills to maximise the potential of their work with those from minority communities.