In this session, aimed at anyone who engages in counselling or with an interest in this area, Dr Proctor will argue that we need to be talking about and tackling inequalities rather than celebrating diversity, which depoliticises the serious impacts of social positioning in our society. This session will hear Dr Proctor discuss societal power differences in those helping people in professional relationships from those being helped. She will explore how people positioned in minoritised and marginalised groups can be driven and labelled mad, using the particular example of women being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This session will consider how counselling and psychotherapy may further perpetuate the inequalities in society and will conclude by asking us to think about how we can work ethically and politically given these dangers.

Dr Gillian Proctor is the programme leader for the MA in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Leeds. She is passionate about ethics, politics and power in therapy and has written extensively on these subjects. She is a clinical psychologist who worked within the NHS for 22 years before moving to higher education.