Introduction
This year's conference is going to be an exciting double offering. We are thrilled to be able to bring Doug Braun-Harvey to London to present a one day pre-conference workshop on Treating Out of Control Sexual Behaviour (OCSB). Doug is a pioneer of a new way of thinking about and working with people whose sexual behaviour has become  out of control. You're welcome to just attend his workshop via this link - or book for both the conference and Doug's workshop at a special discount via the Register Now! buttons on this page.

Early Bird registration is £150 single day/£250 both days until 20 Dec 2016.
Full fee from 21 Dec 2016 is £160 single day/£310 both days.
Please go here if you want to register only for the Friday Workshop.
Therapy students and therapists-in-training are welcome to register; however, there are currently no student bursaries available. We may release some discounted places nearer the time if space permits.

Approval for six hours CPD per day.

Saturday 25th of March 2017

Abstracts for Morning Plenaries
Intimacy in the C21st - Tim Foskett
Socialised to suppress, conceal, deny and be ashamed of our inner worlds, for many gay men opening up to one another in human and non-defensive ways is a challenge to say the least.  Add to this a shrinking gay scene, the exponential growth of virtual ‘connections’, and the availability of chems often only a few taps away, it’s easy to see why many gay men despair of developing intimate relationships in C21st. And yet we do – brave souls that we are – reaching to each other through the psychological undergrowth and across the divides. This presentation shares some ideas about how gay men are being intimate in the C21st.

Abstracts - Afternoon Plenaries
The Lust Which Dare Not Speak Its Name - negotiating boundaries, sex and relationships for gay male therapists - Dominic Davies
How do gay and bisexual male therapists manage their online dating profiles and experiences when they also work with the population they serve? What happens when we meet clients or former clients in a ‘cruising’ context (online on in real life)? Having lived in the West End for over a decade, working with hundreds of gay/bi men and being someone who uses online dating to meet partners, I think this is a challenge for many therapists. Professional guidance is absent, as is published research in this area. This presentation will present some findings from a survey I conducted and and seek to offer practical guidance to gay/bi male therapists who use online dating apps.

Gay Male Elders: life over 50 - Keith Silvester
Any man over 50 in Britain was born into a pre-1967-decriminalisation world, which carried deep assumptions of a lonely, dangerous and miserable old age if you were homosexual. We know this need not be so, although cultural stereotypes die hard (what a way to go!). This session will examine the quality of later-life from the standpoint of health & fitness, sex & attractiveness, companionship & isolation and emotional & spiritual maturity. In particular we will look at what GMEs can offer younger generations from life experience. This session will involve sharing of ideas and some dedicated interview material. If you would like to be interviewed, ither as a 50+, or as a younger person with perceptions of 50+, do contact me! 

Gay Men, Leather and the search for spirituality/meaning - A Transpersonal Journey through Gay Leathersex - Nick Field
Adapted from a half-day workshop based on original research for an MA and two chapters for a recently published book on Gender & Sexual Diversity, this shorter, introductory workshop will attempt to provide a summary of the findings and open up a psychological space between BDSM, male homosexuality and psychotherapy. Splicing reflections on my own life experiences and therapeutic modelling during training with those of three interviewees, I offer up a non-pathological guide to Gay Leathersex and diverse lifestyle communities, and an opportunity for a transformed sexual, spiritual and self-actualisation process that could be considered in therapy and therapeutic training.

Babes in the Wood: The Wonders of Gay Fatherhood - Dr Damian McCann
This presentation will explore the meaning of parenthood for gay men. It will examine the transition to parenthood and the challenges as well as the joys this holds for gay men. The findings from research and the experiences of gay men themselves will be used to highlight the contributions they make to their children’s lives. Clinical implications – where these apply – will be outlined and discussed.

Trans Men and the Queering of Gay Desire - Ellis Morgan
In this presentation I reflect on interview data that explores trans men’s sexual relationships with other men to expand our thinking about contemporary renderings of gay male sexuality. In particular I look at how the cultural regulation of gender can come to impact on how desires and relationships are experienced, labelled and made culturally meaningful. I will reflect on the therapeutic implications of this and in particular how we can avoid bringing our own presumptions of gender and sexual orientation categories, so that we can support rather than undermine the identities, orientations and desires of our clients.

Challenges in Sexuality for Young Gay Men - Phoebus Ebbini
Despite big leaps in the social normalisation and acceptance of gay sex and relationships, a lot of young gay men still struggle with how to experience their sexuality in a meaningful and integrated way. 
Online hook-up apps often contribute to a streamlining of sexual identities, roles and preferences, by reducing potential sexual encounters to questions such as "top, vers, bottom?" and "what are you into?"
And our current social media culture is rife with selfies of torsos, pecs and abs, which result in a lot of young gay men feeling increasingly alienated from their bodies, as they ceaselessly work on improving them.  Unsurprisingly for many, sex is not an intimate encounter of exploration between two beings, but a pre-planned and choreographed interaction between two objects.