Rachel Jane Cooke

Listen in for more info on Q-Con, the Q***r Women’s Sexual Health & Wellbeing Conference, which is happening on the 16th and 17th of Sept in Cork! Yours truly will be giving the keynote, on the pleasure panel, as well as running some workshops over both days. Loads of entertainment, raucous craic on Sat night and it’s all freeeeeeee

Want more info on Q Con? Catch these radio appearances by Ciara!🎙️

Yesterday, Ciara from the LINC team had an amazing discussion on Radio One yesterday with Brendan Courtney about q***r women's sexual health & wellbeing, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22292528/

But that's not all! Tune in this Friday night after 10pm to 'The Gay Agenda' on CRY FM, where Ciara will be sharing more insights from LINC. 🌈 It's going to be another fantastic discussion about the LBTQ+ community's wellbeing.

Stay tuned for more details, as we're excited to bring you a platform to learn, discuss, and celebrate our health, wellbeing, and pleasure! 🌺💬🏳️‍🌈

Get your tickets for Q Con at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/q-con-q***r-womens-sexual-health-wellbeing-conference-tickets-687838843497?

***rWomenHealth ***rwomen ***r

TONIGHT at 6.30pm…

We launch - Therapists Challenging Racism + Oppression: The unheard voices
Edited by Neelam Zahid + Rachel Cooke

Wed 19th July 6.30 – 7.30pm

Please join us on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83905955987

With Neelam Zahid and Rachel Jane Cooke

Do join us this Wed!

** Wed 19th July 6.30pm **

PCCS Books invites you to the online book launch of
Therapists Challenging Racism + Oppression: The unheard voices
Edited by Neelam Zahid + Rachel Cooke

Please join us on the night @ https://rb.gy/7crcv
with NNeelam Zahidand RRachel Jane Cooke

Please join us for the online book launch on Wed 19th July!

NZcounsellingandpsychotherapy
PCCS Books

PCCS Books invites you to the online launch of

Therapists Challenging Racism + Oppression: The unheard voices
Edited by Neelam Zahid + Rachel Jane Cooke

Wed 19th July 6.30 – 7.30pm

Please join us on the night on Zoom at - https://rb.gy/7crcv

Please buy, read, share and discuss, link to purchase in bio! News coming very soon about the official launch of Therapists Challenging Racism & Oppression: The unheard voices with

A little more info…

Out 1st June -
Therapists Challenging Racism And Oppression: The Unheard Voices by Neelam Zahid and Rachel Cooke

'This thoughtful and reflective, intersectional book shares vulnerability and visceral experiences. A courageous, tangible plethora of voices previously hidden embody and analyse experiences that highlight the duality of being inside identity while in training and practice. This is a bold contribution that addresses resistance and liberation, freeing who we really are.'
Dr Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga

For more information & pre-orders https://bit.ly/41XKEPB

I couldn’t be more thrilled and proud to announce the publishing of Therapists Challenging Racism and Oppression: the unheard voices, edited by and I. It’s been multiple years and various twists and turns in the making, and now it’s available to purchase (thank you ).

We’ve received some really stirring endorsements from practitioners which has been so moving and encouraging.

This book is about racism and its intersections with other forms of oppression in counselling and psychotherapy, uniquely told from the therapist’s perspective. It aims to capture the nuances and fractures of racial and intersectional trauma, as well as illustrate how many damaging ways conscious and unconscious ideas of race, and other aspects of personhood, are still woven into society. It brings together personal, psychological, societal and political insights to better imagine and further the discourse around what might facilitate meaningful change.

Thank you so much to all of the very courageous contributors, and to PCCS

For all the ethically/consensually nonmonogamous creatures out there (who can join us in Hackney!)

The world is not divided into abusers and victims!
We’ve all hurt people.
That doesn’t mean all harm is the same!
🪞
This tendency to divide the world into binaries - black/white, right/wrong, good/bad, is very common, encouraged by current society, is reassuring to certain parts of our brains in its simplicity… and it’s often deeply inaccurate and destructive.
🪞
Not all harm is abuse either. A person can be deeply hurt by a misunderstanding, or triggered because of their past experiences - feeling very wounded by an experience doesn’t automatically mean the other person behaved abusively.
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We have all been the recipient of unfair, objectionable behaviour that caused us pain at some point. I’m not proposing we see all pain as equal, but that we reflect carefully about how we view it.
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The strength of the painful feelings does not necessarily equate to how awful the other person was/is.
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The nuance and critical thinking I’m suggesting is needed is not the same as victim blaming.
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The vast majority of people who’ve been abusive were abused themselves - that doesn’t justify the abuse however it does help to explain the systems and circumstances that allow and perpetuate unacceptable behaviour.
🪞
I also find it unhelpful to label people abusers - it’s dehumanising in the way that I don’t refer to people as “borderlines” or “anorexics”. This language matters, because it shapes how we understand and treat ourselves, the world and other people. To reiterate, I am not discounting the effects of abusive behaviour.
🪞
How has the victim versus abuser/perpetrator/monster dichotomy shown up in your life? What do you notice about your language and thinking around this?