2025 Annual Training Conference

For our annual training conference in 2025, we welcomed Dr Damian McCann for two days to work with us on navigating the ethical challenges inherent in working with gender, sexuality and sex. On the first day with us, Dr McCann facilitated supervision groups in which our members were able to present and be guided in their clinical work. On the second day, he presented a day long workshop titled ‘Ethical considerations in working with gender, sexuality and sex in the consulting room and beyond.’ The event was attended locally by our members and colleagues in Cape Town, and remotely by those further afield. Three broad areas were covered: (1) The tension inherent in working psychoanalytically with couples experiencing sexual difficulties and decisions regarding referrals for specific psychosexual therapy; (2) Working with ethical non-monogamy, with particular attention given to countertransference responses when confronted with difference and what, as therapists, we feel able to tolerate and manage in our practice; and (3) working with gender non-conforming clients and the ethical considerations inherent in this area of increasing growth. Dr McCann’s vast experience in this field, his astute clinical acumen and his humble accessibility in reflecting on his own dilemmas in this sphere of work made for a very engaging and rich learning opportunity for all who attended. We hope to have him back to work with us again in the future.