The Psychological Society of South Africa’s guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and gender-diverse people: towards inclusive and affirmative practice

Abstract

In this article, we outline the practice guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and gender-diverse people, ratified by the Psychological Society of South Africa’s Council in 2017. The guidelines are an augmentation of the Psychological Society of South Africa’s position statement of 2013 providing a framework for understanding the challenges that sexually and gender-diverse people face in patriarchal and hetero- and cis-normative societies. An affirmative stance towards sexual and gender diversity enables psychology practitioners to work ethically, effectively, and sensitively in this field. The guidelines – a first for Africa – are aspirational in nature and call on psychology professionals to become aware of their own biases, conscientise themselves of the best practices in the field by continued professional development, and to utilise the guidelines as a resource in their related work. Brief mention is made of the development process, before the rationale and possible applications of the 12 guidelines are explored.