Courage advice center

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Courage is an Austrian partner, family and sex counseling center with a focus on same-sex and transgender lifestyles, relationships and sexuality as well as violence and sexual assault. The counseling center is funded by the federal government , the city of Vienna and the state of Lower Austria and is the first institution of its kind recognized under the Family Counseling Promotion Act.

history

Courage was founded in 1999 and provides free and anonymous advice primarily to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people and their relatives. Despite specialization, Courage is available to everyone with concerns, questions and problems. In the first five years of its existence, the team has advised over 5000 people. In the meantime, Courage is very well established, so that many social institutions, advice centers, health care facilities, doctors, educators and others refer clients to Courage with questions and problems of sexual orientation and gender identity. In September 2009, further advice centers were opened in Graz and Innsbruck.

Sponsoring association

Until the end of 2002 the Austrian Society for Sexual Research (ÖGS; since 2105: Austrian Society for Sexual Sciences ) acted as the founding and sponsoring association of the Courage counseling center. Since then, the Austrian Institute for Relationship and Sex Research has served as the sponsoring association . This works and researches in close cooperation with the ÖGS.

Support committee

In 2002, a support committee was set up to enable prominent figures from the fields of politics, art, culture and religion to promote Courge's work. The most prominent members of the committee include the actress Dagmar Koller , the politician Heinz Fischer , the President of the World Association for Psychotherapy Alfred Pritz and the then President of the Austrian Association for Psychotherapy Margret Aull .

activities

The team consists of women and men from the specialist areas of partner, family, life and sexual counseling, psychotherapy and sex therapy, psychology, social work, education, theology, psychiatry and neurology, law, mediation, supervision and coaching and is led by Johannes Wahala directed.

Courage is active throughout Austria and has an international network. Courage offers personal, telephone and online advice to individuals, couples and families. In addition to acute crisis intervention, psychotherapeutic, psychological, social and legal advice is offered. In addition, it is about health care and medical clarifications as well as information and mediation of further psychotherapeutic, medical and social offers.

There are also therapeutic groups for homosexual and bisexual men (“OASE”) and women (“ SAPPHO ”) as well as accompanied self-help groups for teenagers and young adults (“Coming In”), fathers and their relatives (“PapasInMotion”) as well as parents and Relatives (“parents remain parents”) are offered. Information about the groups currently running can be found on the counseling center's homepage.

In addition to counseling, the employees are also involved in awareness-raising and educational work with the aim of educating and sensitizing society to the topics of sexuality, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender roles and relationships, homophobia and violence, mental and physical health, and are more likely to do so Congresses, panel discussions and lectures invited as well as contacted by the media. As a third work area, advanced and advanced training measures for specialist staff are offered, as well as supervision in the main topic.

Courage is also a federally recognized training institution for health and social services and offers internships for students of psychotherapy and social work.

Problem areas

Specifically, the counseling center deals primarily with the following problem areas:

  • Questions and uncertainties about sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Coming-out processes (also in heterosexual partnerships and marriages, including mediation)
  • Same-sex and trans-gender lifestyles (e.g. partnerships, fears of discrimination, bullying at work, getting older, etc.)
  • Advice to parents and relatives of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people, who at first often feel left alone with their questions, fears and feelings of guilt
  • Problems and conflicts in relationships and sexuality
  • sexual issues and problems
  • Partnership and marriage problems
  • Family conflicts
  • Violence, abuse and sexual assault
  • Loneliness and isolation
  • HIV / AIDS prevention (safer sex etc.)
  • Support for HIV-positive and / or their partners, parents and relatives
  • Advice for men: role stereotypes; Dealing with power, conflicts, aggression and violence; Questions or problems about male sexuality
  • Upbringing problems and generation conflicts
  • Separation, separation and grief processes
  • professional difficulties (bullying, discrimination, etc.)
  • Life crises and questions of meaning
  • Health issues

research

Research is carried out in the areas

  • Homosexuality / bisexuality: ways of life, prejudices, insights
  • Pre-gay childhoods
  • Importance of same-sex partnerships
  • Homosexuality and gender role behavior
  • Children in same-sex communities
  • Coming-out processes (in partnerships / marriages)
  • Gays and lesbians on the internet
  • Background to barebacking
  • Specific interaction between homosexuality and mental disorders
  • Risk of suicide among homosexuals
  • Transsexuality / Transidentity: accompaniment and treatment
  • Violence in sexuality etc. Relationships
  • Specific life realities of male sex workers

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Five years of “Courage”: criticism of the federal government at the celebration of the Vienna advisory center. In: dieStandard.at. derStandard.at GmbH, December 12, 2005, accessed on September 12, 2009 .
  2. ↑ COURAGE in Graz and Innsbruck? - What else! In: Rainbow.Online. eDate Advertising GmbH, accessed on September 12, 2009 .
  3. ↑ ÖGS. Courage counseling center, archived from the original on June 19, 2010 ; Retrieved September 12, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Support Committee. Courage advice center, accessed on May 28, 2017 .