Christina Richards & Meg-John Barker 
The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender 

The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender combines cutting edge research to provide a thorough overview of all the normative – and many of the less common – sexualities, genders and relationship forms alongside psychological and intersectional areas relating to sexuality and gender.

Table of Content

Introduction; Christina Richards and Dr Meg John Barker.- PART I: SEXUALITY.- Chapter 1. Asexuality; Dr Mark Carrigan.- Chapter 2. BDSM – bondage and discipline; dominance and submission; sadism and masochism; Dr Emma Turley and Dr Trevor Butt.- Chapter 3. Bisexuality; Helen Bowes-Catton and Dr Nikki Hayfield.- Chapter 4. Further sexualities; Christina Richards.- Chapter 5. Gay men; Dr Damien Riggs.- Chapter 6. Heterosexuality; Dr Pantea Farvid.- Chapter 7.Lesbian psychology; Dr Sonja Ellis.- Chapter 8. Trans sexualities; Dr Penny Lenihan, Dr Tony Kainth and Robin Dundas.- PART II: GENDER.- Chapter 9. Cisgender – Living in the gender assigned at birth; Dr Laura Harvey and Ester Mc Geeney.- Chapter 10. Further genders; Dr Meg John Barker and Christina Richards.- Chapter 11. Intersex/DSD; Prof Katrina Ron.- Chapter 12. Trans Gender – Living in a gender different from that assigned at birth; Dr Sarah Murjan and Dr Walter Pierre Bouman.- PART III: RELATIONSHIPS.- Chapter 13. Monogamy; Ali Ziegler; Prof Terri D. Conley; Amy C. Moors; Jes L. Matsick and Jennifer D. Rubin.- Chapter 14. Open non-monogamies; Dr Nathan Rambukkana PART IV: PSYCHOLOGICAL AREAS.- Chapter 15. Clinical psychology; Prof Jan Burns and Dr Claudia Zitz.- Chapter 16. Counselling psychology; Dawn Clark and Prof Del Loewenthal.- Chapter 17. Health psychology; Dr Joanna Semlyen.- Chapter 18. Qualitative methods; Dr Sarah Seymour- Smith.- Chapter 19. Quantitative methods; Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson.- Chapter 20. Sex therapy; Michael Berry and Dr Meg John Barker.- PART V: INTERSECTIONS.- Chapter 21. Ageing; Dr Paul Simpson.- Chapter 22. Class; Dr Bridgette Rickett and Dr Maxine Woolhouse.- Chapter 23. Disability; Dr Alex Iantaffi and Dr Sara Mize.- Chapter 24. Ethnicity; Dr Roshan das Nair.- Chapter 25. Religion; Dr Rob Clucas.

About the author

Christina Richards is an accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is Senior Specialist Psychology Associate at the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Gender Clinic; Clinical Research Fellow at West London Mental Health NHS Trust (Charing Cross) Gender Clinic; and is a co-founder of Bi UK. As well as many other publications she is the co-author of the BPS Guidelines and Literature Review for Counselling Sexual and Gender Minority Clients and a clinical guidebook on sexuality and gender published by Sage: Richards, C., & Barker. M. (2013).
Sexuality and gender for mental health professionals: A practical guide. London: Sage.



Meg John Barker is a writer, academic, counsellor and activist specialising in sex and relationships. Meg is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the Open University, UK and has published many academic booksand papers on topics including non-monogamous relationships, sadomasochism, counselling, and mindfulness, as well as co-editing the journal Psychology & Sexuality. They were the lead author of The Bisexuality Report – which has informed UK policy and practice around bisexuality. They are involved in running many public events on sexuality and relationships, including Sense about Sex, Critical Sexology, and Gender & Sexuality Talks. Meg is also a UKCP accredited therapist working with gender and sexually diverse clients, and wrote the relationship book
Rewriting the Rules.





Christina Richards


Dr Meg John Barker


Dr Mark Carrigan


Dr Emma Turley


Dr Trevor Butt


Helen Bowes-Catton


Dr Nikki Hayfield


Dr Damien Riggs


Dr Panteá Farvid


Dr Sonja Ellis


Dr Penny Lenihan


Dr Tony Kainth


Robin Dundas


Dr Laura Harvey


Ester Mc Geeney


Prof Katrina Røn


Dr Sarah Murjan


Dr Walter Pierre Bouman


Ali Ziegler


Prof Terri D. Conley


Amy C. Moors


Jes L. Matsick


Jennifer D. Rubin


Dr Nathan Rambukkana


Prof Jan Burns


Dr Claudia Zitz


Dawn Clark


Prof Del Loewenthal


Dr Joanna Semlyen


Dr Sarah Seymour- Smith


Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson


Michael Berry


Dr Paul Simpson


Dr Brigette Rickett


Dr Maxine Woolhouse


Dr Alex Iantaffi


Dr Sara Mize


Dr Roshan das Nair


Dr Rob Clucas