Welcome to the Institute For Sexual Minority Health

What we do:

We offer workshops and day-long trainings, mainly in the fields of education and health and social services, with the goal of raising awareness of the needs of individuals, couples and families belonging to sexual minorities, and assisting in developing comprehensive anti-bullying measures adapted to the specific goals of your group or institution.

Information about the trainings and workshops pertaining to:
lgb populations or transgender and transsexual populations

Our mission:

To improve the health and well-being of sexual minorities by raising awareness about the needs of these populations and the destructive nature of homophobia, heterosexism and transphobia, not only for people belonging to these groups but for all of us.

Background:

In the last twenty years major advances have been made in various fields such as sociology, psychology and human rights legislation and the law, that have permitted Canadians to develop a new understanding of the place of sexual minorities in our communities. These developments have created a need for professionals to update their knowledge base, develop new intervention tools, assess and modify some of their policies and practices and examine their attitudes.

Contact:

For all inquiries regarding workshops and trainings, or to find out more about the Institute For Sexual Minority Health, please contact us:
Bill Ryan or Françoise Susset

Bill Ryan, MEd, MSW

Bill Ryan, MEd, MSW is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in issues related to sexual orientation, youth, the elderly homophobia, HIV prevention, same-sex families and parenting, and adapting education, health and social services to the needs of sexual minorities.
His research and community involvement have focused on documenting the needs of Canadian gay, lesbian, bisexual and two-spirit people and giving voice to their needs. He is the initiator or founder of many support services based both in Canada and Europe and is the recipient of several awards. He teaches in the School of Social Work as well as in the Gender and Sexual Diversity Program at McGill University in Montréal.

Françoise Susset, M.A.

Françoise Susset, M.A. is a clinical psychologist and a marriage and family therapist with over 20 years of experience working with lgbt individuals, couples and families. She is a member of the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH) and is active in promoting and developing services adapted to the needs of the transsexual community in Quebec.
She worked for many years in Minnesota as part of a clinical team at Pride Institute, the first ever chemical dependency treatment center serving the lgb community. For several years, she participated in the general mental health training and clinical supervision of residents in Family Medicine from the Université de Montréal Medical School. Since 1999 she has been a trainer in Quebec, sensitizing health and social service providers, youth organizations and schools to the needs of sexual minorities. She is currently finishing a doctorate degree in psychology focusing on gender variant children and their families.