Margaret Nichols is an American psychologist and sex therapist who specializes in LGBTQ+ clients, “including kink and consensual nonmonogamy (swinging, polyamory, etc.).”
Background
Margaret E. “Margie” Nichols Jacobson was born in 1947. Nichols attended Radcliffe College before earning a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1970. Nichols earned a doctorate from Columbia University in 1981 and is a licensed therapist in New Jersey. h did post-doctoral work in sex therapy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, now part of Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences.
In 1983 Nichols founded the Institute for Personal Growth. In 1985, Nichols was a founder and the first director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. Nichols became a diplomate of the American Board of Sexology in 1985.
In 2003 Nichols became and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and became a Certified Sex Therapy Supervisor in 2011.
Review of Alice Dreger
In 2008, Nichols published a scathing commentary on a paper by Alice Dreger that attacked trans critics of The Man Who Would Be Queen. Nichols’ review describes and contextualizes Dreger’s activism within the history of disease models of gender identity and expression.
Review of Anne Lawrence
In 2013, Nichols published a review of Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, a book by Anne Lawrence. The review describes and contextualizes Lawrence’s “autogynephilia” activism within the history of disease models of gender identity and expression.
References
Nichols, Margaret (2016). The Great Escape: Welcome to the World of Gender Fluidity. Psychotherapy Networker, March/April 2016. http://ipgcounseling.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Great-Escape-Welcome-to-the-World-of-Gender-Fluidity-By-Margaret-Nichols.pdf
Nichols ME, Fedor JP (2015). Sex Therapy with Clients Who Practice “Kink.” https://ipgcounseling.com/wp-content/uploads/SexTherapyWithClientsWhoPracticeKink.pdf
Nichols, Margaret (2014). Therapy with LGBTQ Clients: Working with Sex and Gender Variance from a Queer Theory Model. published in Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, Fifth Edition, edited by Yitzchak M. Binik and Kathryn Hall, Guilford Press, ISBN 978-1462513673
Nichols M (2013). A Review of “Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism.” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 40:1:71-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2013.854559
Nichols M (2008). Dreger on the Bailey Controversy: Lost in the Drama, Missing the Big Picture. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2008 Jun;37(3):476-80; discussion 505-10. [PDF] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9329-x
Nichols M (2006). Psychotherapeutic Issues with “Kinky” Clients. Journal of Homosexuality, 50(2–3), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1300/j082v50n02_14
Nichols, Margaret; Shernoff, Michael (2006). Therapy with Sexual Minorities: Queering Practice. In In S. R. Leiblum (Ed.), Principles and practice of sex therapy (4th ed., pp. 379–415). The Guilford Press, ISBN 978-1593853495
Nichols ME (2000). Sex Therapy with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and “Kinky” Clients. published in Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, Third Edition, edited by Sandra Leiblum and Ray Rosen, Guilford Press, ISBN 978-1572305748
Media
TEDx Talks (March 30, 2015). Beyond the Gender Binary | Dr. Margaret Nichols | TEDxJerseyCity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MUIYlaWVUk
Resources
Institute for Personal Growth (ipgcounseling.com)
- Transgender Resource Guide
- ipgcounseling.com/resources/transgender-resource-guide/
- Professional papers by Margaret Nichols
- ipgcounseling.com/publications/dr-margaret-nichols/
Hyacinth (hyacinth.org)
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