An LGBTQ+ Affirmative Practice.

Maybe you are self assured regarding your gender and sexuality preference. Possibly, like countless others you have faced judgment, discrimination, just for being who you are. Perhaps, you are still questioning your identity. Or perchance, you’ve realized you need to come clean to others, and also looking to share your voice with the world. Whatever the case may be, I understand many of the difficulties these encounters can have, and practice an LGBTQ Affirmative therapy.

Affirmative therapy is: an approach to therapy that embraces a positive view of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) identities and relationships and addresses the negative influences that homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism have on the lives of LGBTQ clients. One of the greatest barriers that LGBTQ individuals experience in accessing mental health care is the anticipation of and experience of discrimination.

Many therapists, trained in traditional developmental theories that often assign stigma to LGBTQ clients that historically classified homosexuality as a mental illness, have absorbed the unconscious yet pervasive biases that continue to plague our societal struggle with sexuality and gender as an aspect of civil rights. Since cultural competency that includes non-heterosexual, gender-diverse people is a recent development in the mental health field, many clinicians simply have not had the opportunity to obtain this training.  I have been introduced to the basics of affirmative therapy with LGBTQ client populations within a multi-cultural and inter-sectional context, and models of identity development for LGBTQ identities. and have gained the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes associated with culturally competent services for lesbian; gay; bisexual; transgender; and queer adults, teens, couples, and family systems.

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