Countertransference issues in psychotherapy with lesbian and gay clients (original) (raw)
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British Journal of Psychiatry, 2001
BackgroundEarly psychodynamic writing on same-gender sexual preference contributed to its pathologisation and an interest in treatment directed at changing sexual orientation.AimsTo establish the therapeutic approaches taken by contemporary psychotherapists and psychoanalysts to gay and lesbian clients/patients.MethodA random sample of individuals listed as working with adults in the British Confederation of Psychotherapists' register were sent postal questionnaires.ResultsData are available from 274 (69%) of 395 questionnaires. Only one of 218 respondents said that he/she was homosexual. One-third said that gay and lesbian patients did have a right to a gay or lesbian therapist. A total of 179 (82% of 218) respondents described work with gay and lesbian clients/patients, and in the majority of cases sexual orientation was an important aspect of the work.ConclusionsGays and lesbians seeking psychoanalysis or psychotherapy in the National Health Service or outside it for personal...
Theorising lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy : a grounded analysis
1999
This thesis presents the findings of a qualitative research study exploring lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy. The participants comprised two sets of people. The first are lesbian and gay male clients, the second are lesbian, gay male and heterosexual female therapists. These therapists are accredited Clinical and Counselling Psychologists, Registered Psychotherapists and Accredited Counsellors and identify as lesbian and gay affirmative -practitioners. The study explored accounts of lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy to see in which ways it is qualitatively different from other forms of therapy with a view to theorising the process of lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy. In-depth interviews were conducted and a grounded theory methodology was undertaken. This is discussed in terms of method and epistemology. The findings are represented in diagrammatic and text forms and I outline process models of lesbian and -gay affirmative therapy. While some of the finding...
Lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy: Issues in theory and practice
Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 1999
This paper is structured into four sections, each considering issues that are relevant to the thinking of therapists when working with lesbians and gay men. Firstly, several observations are made about the psychotherapy literature and the approaches that it takes to lesbians and gay men. Secondly, recent relevant research on psychotherapy with lesbians and gay men which was undertaken for the Division of Counselling Psychology of the British Psychological Society is summarised. The third section reports preliminary findings from research into the nature of lesbian and gay affirmative psychotherapy. The final section considers the issues that this raises for therapists in terms of their training and personal development. It is hoped that this paper will raise awareness of some of the issues in the broad field of affirmative psychotherapies and stimulate debate. 2 Lesbian and Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy: Issues in Theory and Practice.
Issues in psychotherapy with lesbians and gay men: A survey of psychologists
American Psychologist, 1991
In 1984, a task force of the American Psychological Association (APA) Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns was charged with investigating bias in psychotherapy with lesbians and gay men. The task force surveyed a large and diverse sample of psychologists to elicit information about specific instances of respondent-defined biased and sensitive psychotherapy practice. Open-ended responses were used to separately identify major themes of biased and sensitive practice and to illustrate each with concrete examples. Results suggest that psychologists vary widely in their adherence to a standard of unbiased practice with gay men and lesbians. To bring individual practice into accord with APA policy will require continued and expanded efforts to educate practitioners about sexual orientation.
CLINICAL ISSUES IN WORKING WITH LESBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL CLIENTS
This article discusses some of the key clinical issues for therapists to consider when working with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. After a discussion of the biases that can influence psychotherapy, guidelines are given for conducting LGB-affirmative therapy that avoids these biases. Issues that therapists need to be familiar with in working with LGB clients include LGB identity development; couple relationships and parenting; LGB individuals as members of families; the unique stressors faced by individuals who are underrepresented in the LGB research literature (e.g., older LGB individuals, ethnic minorities, religious LGB individuals, bisexual individuals); and legal and workplace issues. An examination of the published literature is offered with particular emphasis given to the available empirical research.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients have reported experiencing heterosexist/homophobic attitudes from heterosexual therapists, but this has seldom been discussed for gay therapists. Such experiences could impact the therapeutic process and a gay therapist’s willingness to self-disclose their sexuality. Selfdisclosure of sexuality can be therapeutically beneficial for LGBTQ or heterosexual clients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven gay male therapists and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five themes emerged: affinity for working with LGBTQ clients, heterosexual males’ resistance to the therapeutic process, the impact of homophobia within the therapeutic relationship, empathy through shared humanity, and utilizing therapist sexuality as a tool within the therapeutic relationship.
Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 2014
Introduction to the Research Topic It is both logical and widely agreed upon that within psychological therapy, the overall aim and intent is beneficence (doing good) and non-maleficence (not causing harm) for the client who may likely be in some form of psychological distress. This principle understanding could be deemed a facet that most counselling psychologists would fundamentally aim to achieve in their therapeutic practices (Woolfe et al., 2010). Counselling psychology has fundamentally placed itself between the science of psychology and the therapeutic practices of counselling and psychotherapy with the aim to represent both "scientist practitioners" and "reflective practitioners". To truly represent a counselling psychologist's reflective practice, links must be drawn to the overall origins in humanistic values and philosophy upon which the profession was built upon (Strawbridge & Woolfe, 2010). This value base and philosophy moved away from the notion of how to 'treat' clients but instead orientated the counselling psychologist into how to 'be with' them and just as importantly placing emphasis on 'being-in-relation' to these clients. Thus counselling psychologists aim to consider not only their clients but also the 'therapeutic relationship' between them and how they themselves are impacting upon such therapeutic practices, achieved through for Dr James Christopher Porter Doctoral Portfolio in Counselling Psychology! ! 7! example; personal therapy, personal development and clinical supervision of their own, to try and be a reflective practitioner. This research dossier hopefully provides an example of how I as a counselling psychologist in training have tried to use the opportunity of conducting research as part of a practitioner doctorate portfolio, to represent what it means to integrate the 'being' both a scientist practitioner and reflective practitioner. This is achieved through this research dossier presenting literature and empirical research crucial for counselling psychologists to provide evidence-based therapy with their clients, but also through focus on areas related to the notion of reflective practice, which are particularly pertinent to me. This research dossier focuses on the experiences of individuals that identify as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual (LGB) and work therapeutically with clients. This is strongly guided by the investigation into the area of self-disclosure by these individuals of their sexual orientation to clients they may be or could potentially work with. This holds to the values of counselling psychology by developing an evidencebase underpinned by psychotherapeutic theory, published studies and relevant codes of ethics and conduct. It also recognises the fundamental counselling psychology philosophy that therapeutic contact is a reflection of both the client's inner psychology and a natural attempt to reach self-actualisation, intertwined also with the therapist's similar process (Rogers, 1967). Sackett et al. (1996) created a model of evidence-based practice that aimed to provide the best care for patients by integrating individual clinical expertise, with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research and stakeholder views. This dossier aims to concentrate on the first of these two aspects to reach the best Dr James Christopher Porter Doctoral Portfolio in Counselling Psychology! ! 8! outcome regarding the subject area and therefore produce new evidence for such an evidence-based practice (see Johnson, 2008; Sackett, 1997). By focusing on existing empirical literature, alongside literature that acknowledges the fundamental roles clinical experience and stakeholder views have in decision-making, this work addresses the three core aspects of evidence-based practice (Sackett et al., 1996; Muir-Gray, 1997). This research dossier is fundamentally concerned with the experiences of LGB therapists and subsequent self-disclosures, however it is worth briefly discussing relatable research from other minority group therapists. In the case of African-American therapists working with clients of the same ethnicity, it was reported that their clients were more likely to self-disclose race-related intimate information to the therapist, if the therapist purposefully self-disclosed their ethnicity (Helms & Cook,