Full Course Description
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Clients: Clinical Issues and Treatment Strategies
Program Information
Objectives
- Assess gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning clients for psychological trauma to assist in informing treatments interventions.
- Establish and understand the six distinct stages of the coming out process to provide optimal amount of support to the client.
- Distinguish between mental health disorders that mimic the effects of the trauma from growing up LGBTQ.
- Utilize specific clinical interventions and assessment tools to more effectively treat LGBTQ clients.
- Employ adaptable clinical interventions to work more effectively with LGBTQ clients from different generations.
- Consider the dynamics of same gendered couple, including vulnerabilities and strengths, when working with LGB couples in session.
Outline
Do No Harm: Make Your LGBTQ Client Feel Safe & Respected in Therapy
- Red-flag words: Offensive words you might use (without you knowing!)
- Intake session: questions about developing identity
- Strategies to establish rapport and comfort
- Tips for discussing sex and sexuality
Talk About Sex!
- Don’t miss out on key info by ignoring the sex talk
- Top or bottom? And other important questions to ask: flexible, changing sexual preferences and attractions
- Varieties of sexuality
- Protect the client from your own biases and assumptions
Coming Out
- Stigma and its impact on mental health from childhood to adulthood
- 6 distinct stages with interventions
- Navigate the 3 phases of coming out to avoid isolation and alienation
- Fear, shame and rejection unique to this population
- Relationship concerns: family, friends, school or workplace
- Finding a sense of belonging in LGBTQ community
- Harmful and dangerous effects of conversion therapy
LGBTQ Adolescence
- Coming out issues
- It gets better but not before coming out
- Bullying and other safety issues contributing to PTSD
- Harm reduction adult dating apps such as Grindr, Scruff, etc.
- Risk assessment for substance abuse
- Assess for suicidality
- Finding support
Gay Male
- Develop a treatment plan and goals for unique challenges growing up gay male
- Accurate assessment of alcohol use with this high risk population
- HIV & STI prevention strategies and risk and harm reduction
- Generational differences informing different treatment plans
- Internalized homophobia
- Learn specific sexual terminology to avoid alienating your client
Lesbian
- Develop a treatment plan and goals for unique challenges growing up lesbian
- Specific terminology that is helpful and damaging in this population
- Sex and sexuality: what to know, what to ask
- Strategies to manage gender dynamics
- Internalized homophobia manifests in development
Bisexuality
- Learn strategies to help the anxiety of bisexuals in dating and relationships
- Internalized biphobia and bisexual development from childhood into adulthood
- Compare and contrast male and female bisexuality
Transgender
- Overcome the knowledge barrier
- Avoid using outdated treatment plans
- Learn and differentiate correct terms such as gender queer, gender fluid and cisgender
- Strategies to help your client tell their partner, families, friends and employers
- Tips to discuss hormone treatments and surgical procedures
- Crucial points for transgender teens medically and psychologically and how to create best treatment plan
Questioning
- Avoid mislabeling a client and leading them down the wrong sexual identity path
- Differentiate between sexual fluidity from bisexuality, gay and lesbian identities
- Differentiate between sexual identity, sexual behavior and sexual fantasies
Working with LGB Couples
- Dynamics of a same gendered couple including vulnerabilities and strengths
- Coming out discrepancy causing turbulence for couples
- Recognize and identify how internalized homophobia creates conflicts
- Open relationships in gay male couples
- Sexual issues and strategies on compatibility, incompatibility, frequency and satisfaction
Working with Mixed Orientation Couples and Relationships
- Specific stages of coming out as a mixed orientation couple
- Specialized treatment programs for the straight spouses
- Helping LGBTQ spouse integrate their identity into their mixed orientation relationships
- Learn how to identify which couples will succeed and which won’t
Target Audience
Addiction Counselors, Case Managers, Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals
Objectives
- Assess gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning clients for psychological trauma to assist in informing treatments interventions.
- Establish and understand the six distinct stages of the coming out process to provide optimal amount of support to the client.
- Distinguish between mental health disorders that mimic the effects of the trauma from growing up LGBTQ.
- Utilize specific clinical interventions and assessment tools to more effectively treat LGBTQ clients.
- Employ adaptable clinical interventions to work more effectively with LGBTQ clients from different generations.
- Consider the dynamics of same gendered couple, including vulnerabilities and strengths, when working with LGB couples in session.
Copyright :
12/04/2015
LGBTQ Youth: Clinical Strategies to Support Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Program Information
Objectives
- Assess how school, family and social pressures impact the formation of an LGBTQ youth’s identity.
- Support the coming out process with youth clients and facilitate family interventions to create safety, support, space, and acceptance.
- Analyze LGBTQ youth clients’ level of risk and protective factors for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideation.
- Assess family dynamics of the client to determine potential to work towards increased acceptance and support.
- Evaluate the unique clinical needs of LGBTQ youth to inform the clinician's choice of treatment interventions.
- Develop LGBTQ affirmative school environments with strategies for working in conjunction with school staff, administration and parents.
Outline
Coming Into an LGBTQ Identity and Coming Out to Others
- Identity development
- Internalized homo/bi/trans -phobia
- The decision to come out
- Fears in the coming out process
- Youths’ safety
Clinical Considerations
- Intervening in depression, shame, self-harming behaviors, and suicidality
- Addressing anxiety
- Approaching transgender compared to LGBQ
- Importance of family acceptance
- Intersections of other cultural identities
- Research limitations and risks of psychotherapeutic approaches
Differences within the LGBTQ Spectrum
- Lesbian Youth
- Confronting invisibility
- Facilitating positive self-esteem
- Gay Youth
- Discussing gender role expectations
- Sexual health
- Substance use
- Bisexual Youth
- Understanding bisexuality as a legitimate identity
- Harmfulness of bisexual erasure
- Transgender Youth
- Assessing need/desire for gender transition
- Exploring options for gender expression
- Questioning Youth
- Making space for exploration and fluidity
- Reducing pressure to self-label
Working with Families
- Coming Out
- Creating space for parents’ reactions and resistance
- Supporting youths’ LGBTQ identity
- Helping parents work towards increased acceptance and support
- Navigating religious beliefs
- Supporting parents’ own process of coming out
- Attending to the needs of siblings and extended family members
- Facilitating support networks
LGBTQ-Affirmative School Environments
- Importance of safe schools for youths’ well-being
- Assisting parents with school advocacy
- Coaching youth towards self-advocacy
- Dealing with bullying and mistreatment
- Considerations for transgender youth
Target Audience
Addiction Counselors, Case Managers, Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, and other Mental Health Professionals
Copyright :
12/07/2016
Program Information
Objectives
- Assess how school, family and social pressures impact the formation of an LGBTQ youth’s identity.
- Support the coming out process with youth clients and facilitate family interventions to create safety, support, space, and acceptance.
- Analyze LGBTQ youth clients’ level of risk and protective factors for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideation.
- Assess family dynamics of the client to determine potential to work towards increased acceptance and support.
- Evaluate the unique clinical needs of LGBTQ youth to inform the clinician's choice of treatment interventions.
- Develop LGBTQ affirmative school environments with strategies for working in conjunction with school staff, administration and parents.
Program Information
Objectives
- Assess how school, family and social pressures impact the formation of an LGBTQ youth’s identity.
- Support the coming out process with youth clients and facilitate family interventions to create safety, support, space, and acceptance.
- Analyze LGBTQ youth clients’ level of risk and protective factors for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideation.
- Assess family dynamics of the client to determine potential to work towards increased acceptance and support.
- Evaluate the unique clinical needs of LGBTQ youth to inform the clinician's choice of treatment interventions.
- Develop LGBTQ affirmative school environments with strategies for working in conjunction with school staff, administration and parents.
Program Information
Objectives
- Assess how school, family and social pressures impact the formation of an LGBTQ youth’s identity.
- Support the coming out process with youth clients and facilitate family interventions to create safety, support, space, and acceptance.
- Analyze LGBTQ youth clients’ level of risk and protective factors for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideation.
- Assess family dynamics of the client to determine potential to work towards increased acceptance and support.
- Evaluate the unique clinical needs of LGBTQ youth to inform the clinician's choice of treatment interventions.
- Develop LGBTQ affirmative school environments with strategies for working in conjunction with school staff, administration and parents.