Book Description

Featuring over seventy affirming interventions in the form of homework assignments, handouts, and activities, this comprehensive volume helps novice and experienced counselors support LGBTQ+ community members and their allies. Each chapter includes an objective, indications and contraindications, a case study, suggestions for follow-up, professional resources, and references. The book’s social justice perspective encourages counselors to hone their skills in creating change in their communities while helping their clients learn effective coping strategies in the face of stress, bullying, microaggressions, and other life challenges. The volume also contains a large section on training groups of allies and promoting greater cohesion within LGBTQ+ communities. Counseling and mental health services for LGBTQ+ clients require between-session activities that are clinically focused, evidence-based, and specifically designed for one or more LGBTQ+ sub-populations. This handbook gathers together the best of such LGBTQ+ clinically focused material. As such, the book appeals both to students learning affirmative LGBTQ+ psychotherapy/counseling and to experienced practitioners. The Handbook features homework assignments, handouts, and activities that: -Emphasize working with clients from different backgrounds. -Stress the importance of ethical guidelines and culturally competent care. -Demonstrate how to engage clients in conversations about coming out across the lifespan. -Help clients manage oppression and build resilience through self-care, advocacy, and validation. -Identify the facets of relationships that are unique to LGBTQ+ individuals. -Offer interventions to enhance familial support and work through family dynamics. -Assist clients to more deeply appreciate their genders and sexual identities. -Aid therapists in their work with clients who have substance use and abuse issues. -Address concerns about career choices, employment options, and college pursuits. -Create safety in a range of social and clinical spaces, including college campuses. Offering practical tools used by clinicians worldwide, the volume is particularly useful for courses in clinical and community counseling, social work, and psychology. Those new to working with LGBTQ+ clients will appreciate the book’s accessible foundation to guide interventions.