Gay affirmative psychotherapy

Gay affirmative psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy for gay and lesbian clients which encourages them to accept their sexual orientation, and does not attempt to change them to heterosexual, or to eliminate or diminish same-sex desires and behaviors. Gay affirmative psychotherapy is the accepted standard in North America and Europe. The American Psychological Association (APA) offers guidelines and materials for gay affirmative psychotherapy. [http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/guidelines.html APA:Guidelines for Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Clients] ] Affirmative psychotherapy states that homosexuality or bisexuality is not a mental illness. In fact, embracing and affirming gay identity can be a key component to recovery from other mental illnesses or substance abuse. There are a number of individuals for whom neither gay-affirmative therapy nor conversion therapy might be appropriate, however. Clients whose religious beliefs teach against homosexual behavior may require some other method of integration of their conflicting religious and sexual selves. [cite journal
last=Haldeman
first=Douglas
url=http://tcp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/5/691?ck=nck
title=When Sexual and Religious Orientation Collide:Considerations in Working with Conflicted Same-Sex Attracted Male Clients
publisher=The Counseling Psychologist
volume=32
number=5
pages=691-715
year=2004] Psychology professors at the evangelical Grove City College suggest that clients generally judge therapists who do not respect religiously-based identity outcomes to be unhelpful. [cite journal
url=http://www.drthrockmorton.com/jpcreorientation.pdf
title=Counseling practices as they relate to ratings of helpfulness by consumers of sexual reorientation therapy
last=Throckmorton
first=Warren
coauthor=Welton
date=Winter 2005
publisher=Journal of Psychology and Christianity
volume=24
number=4
pages=332-342] In general, it is not common practice to apply gay affirmative psychotherapy to clients with a heterosexual sexual orientation.

Guidelines

Countering a century's worth of psychiatry that understood homosexuality to be a mental illness, current guidelines instead encourage psychotherapists to assist patients in overcoming the stigma of homosexuality rather than the sexual orientation. Because some mental health professionals are unfamiliar with the social difficulties of the coming out process, particular to other factors such as age, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation, they are encouraged by the APA to learn more about how gay, lesbian, and bisexual clients face discrimination in its various forms. Many gays and lesbians are rejected from their own families and form their own familial relationships and support systems that may also be unfamiliar to mental health professionals, who are encouraged to take into account the diversity of extended relationships in lieu of family.

German government action

In March 2008 the German federal government (CDU/SPD) summarized the professional consensus as indicating that homosexuality is no illness, and that conversion therapy is dangerous and doesn't help homosexual people. Voluntary changes to sexual orientation are not an option, according to the administration's answer to parliamentary questioning. [http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/080/1608022.pdf Bundestag: Answer of German government] ] The German government also made the point that Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy can help clients.

Literature

* Adelman, M. (1990). Stigma, gay lifestyles, and adjustment to aging: A study of later-life gay men and lesbians. Journal of Homosexuality, 20(3-4), 7-32.
* Allen, M., & Burrell, N. (1996). Comparing the impact of homosexual and heterosexual parents on children: Meta-analysis of existing research. Journal of Homosexuality, 32(2), 19-35.
* Allison, K., Crawford, I., Echemendia, R., Robinson, L., Knepp, D. (1994). Human diversity and professional competence: Training in clinical and counseling psychology revisited. American Psychologist, 49, 792-796.
* American Psychological Association. (1998). Appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation in the proceedings of the American Psychological Association, Incorporated, for the legislative year 1997. American Psychologist, 53(8), 882-939.
* Browning, C. (1987). Therapeutic issues and intervention strategies with young adult lesbian clients: A developmental approach. Journal of Homosexuality, 14(1/2), 45-52.
* Buhrke, R. (1989). Female student perspectives on training in lesbian and gay issues. Counseling Psychologist, 17, 629-636.
* Cabaj, R., & Klinger, R. (1996). Psychotherapeutic interventions with lesbian and gay couples. In R. Cabaj & T. Stein (Eds.), Textbook of homosexuality and mental health (pp. 485-502). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
* Canadian Psychological Association. (1995). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. [On-line] . Available: http://www.cycor.ca/Psych/ethics/html
*"Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy", Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis revisited, 2002, 6. ed., Nr. 1
*Richard Isay, (1993). "Schwul sein. Die psychologische Entwicklung des Homosexuellen." München: Piper. ISBN 3492116833 (Original 1989: "Being homosexual. Gay men and their development." New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.)
*Udo Rauchfleisch, (2002). "Gleich und doch anders: Psychotherapie und Beratung von Lesben, Schwulen, Bisexuellen und ihren Angehörigen." Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. ISBN 360894236X
* Kathleen Ritter and Anthony Terndrup, (2002). "Handbook of Affirmative Psychotherapy with Lesbians and Gay Men." New York: Guilford. ISBN 1572307145

References