Gay affirmative psychotherapy

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Among gay affirmative psychotherapy are especially in English-speaking linguistic area of psychotherapies understood that homosexual and bisexual support clients and clients is to explore their sexual orientation to affirm to integrate and consolidate. This does not only mean that homosexual orientation is not viewed as a disorder, but above all that lesbians, gays and bisexuals have specific needs, for example with coping with coming out , which are not given sufficient consideration in conventional therapeutic approaches , but nonetheless in the psychotherapeutic process are or can be relevant.

In the German-speaking world, the term gay affirmative psychotherapy or, for some years now, the term affirmative psychotherapy is used. The fact that a German name is only now emerging is due, among other things, to the fact that it has only recently emerged in Europe that psychotherapy without heterosexist bias of conversion therapies or reparative therapies (an approach of the ex-gay movement from the USA ) to delimit.

Principles

Due to the heterosexual assumption that accompanies the assessment of other people in our society, gays , lesbians and bisexuals are already exposed to special developmental difficulties in their childhood , in that their sexuality contradicts general expectations, for example those of their parents.

The core points of Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy are therefore the accompaniment of the client during the internal and external coming-out as well as the discussion of experiences of discrimination and the devaluation of homosexuality by the environment or by the person to be treated himself, a so-called internalized homophobia .

In Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy, homo- and heterosexuality are understood to be equivalent. In contrast to reparative therapy , it is not assumed that homosexuality arises from a "reparative drive", while heterosexuality is the result of an undamaged childhood, but rather the origin of both orientations is seen in roughly the same drives. Homosexuality is not a “reverse” of heterosexuality, but its genesis is just as independently structured and reconstructable. Most psychotherapists in Western Europe and the USA take this position.

Another point of therapeutic support is the possible involvement of relatives in the coming-out process.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has now issued ethical guidelines for (affirmative) psychotherapy for lesbian, gay and bisexual clients. The American Psychologists' Association, the American Psychological Association, adopted a resolution on August 5, 2009 that states that mental health professionals should avoid explaining to clients that their sexual orientation is through therapy or other treatment might change. The Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation-Related Tensions and Change Efforts also recommends that parents, guardians, young people and their families avoid treatments that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or a developmental disorder. Instead, they should look for psychotherapy, social support, and educational services that "provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support, and reduce rejection from teenagers belonging to a sexual minority."

The German federal government stated: “For therapeutic aids from the area of ​​so-called affirmative therapies, however, a benefit in the sense of a lower susceptibility to mental illness has been proven. This approach is about the supportive therapeutic accompaniment of the development of the sexual identity, the integration of the sexual orientation into the self-image and the strengthening of the self-esteem of the client. "

Historical

Although Sigmund Freud took a comparatively affirmative position on homosexuality, most psychoanalysts pathologized homosexuality for decades . Above all, Irving Bieber and Charles Socarides should be mentioned here. It is only in the last few decades that psychoanalytically oriented researchers and therapists (e.g. Fritz Morgenthaler , Richard Isay ) have increasingly addressed homosexuality in a positive or neutral sense.

Magnus Hirschfeld was the first to take an affirmative approach to homosexual patients with his "adaptation therapy". It consisted of encouraging people to accept their homosexuality as a natural condition. With the closure of the Institute for Sexology he founded , this approach could not be further developed. The studies by the American psychologist Evelyn Hooker , first published in the mid-1950s , in which she could not find any differences between homosexual and heterosexual persons with regard to mental health, are considered to be the direct precursors of affirmative approaches .

With the works Loving Someone Gay (1975) by Don Clark and Positively Gay (1979) by Betty Berzon , books appeared for the first time, which were written by openly gay and lesbian psychotherapists. They suggested using psychotherapeutic techniques to improve the lives of LGBTs without stigmatizing them or homosexuality itself as pathological. In 1982, John Gonsiorek published a seminal issue of the Journal of Homosexuality entitled Homosexuality and Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Handbook of Affirmative Models . It included contributions from Eli Coleman , Martin Rochlin (1928-2003), Barbara McCandlish, and Bronwyn Anthony . A contribution by Alan Malyon used the term "gay affirmative" psychotherapy to introduce a new model that viewed same-sex relationships as an inherently healthy and normal expression of human sexuality.

One of the most important psychoanalysts who take up a corresponding position in the German-speaking area is the Swiss professor for clinical psychology in Basel , Udo Rauchfleisch .

In the United States, there are institutes such as the Institute for Contemporary Uranian Psychoanalysis where psychotherapists are trained in Gay Affirmative Psychotherapy .

literature

  • M. Adelman: Stigma, gay lifestyles, and adjustment to aging: A study of later-life gay men and lesbians. In: Journal of Homosexuality. 20 (3-4), 1990, pp. 7-32.
  • M. Allen, N. Burrell: Comparing the impact of homosexual and heterosexual parents on children: Meta-analysis of existing research. In: Journal of Homosexuality. 32 (2), 1996, pp. 19-35.
  • K. Allison, I. Crawford, R. Echemendia, L. Robinson, D. Knepp: Human diversity and professional competence: Training in clinical and counseling psychology revisited. In: American Psychologist . 49, 1994, pp. 792-796.
  • American Psychological Association : Appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation in the proceedings of the American Psychological Association, Incorporated, for the legislative year 1997. In: American Psychologist. 53 (8), 1998, pp. 882-939.
  • C. Browning: Therapeutic issues and intervention strategies with young adult lesbian clients: A developmental approach. In: Journal of Homosexuality. 14 (1/2), 1987, pp. 45-52.
  • R. Buhrke: Female student perspectives on training in lesbian and gay issues. In: Counseling Psychologist. 17, 1989, pp. 629-636.
  • R. Cabaj, R. Klinger: Psychotherapeutic interventions with lesbian and gay couples. In: R. Cabaj, T. Stein (Eds.): Textbook of homosexuality and mental health. American Psychiatric Press, Washington, DC 1996, pp. 485-502.
  • Canadian Psychological Association: Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. Version 4, January 2017. (online)
  • Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy. Focus: Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis revisited 6 (2002), number 1
  • Richard A. Isay : Being gay. The psychological development of the homosexual. Piper, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-492-11683-3 .
    • Original: Being homosexual. Gay men and their development. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York 1989.
  • Udo Rauchfleisch , Jacqueline Frossard, Gottfried Waser, Kurt Wiesendanger, Wolfgang Roth: Same and yet different: Psychotherapy and counseling for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and their relatives. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-608-94236-X .
  • Kathleen Y. Ritter, Anthony I. Terndrup: Handbook of Affirmative Psychotherapy with Lesbians and Gay Men. Guilford, New York 2002, ISBN 1-57230-714-5 .
  • Lisa Schneider: Lesbian women in psychotherapy . Psychosocial women's counseling center Donna Klara eV, Kiel 2003.
  • I. Steffens (Hrsg.): Yearbook Lesbian-Gay-Psychology. Pabst Science Publishers, Frensdorf 2003, ISBN 3-89967-079-5 , pp. 72-87.
  • W. Symalla: Systemic counseling for gay couples. Carl Auer Systems, German AIDS Help, Heidelberg 1997.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Guidelines for Psychotherapy with Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Clients . American Psychological Association, 2011, accessed on September 2, 2017 (also as a PDF file , 216 kB; English).
  2. ↑ Position statement (press release) of the American Psychological Association (APA) on conversion therapies. (No longer available online.) Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and the Church (HuK), August 5, 2009, archived from the original on June 13, 2010 ; accessed on September 2, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. US psychologists: once gay, always gay! Queer.de, August 6, 2009, accessed September 2, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / huk.org
  3. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government (PDF; 111 kB)
  4. ^ Arlene Istar Lev: Psychotherapy. In: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): Glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. glbtq, Chicago, 2005, archived from the original on February 23, 2012 ; accessed on September 2, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Emily M. Bernstein: Coping; Growing Up Gay in the Heart of the Bronx. In: New York Times , July 17, 1994, accessed September 2, 2017.