1st Edition

Interventions with Families of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People From the Inside Out

Edited By Jerry J. Bigner, Andrew R. Gottlieb Copyright 2007
    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    274 Pages
    by Routledge

    Multiple perspectives for more in-depth personal and professional knowledge

    Though much literature is devoted to treating GLBTQ individuals, relatively little has focused on working with their family members. Interventions with Families of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: From the Inside Out presents ten first-hand, in-depth personal and professional perspectives by educators, researchers, administrators, and practitioners discussing various ways of working with families of GLBT individuals. This valuable reference explores the latest research and current innovative therapeutic approaches to work effectively with this unique population.

    Interventions with Families of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: From the Inside Out relies on the “inside out” experiences of professionals from multiple disciplines, showing us different ways of addressing their very special needs. The text focuses on working deeply with people through understanding their very particular situations and building whatever help they want around them. Broadly, the articles highlight the origins of our national family support groups, research, supervision, and the different models of treatment—individual, couple, and family. More specifically, discussions explore therapist training, effective resolution of conflict, loss for those mothers whose daughters now identify as transgender, the adoption of an ally identity, heterosexual bias in treatment, and various approaches for transgender clients, their partners and family members.

    Specific topics in Interventions with Families of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: From the Inside Out include:

    • systemic therapeutic approaches
    • the beginnings and growth of support groups
    • a qualitative study on mothers of transgender sons
    • research on gay and lesbian stepparenting—highlighting the need to view the relationships beyond a heterosexist focus
    • Sexual Orientation Matrix for Supervision (SOMS) as a starting point to begin examining attitudes, beliefs, skills and behaviors of both supervisor and trainee
    • an interview with two sexologists, who insist that treatment with trans children and adolescents must be both family- and community-focused
    • historical and therapeutic perspectives on working with transgender people, including the development of therapeutic models
    • a moving personal account of a clinician grappling with her own uncertainties as she journeys her way through treatment with a young transgender client

    Interventions with Families of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: From the Inside Out is a flexible and useful classroom text and reference for educators and students at every level, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers.

    • Introduction (Andrew R. Gottlieb and Jerry J. Bigner)
    • OVERVIEW
    • Systemic Therapeutic Approaches with Sexual Minorities and Their Families (Janie K. Long, Josephine Bonomo, Barbara V. Andrews, and Jeremiah M. Brown)
    • THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF SUPPORT GROUPS
    • Connection and Community: How the Family Pride Coalition Supports Parents and Children of GLBT Families (Corri Planck)
    • Healing an Invisible Minority: How the Straight Spouse Network Has Become the Prime Source of Support for Those in Mixed-Orientation Marriages (Amity P. Buxton)
    • COLAGE: Providing Community, Education, Leadership, and Advocacy by and for Children of GLBT Parents (Katherine A. Kuvalanka, Beth Teper, and Orson A. Morrison)
    • RESEARCH AND GLBT FAMILY THERAPY
    • Terms of Connection: Mother-Talk About Female-to-Male Transgender Children (Sarah F. Pearlman)
    • Guiding the Acquisition of Therapist Ally Identity: Research on the GLBT Stepfamily as Resource (Jean M. Lynch and Kathy McMahon-Klosterman)
    • SUPERVISION AND TRAINING IN CLINICAL WORK WITH GLBT FAMILIES
    • Revisiting the Sexual Orientation Matrix for Supervision: Working with GLBTQ Families (Janie K. Long and Josephine Bonomo)
    • CLINICAL WORK WITH GLBT FAMILIES
    • Talking About Gender in Motion: Working with the Family of the Transgender Person (Christopher Behan)
    • From Otherness to Alliance: Transgender Couples in Therapy (Jean Malpas)
    • Finding Our Way: Guiding a Young Transgender Child (Karen Saeger)
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Jerry J. Bigner, Andrew R. Gottlieb

    " This text is informative and thought-provoking yet not overwhelming...Interventions are not only presented in the text but are applied to real families in theraputic practice...Educators, students, clinicians, and supervisors would be wise to add this book to their collections."

    -- The Family Journal, October 2008