Watch Out When You See a Therapist Advertise “Treating” Same-Sex Attractions The term same-sex attraction (or SSA) as it is often referred, is often codename for conversion or reparative therapy. If you see this term advertised by a therapist, you need to be very cautious. These practices are often built
Spending a Holiday Alone The holidays are portrayed as a time for family, joy, fun, and celebration. However, not everyone can spend time with their families for various reasons. Some can’t financially afford the trek it might take to visit them. Others are isolated from their families for various reasons.
Coming Out: 5 Practical Ways to Handling Unaccepting Family Members The decision to share your sexual orientation with friends and family is a big step for many people. You may worry about how your loved ones react, what questions they will have, and most importantly if they will accept you
Share, Learn, and Support: How Group Therapy Can Benefit Gay Men Do you find yourself struggling to connect with others? Is it difficult to build intimate relationships with other men? Are you feeling burdened by the obstacles of your past? Coming-out, though an important step, is not always the hardest
Ways that Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Can Help Gay and Lesbian Couples by Ian Hammonds When coming into therapy, many couples want to know how their couples therapy will be approached. Couples come into therapy for a variety of reasons. Hurt feelings, resentment, betrayal, and ambivalence. One of the approaches
Gay, Monogamous Relationships. A Sex Positive Perspective Our society generally props up monogamy as the gold standard of relationships. I’m not saying monogamous relationships can’t work. But it’s also good to identify a relationship style that would work best for you now and continue having ongoing discussions about boundaries, desires,
Traumatic Shame in Living with HIV Over the past 2 decades, there have been tremendous advancements in the treatment of HIV. Despite this, there is still a lot of shame that people live with when they have HIV. HIV is associated with illness and even something as silly as “sexual
Therapy for Lesbian Couples: Challenges That Often Get Ignored Whether you are in a heterosexual or same-sex relationship, every couple experiences joys and struggles. Every relationship starts with the nerves of a first date, grows into a partnership, and reaches various milestones along the way. Although both heterosexual and same-sex
How Thinking Systemically Can Help LGBT Families Have you ever heard of systemic therapy? Do you know what thinking systemically entails? Have you ever given any thought to how many systems exist in one family? If you have never heard of these concepts, it is completely fine (I had never
Heteronormativity: What It Is and How It Affects You As both an affirmative and a systemic therapist, I hold a high value in not assuming any of my clients’ personal struggles with family, relationships, or individual issues such as depression, anxiety, grief, or loss. This means that I do not