Over the last decade, conscience objections have surfaced in the public arena, raising questions as to whether counselors may legally refuse services to LGBTQ+ clients due to a counselor’s personally held beliefs. These laws not only deny services to LGBTQ+ clients, but are in direct violation of the ACA Code of Ethics (2014). In addition to values-based referrals, this presentation will address other challenging and complex ethical and legal issues all counselors, particularly those working with LGBTQ+ adults, need to know.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the impact of conscience clause legislation on the counseling profession.
Examine the intersection of values and ethics in counseling.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer youth (LGBTQ) experience a variety of struggles when coming out to their families of origin. These struggles include lack of acceptance and support by their families as well as isolation, depression, engagement in risk taking behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse, and the risk of suicide. The focus of this presentation will be to address prior research on family support and acceptance with LGBTQ youth in their sexual identity development, and possible solutions for counselors to provide assistance with the youth and their families during this adjustment process.
Learning Objectives:
To educate counseling professionals about LGBTQ youth and the impact of disclosure of their sexual and/or gender identity as well as the consequences on the lack of emotional support from caregivers.
Benefits to providing support and acceptance to LGBTQ youth, including research evidence and how caregivers can assist in the youth’s coming out process.
Treatment approaches and resources to assist LGBTQ youth and their families.
Description: The
counseling experiences of 13 transgender and gender nonconforming individuals
were examined via semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Using multiple
standards of trustworthiness (e.g., member checking, negative case analysis),
researchers analyzed each interview from an interpretative phenomenological
analytic framework. Four main themes were identified: (a) mental
health professional selection process, (b) trans-affirmative approach, (c) trans-negative approach, and (d) support systems beyond counseling. Implications
for implementing culturally responsive TGNC affirmative counseling, TGNC
sensitive counselor training, and social justice oriented research are
discussed.
Objectives:
Examine transgender and gender-nonconforming clients’ counseling experiences.
Explore factors that support culturally responsive affirmative counseling for transgender and gender-nonconforming clients.
For several decades, civil rights-based protections for LGBTQ- identified individuals were increasingly solidified through case law, federal guidance, and legislation. Through the lens of Title IX, college student affairs and other equity issues resources, we will discuss how counselors can support their students and clients through awareness of legal and policy protections in school and workplace. Identifying the available legal rights and resources that can support client advocacy, whether in a school or agency setting, is vital to the focused empowerment by counselors that encourage client self advocacy.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn to identify and monitor LGBTQ civil rights protections in school and workplace.
Participants will learn to identify options for advocating for LGBTQ rights as well as offering students and clients tools for self advocating in a strength-based atmosphere.
Following up on a presentation at the 2017 ACA Annual Conference and Expo, this educational session will provide attendees with contextually informed strategies for working with and advocating for trans- military service members and veterans during an uncertain time. In 2016 the Pentagon ended the ban on trans-people serving openly in the U.S. military—yet recent moves by the Trump Administration leave trans-service members feeling uncertain and fearful about their future. All counselors must be prepared for those service members, in the face of this uncertainty, to continue to seek services outside of the military. The authors will review background information in the context of the current political environment, followed by two case studies, based on original qualitative interviews with trans-military service members. They will then lead audience members in a workshop-style, small-group activity in which they will apply the information presented to the presented cases.
Learning Objectives:
Gain a better understanding of the unique mental health challenges faced by trans military personnel and veterans, as well as the barriers they have historically faced to both medical and mental health treatment.
Learn key concepts related to minority stress and identity concealment, and be able to apply those concepts, using the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies framework, to the experiences of trans military clients through a case example.
Apply at least three potential counseling interventions/approaches, rooted in evidence-based treatments, that may be appropriate for the trans* military population.
The chapter will assist counselors and other mental health professionals in gaining competence in working with LGBTQI+ clients.
Learning Objectives:
Examine standards and competencies counselors can use to develop competence in working with LGBTQI+ individuals.
Explore concepts of power and privilege, oppression and bias, career and health disparities, and overarching cultural biases regarding affectional orientation and gender variance.
*Counselors requiring New York State approval must contact ACA upon completion to obtain customized CE certificate.
This session provides: (1) an overview of gender dysphoria and gender transition; (2) strategies on affirmative clinical evaluation of gender dysphoria; and (3) affirmative clinical assessment and recommendations for clients pursuing social and medical transition. Examples of clinical management and a letter of recommendation for gender transition are provided. Practical considerations for affirmative practice, including ethics and cultural diversity, are discussed.
Counselor educators and supervisors train students and supervisees to become professional, ethical and competent counselors. However, some trainees are adamantly against working with LGBT people, some are insensitive about their language, and others don’t understand the inappropriate nature of their jokes. In this panel discussion LGBTQQIA counselor educators and supervisors discuss their own responses to slanderous speech, microaggressions, and overt ridicule regarding LGBTQQIA persons by students and supervisees. We will talk about our own emotional reactions and how they’ve changed over time, along with helpful and unhelpful responses to students/supervisees based on their own developmental level. Each panelist will briefly discuss one aspect of their experience, and we will then facilitate a discussion with attendees around best practices for managing emotional reactions while still offering appropriate responses to students and supervisees.
Learning Objectives:
Look at the effects on counselor educators when students make hurtful comments about an aspect of one’s identity.
Explore how the parts of one’s identity intersect and conflict with each other in difficult situations.
Learn ways to work with students and supervisees toward LGBT competence and advocacy
Asians are the fastest growing minority population in the USA; their population is projected to double to eight percent by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). South Asians comprise approximately a third of this population. By inference then, the South Asian LGBTQ population will also become a significant minority in the larger LGBTQ population. South Asian cultural values and beliefs significantly influence sexual identity development for both first- and second-generation same-sex attracted women, leading to unique experiences of discrimination and marginalization. Counselors working with this population must, therefore, sensitively incorporate these cultural factors for effective treatment planning and to avoid further harm by unintentionally reinforcing existing experiences of injustice and oppression.
Learning Objectives:
Gain an understanding of the cultural factors Influencing gender and sexual identity development.
Gain an understanding of the impact of immigration status on sexual identity development.
Gain an understanding of treatment strategies for mental health counselors working with this population.
Counselors who identify as LGBTQ+ often struggle with whether to disclose this identity to their clients. We will explore some of those struggles and review literature that addresses how disclosure may be performed ethically, as well as how disclosure of LGBTQ+ identity may serve to advocate for the LGBTQ+ population by role modeling and normalization. We will present an ethical decision-making model specifically for LGBTQ+ identity disclosure and apply the model to case vignettes through a group discussion.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will learn about the challenges that LGBTQ+ counselors face when considering disclosing this identity to clients through research and case examples.
Attendees will review literature concerning self-disclosure and advocacy while exploring how these two concepts may interact specifically in regards to LGBTQ+ identity disclosure.
Attendees will engage in an experiential activity in which they utilize an ethical decision making model to approach a number of vignettes regarding LGBTQ+ identity disclosure.
