Affirmative practises (Reading)

Affirmative counselling or therapy is a methodological framework in which the individual differences in sexual orientation and gender identity are considered to be healthy and deserving of support and even appreciation. It is not a separate method, rather an approach that can be cultivated regardless of what school one belongs to.

Affirmative practices are characterized by the following:

• It focuses on affirming the client’s identity and self-discovery.
• Realises the negative effects of homo-, bi- and transphobia and heterosexism on the client’s life.
• It is about seeing the person and addressing the issues they bring into the process, not assuming them based on their LGBTQI+ identity.
• The counselor or therapist accepts that any sexual orientation is just as healthy as a heterosexual one, and that any gender experience, expression and identity is just as healthy as gender-comforming expressions, experiences or being cisgender.
• All the shades of sexual and gender diversity are considered to be natural variations of the wide spectrum of human sexuality.

Gay-affirmative therapy first developed after 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Soon after the concept of internalized homophobia – the inner shame that is produced by accepting society’s negative view of gay people – was developed, and it was the biggest mental health problem LGBTQI+ persons had faced at the time.

Since then there have been many changes in social structures and social acceptance, and we are currently living in the time of new changes – whether good or bad. As the trajectory of these changes unfolds, the mental health needs of clients also change. Clinical psychologists need to make an effort to follow these changes and consider the impact of past and current social states on the trust and well-being of LGBTQI+ persons.