Session Four - LGBTQ+ Discrimination
Content Level: Advanced

Session Description
This class will focus on some of the impact of special challenges, inequities and exposure to hate, victimization and trauma, faced by the members of the LGBTQ+ community, simply for being who they are. The class will explore some of the research on the associations between stressors faced by gender and sexual orientation diverse adults, and PTSD and dissociative symptoms. Following this, the focus will be on providing trauma-informed therapy to people who experience marginalization and oppression due to their gender identity or identities and/or sexual orientation(s), using treatment models that have a person-first framework, customized to their lived experiences. Trauma-informed care, especially including a deep understanding of the LGBTQ+ community within the "larger" culture, will be described and discussed, with an emphasis on affirmative practice. Meyer's "minority stress model," when applied to these stigmatized individuals with unique experiences, helps the clinician have more nuanced understanding of the impact that societal and cultural environment can have, which marginalizes and persecutes gender diverse peoples, causing increased demand for therapies that can attempt to help mitigate such detrimental and significant impact. For African American and other racially and ethnically oppressed populations, specifically youth, forming a chosen or created family, with peers and older members of the LGBTQ+ community, can be a powerful form for support and protection that provides a stable environment, hopefully leading to a more positive therapeutic outcome and improved quality of life.

Readings

1. Valentine, S. E., Gell-Levey, I. M., Godfrey, L. B., & Livingston, N. A. (2024). The associations between gender minority stressors and PTSD symptom severity among trauma-exposed transgender and gender diverse adults. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 1-14.
2. Levenson, J. S., Craig, S. L., & Austin, A. (2023). Trauma-informed and affirmative mental health practices with LGBTQ+ clients. Psychological Services, 20(S1), 134.
3. Shipherd, J. C., Berke, D., & Livingston, N. A. (2019). Trauma recovery in the transgender and gender diverse community: extensions of the minority stress model for treatment planning. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 26(4), 629-646.
4. Hailey, J., Burton, W., & Arscott, J. (2020). We are family: Chosen and created families as a protective factor against racialized trauma and anti-LGBTQ oppression among African American sexual and gender minority youth. Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 16(2), 176-191.