LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy: Beyond the Basics
An advanced course for licensed clinicians who already know the vocabulary and want to practice at a higher level. Covers minority stress and gender minority stress models, intersectional assessment, the operational meaning of an affirming stance, the counselor's role under WPATH Standards of Care 8, letters of support and the informed-consent model, work with transgender and nonbinary minors and their parents, detransition without panic, the shifting state-law landscape, relationship diversity, family and faith conflict, conversion-effort harms, LGBTQ+ aging, intimate partner violence in same-gender relationships, substance use and chemsex contexts, suicide risk disparities and safety planning, bisexual erasure, asexual and aromantic clients, HIV stigma, and affirming group work.
3
CE Hours
5
Modules
22
Quiz Questions
3
Est. Minutes
What you'll learn
- Apply the minority stress model (Meyer, 2003) and the gender minority stress and resilience framework (Testa et al., 2015) to case formulation, including distal stressors, proximal stressors, and resilience factors.
- Differentiate an operationally affirming clinical stance from clinical neutrality, and identify at least three microaffirmations a counselor can deliver in a first session.
- Describe the counselor's role under the WPATH Standards of Care Version 8 (Coleman et al., 2022) and compose the required elements of a letter of support for gender-affirming medical care using an informed-consent model.
- Evaluate the evidence base on family acceptance (Ryan et al., 2009, 2010) and plan an intervention with the parent of a transgender or nonbinary minor who requests that the counselor "slow things down."
- Assess and safety-plan for suicide risk in LGBTQ+ clients using disparity data from the Trevor Project national survey and an affirming, non-pathologizing stance.
- Distinguish affirming, missed-opportunity, and harmful clinician statements across advanced clinical contexts including consensual non-monogamy, religious conflict, intimate partner violence, chemsex, bisexual erasure, asexual and aromantic identity, and HIV stigma.
Who it's for
Licensed mental health professionals (LPCs, LCSWs, LMFTs, NCCs, psychiatric NPs).
Approval & credit
CounselorReady is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP #7760). This course awards 3 NBCC-approved CE hours; a certificate is issued on completion. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CounselorReady is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.