1st Edition
The Modern Clinician's Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients The Inclusive Psychotherapist
The Modern Clinician's Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients is a ground-breaking resource for therapists working with LGBTQ+ clients whose identity expressions span all gender-, sex-, and relationship-diverse groups.
Combining the author’s extensive clinical experience with contemporary evidence-based research, the chapters of this book explore the origins and development of sexual minority groups, going beyond lesbian women and gay men to include transgender and gender nonbinary people, kink and polyamory, bisexuality and pansexuality, and those who identify as asexual or aromantic. The text also offers in-depth coverage of clinical work with transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary clients of all ages. With a wealth of therapeutic strategies and case studies, this resource helps professionals respond to this ‘Big Tent’ community in an informed and empathetic way.
Spanning sexuality, gender, relationships and age groups, The Modern Clinician's Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients is an invaluable reference for psychotherapists in a broad range of clinical settings.
1. From Bad to Mad to Civil Rights 2. The Roads Converge Again 3. The Big Tent and Intersectionality 4. Exactly What Are We Studying, Anyway, and What Does it Mean? 5. Who Is Gay? 6.The Twentieth Century Gay and Lesbian Client 7. Today’s Gay and Lesbian Client 8. Issues of Gay Men and Boys 9. Gay Male Couples 10. Counseling Lesbians 11. Lesbian Couples 12. Bi Any Other Name - Science Grapples with Multiple Gender Attractions 13. Clinical Issues of Bisexually Identified Clients 14. Aces and Aros 15. Pansexuals, Mono Vs. Multisexuals, Sexual Fluidity 16. From Two Genders to Many 17. Working with Adult Transgender Clients 18. Working with the Transgender Adolescent 19. The Gender Expansive Child 20. Non-binary Identities and Gender Fluidity 21. BDSM Comes Out of the Shadows 22. Working with Kinky Clients 23. Introduction to Consensual Nonmonogamy 24. Working with clients who are Non-monogamous – and those who want to be
Biography
Margaret Nichols, PhD, is a licensed psychologist, AASECT-certified sex therapist, and American Board of Sexology diplomate in sex therapy. She has been a leader in the field of mental health, particularly in New Jersey, for over 20 years. In addition to founding the Institute for Personal Growth/IPG Counseling, Nichols helped create the Women's Center of Monmouth County, NJ, one of the first battered women's shelters in New Jersey, and founded the Hyacinth Foundation, New Jersey's primary HIV social service agency. She is an internationally published author and speaker.
"Margie Nichols has written the most useful book for clinicians to update their skills in providing care to sexual and gender diverse individuals, couples and families. It is extremely timely, well written, practical and useful. This is a must read for every clinician!" – Eli Coleman, PhD, professor, director and academic chair of the Sexual Health Program in Human Sexuality, University of Minnesota Medical School.
"There are few people in the world as qualified as Margaret Nichols to guide mental health practitioners in working with sexual issues. No one understands the intersection of psychotherapy, non-traditional sexuality, and American culture better than Margie – a master in her craft, and a brilliant teacher whose case descriptions and theory are instantly usable by clinicians of every background. Read this book – it will change the way you see your clients, yourself, and the way you do therapy with everyone." – Marty Klein, PhD, certified sex therapist, forensic expert, and author of Sexual Intelligence and His Porn, Her Pain.
"If you are looking for an understanding of how LGBTQ+ people made their journey from sinner to sick to affirmation, Dr. Nichols is the most trusted tour guide. A pioneer way before it was imaginable or even acceptable, Dr. Nichols creates the safe therapeutic, educational, and political space for Queer people (including kinksters and polyamorists) to take their psychological, relational, and political seats at the table. Her personal and professional journey contained in these pages is a tour-de-force of courage, persistence, and resistance. Filled with moving rich case material interwoven with scientific insight, historical events, and clinical advances, this book is beautifully written and describes how queer folks overcame societal and medical prejudice to become cultural disruptors and change agents.
Under Dr. Nichol’s influence in this powerful book, psychology and psychotherapy will no longer be viewed as neutral, apolitical endeavors. As Nichols brazenly reveals the political in the ‘scientific’ and ‘therapeutic,’ we are encouraged, even compelled to ask not what we know about sexualities and gender, but who gets to shape the discourse. This book is a seminal contribution toward an inclusive and ever-changing understanding of queer psychologies. It should be read and studied by clinicians of all personal and theoretical persuasions." – Suzanne Iasenza, PhD, author of Transforming Sexual Narratives: A Relational Approach to Sex Therapy.
"At last, Dr. Margie Nichols, one of our pioneers, has compiled a resource that is required reading for anyone seeking to work with LGBTQ+ persons, those involved in kink, polyamory or anyone with an alternative sexual orientation, gender/gender identity or relationship/relating style. The case material along with thorough reviews of the sociohistorical and scholarly landscape make this book a standout among its peers. Written with hearts and smarts as well as humanity and compassion, this volume is destined to become a seminal text." – Michael C. LaSala, PhD, LCSW, author of Coming Out, Coming Home.
