Deb Coolhart – LGBTQ Youth

Deb Coolhart – LGBTQ Youth

A 9-year-old boy took his own life, just days after coming out to his peers as gay, due to the severe bullying he received. Sadly, he is not alone, suicide rates among LGBTQ youth are rising at an alarming pace.

As a clinician, how do you approach a sensitive topic like gender identity without offending your clients? How do you navigate the LGBTQ spectrum, with its unique terminology and challenges? How are you supposed to help an LGBTQ youth client when their parents are not on board?

You are not alone in struggling with these types of questions. Join expert and author, Deb Coolhart, PhD, LMFT as she draws on her nearly 20 years of working with LGBTQ youth. Deb will show you effective clinical strategies for:

• The coming out process
• Bullying
• Suicide, anxiety, shame, depression, self-harming
• Making healthy choices
• Thriving in school
• Developing support networks

Working with these youth and families can be complex, requiring the balance of many seemingly opposing viewpoints. As a clinician, there is nothing more rewarding than facilitating these changes and watching families discover their own path towards understanding.

Help LGBTQ kids and adolescents know that it’s their right to be themselves!

Outline

Create a Safe Therapeutic Space

• Offensive words to avoid
• Intake session: how to ask about developing identity
• Approach transgender compared to LGBQ
• Strategies to establish rapport and comfort

Identity Formation and Coming Out

• Identity development
• Internalized homo/bi/trans -phobia
• The decision to come out
• Strategies to overcome fear, shame, and rejection in the coming out process
• Bullying and safety issues

Clinical Considerations and Interventions

• Treatment strategies for
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Self-harming behaviors
  • Suicidality
  • Substance abuse
  • Shame
• Importance of family acceptance
• Impact with other cultural identities
• Research limitations and risks of psychotherapeutic approaches

What you Need to Know about Differences within the LGBTQ Spectrum

• Lesbian Youth
  • Confront invisibility
  • Facilitate positive self-esteem
• Gay Youth
  • Explore gender role expectations
  • Sexual health
  • Substance use
• Bisexual Youth
  • Understand bisexuality as a legitimate identity
  • Harmfulness of bisexual erasure
• Transgender Youth
  • Assess need/desire for gender transition
  • Options for gender expression
  • Puberty blocking
• Questioning Youth
  • Make space for exploration and fluidity
  • Reduce pressure to self-label
  • Avoid mislabeling a client

Clinical Strategies for Working with Families

• Coming out to family members
• Parents’ reactions and resistance
  • Techniques to work with unsupportive families
• Support youths’ LGBTQ identity
• Practical tips to help parents and siblings work towards increased acceptance and support
• Navigate religious beliefs
• Facilitate support networks

LGBTQ-Affirmative School Environments

• Tips to assist parents with school advocacy
• Coach youth towards self-advocacy
• Strategies to manage mistreatment
  • Cyberbullying
  • Face to face bullying

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