Gay Counselling is a form of therapy for gay clients
The main reason for this form of therapy is to encourage clients to accept their sexual orientation.
It however does not try to change their sexual orientation.
Clients have to affirm their gay identity and at the same time embrace it.
It is worth noting that homosexuality is not a mental illness and should not be treated as such.
Cass’ Homosexual Identity Development Model (Stages of Coming Out).
The Model indicates that there are 6 stages of Coming Out.
1. Identity Confusion
2. Identity Comparison
3. Identity Tolerance
4. Identity Acceptance
5. Identity Pride
6. Identity Synthesis
CLEAR GUIDELINES
-Gay counselling focuses more on assisting clients so that they can be able to recover from the stigma of homosexuality.
– Gays receive a lot of discrimination and therefore require a lot of assistance to help them recover.
– Gay counselors try to learn about the discrimination gays face by consulting the APA.
– Most counselors try to remain neutral by not promoting or rejecting celibacy.
This aims to try and make the clients comfortable.
– It is of great importance for all clients to try and clearly check the medical background of some of the gay counselors to ensure they get the best services.
– Basically, a good counselor with many positive reviews is more likely to assist a patient in comparison to one who has many negative reviews.
RESEARCH
– Gay counselling after conclusive research aims to try and assist clients to try and feel comfortable with both their gender and sexual orientation.
– Research shows that most conflicts arising in most gay relationships are related to self, family and in some cases religion.
– Extensive research by clinicians shows that gay men together with their families struggle a lot in their communities due to constant discrimination.
– How do gay counselors deal with such issues? They address these problems by acting as mediators.
– This strategy of mediation aims to increase both communication among family members and self-awareness.
IMPORTANCE OF GAY COUNSELLING
– Helps patients to try and recover from daily problems they go through.
– Tries to provide long term solutions to patients.
– Tries to motivate clients and raise their self-esteem .
– Allows patients to air out their problems without feeling uncomfortable. This tries to make them understand that their sexual problems can be dealt with.
– Gay counselling tries to increase self-awareness to both the patients and the family.
– For many, gay counselling has been very beneficial and has really helped them face all their problems without fear.
CONCLUSION
For many couples, seeking this type of counseling is a good way to solve most of the problems they face.
In most cases, discrimination is the most common vice gay couples have to deal with.
