Clinician self-disclosure or clinician self-concealment? Lesbian, gay and bisexual mental health practitioners’ experiences of disclosure in therapeutic relationships

The lived experiences of queer identified couple/marriage and family therapists

“…Having a queer therapist helped to create a space in which the client could truly be themselves without fear of how the therapist might react to their sexual orientation. This is consistent with the literature that highlights that the use of self-disclosure can help to expedite the joining process and create a stronger therapeutic relationship between queer client and queer therapist (Kronner & Northcutt, 2015;Jeffery & Tweed, 2015). While having similar background can create a sense of shared experiences, it is important for the therapist to recognize that even if they are members of the same minority group, their experiences may be vastly different.…”

“…This could also include therapists using their own experiences as a way to join with, and to create a stronger therapeutic alliance with their clients. Stronger therapeutic relationships have been shown to be a greater indicator or therapeutic outcome than any other factor (Jeffery & Tweed, 2015). If therapists are trained that it is not only acceptable, but could be beneficial to use their own experiences to foster a deeper relationship with the clients, the benefits to the clients could be great.…”

“…Queer therapists factor in the potential harm that the disclosure process might have on themselves and their clients. They may take into consideration what potential impact the disclosure might have on the therapeutic relationship, and worry that the disclosure might place an undue burden on the client (Jeffery & Tweed, 2015). A few of the participants described how they sought supervision for this particular struggle, and that the responses were not always beneficial.…”

“…For some clinicians who conceal their sexual orientation, the impact of the concealment can have a negative impact. It can result in a sense of loss of part of themselves (Jeffery & Tweed, 2015).…”

Using the Generic Model of Psychotherapy to Develop a Culturally-Sensitive Approach to Psychotherapy With Sexual and Gender Minority Patients

“…Therapist self-disclosures (TSD) are verbal statements whereby the practitioner reveals something personal ( Hill and Knox, 2002 ). Although these tend not to be common interventions in psychotherapy, research has shown that they have a positive impact on patients ( Hill and Knox, 2003 ; Moore and Jenkins, 2012 ; Jeffery and Tweed, 2015 ). The scarce literature on this topic stresses that, used in moderation, TSDs can have a beneficial effect for patients, especially when they belong to a stigmatized population ( Jeffery and Tweed, 2015 ).…”