Queer Adolescents Dating and Sexuality: Implications for Counselors, Counselor Educators, and Supervisors

LGBTQ* Responsive Sand Tray: Creative Arts and Counseling

“…Clients who identify as LGBTQ* experience higher rates of suicide, homelessness, bullying, educational obstacles, physical harm, and substance use than their heterosexual and gender normative peers (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;Dank et al, 2013;Dilley et al, 2010;Fredriksen-Goldsen et al, 2014;. These experiences and historical issues regarding mental health services for LGBTQ* individuals situate the importance for services, training, supervision, and ethical guidelines when working with the LGBTQ* population (ALGBTIC LGBQQIA Competencies Taskforce et al, 2013;Luke & Goodrich, 2015a;Moe et al, 2014;Troutman & Packer-Williams, 2014).…”

“…Additionally, future scholarly writing and research can build upon this proposed framework to further address the dearth of creative arts and ST literature focused on developing counselors who are prepared to provide culturally responsive services to persons with diverse affectional orientations, gender identities, and sexualities, especially the intersections of such identities across the lifespan. This is of the utmost importance, as LGBTQ* persons have unique experiences, needs, resiliencies, and mental health and wellness concerns, due to the intersections of these three specific identities (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;. Furthermore, given the lack of counseling supervision literature and programmatic standards focused on these intersections, counselor educators and supervisors can use the LGBTQ* Responsive Sand Tray framework to proactively explore and address the intersections of affectional orientation, gender identity, and sexuality in clinical practice as well as courses, such as supervision, practicum and internship, human sexuality, multicultural and social justice, or group work (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;Zeglin et al, 2018).…”

“…For instance, depending on the supervisory or educational context and the needs of students, supervisees, and/or clients, this framework provides a concrete structure to support supervisors and counselor educators in ensuring their students or supervisees can adequately meet the needs of LGBTQ* persons Luke & Goodrich, 2013;Miller & Luke, 2018), whether by addressing their biases, lack of LGBTQ* knowledge or skills, countertransference, or various points of entry. Such issues or growth edges can cover a plethora of issues, such as preconceived notions of LGBTQ* dating, sexual relationships and intimacy, or norms; the intersections of gender identity, affectional orientation, and spiritual and religious identity; or the oppressive, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, and hegemonic experiences that impact LGBTQ* persons' overall wellness, mental health, and safety (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;Farmer & Byrd, 2015;Thorne et al, 2018).…”

“…Thus, like other creative arts, ST has the potential to provide a framework for counselors to explore and expand their multicultural competence (Paone et al, 2015), while increasing their ability to support marginalized communities in exploring their own experiences, needs, and mental health with a modality that has been positioned as culturally responsive (Garza-Chaves et al, 2018;Paone et al, 2015). Therefore, this article will build upon the current counseling ST literature by adapting the use of ST to benefit a specific marginalized community, the LGBTQ* community, or more specifically, LGBTQ* persons with intersecting affectional orientations, genders, and sexual identities, given that the LGBTQ* acronym includes each of the intersecting identities (ALGBTIC LGBQQIA Competencies Taskforce et al, 2013;Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019).…”

“…Developing the use of ST to serve the LGBTQ* com-munity is crucial, as the LGBTQ* community faces many issues, such as discrimination, bullying, and homelessness ; internalized homophobia and genderism (Farmer & Byrd, 2015); dating and sexuality (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;Zeglin, Van Dam, & Hergenrather, 2018); emotional, physical, and sexual abuse (Dank, Lachman, Zweig, & Yahner, 2013); and a variety of mental health and substance-use-related issues (Cochran, Björkenstam, & Mays, 2017;Thorne et al, 2018). More importantly, scholars have suggested that counselors and related mental health professionals are not adequately prepared to work with those within marginalized affectional orientations and gender identities or the many issues LGBTQ* persons face (Luke & Goodrich, 2012, 2013, such as dating and sexuality (Cavanaugh & Peters, 2019;Zeglin et al, 2018). As a result, this article builds upon the literature preparing counselors to provide effective, culturally responsive, ethical, and just services to those with diverse affectional orientations, gender identities, and sexualities, through clinical supervision.…”