Hey everyone.
I am working on my masters in clinical mental health counseling, and I want to be multiculturally sensitive, including regarding the LGBTQ+ community.
I am a straight, cisgender male, and I have only had a handful of gay and trans friends/acquaintances. Multicultural awareness is certainly part of my education, but I don't believe it is close to enough. I want to hear from communities themselves, not just textbooks.
If you feel comfortable, I would really appreciate your feedback to make me a more effective counselor working with people in your demographic.
How can I best serve you?
What have you wished a past counselor could have understood?
What really pissed you off in a therapy session?
What is the most important thing for me to try to understand?
I hope this is received well. I genuinely want to be able to effectively serve all people.
Be accepting of plural and otherkin patients.
I fully believe in non-judgmental care. I'm not going to judge someone for their identity.
And as far as I'm aware, the general modern consensus in psychology is not to pathologize such identities as the medical model likes to do.
That's not to say that counselors don't bring their own implicit biases into practice though....