Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities: A Clinician's Guide to Fostering Compassion, Connection, and Equality Using Contextual Strategies

by Matthew D. Skinta PhD, ABPP (Editor), Aisling Curtin MsC (Editor), John Pachankis PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

As more clinicians train in mindfulness and acceptance-based therapies, the demand for skills specifically for treating diverse clients grows. In this much-needed edited volume, you’ll find evidence-based strategies for treating gender and sexual minorities with acceptance and compassion for better treatment outcomes.

Gender and sexual minorities face unique concerns and, according to research, are actually more likely to want and seek therapeutic help due to greater levels of psychological distress. But research also shows that many psychologists and therapists do not feel adequately educated or efficacious discussing topics related to sexuality and gender in clinical practice. This book will address this significant gap with evidence-based and best-practice interventions and applications.

Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities offers a number of practical strategies within a contextual behavioral science framework, including mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions, compassion-focused therapy (CFT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), relational frame theory (RFT), and more. With chapters on stigma, shame, relationships, and parenting, this book will be a valuable resource for all therapists.

If you’re a clinician, you understand the ongoing need for cutting-edge, effective approaches for treating a variety of clients. With this guide, you’ll learn about the unique application of contextual behavioral approaches as they relate specifically to the experiences of gender and sexual minorities, and feel better equipped to help all of your clients work toward happiness and health.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626254305
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Series:	The Context Press Mindfulness and Acceptance Practica Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Editor Matthew D. Skinta, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified clinical health psychologist who lives with his husband in San Francisco, CA. In addition to having a private practice, he is core clinical faculty at Palo Alto University, where he directs the Sexual and Gender Identities Clinic. Skinta’s past research has focused on the impact of stigma and shame on health behaviors of sexual minority men, particularly as it relates to sexual health and HIV-related care. He is a peer-reviewed acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer, and is certified as both a compassion cultivation training (CCT) teacher, and as a trainer of functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP).

Editor Aisling Curtin, MSc, is a registered counseling psychologist at the Psychological Society of Ireland who lives with her partner in Dublin, Ireland. She is director of ACT Now Ireland, has a small private practice, and consults with a number of organizations to deliver acceptance and mindfulness workshops. Aisling teaches in many university training programs, and regularly gives workshops internationally on sexuality from a mindfulness and acceptance vantage point. She is a peer-reviewed ACT and FAP trainer.

Foreword writer John Pachankis, PhD, is associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University. He studies the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. His research specifically seeks to identify the psychological and social contextual influences that might explain LGBT individuals’ disproportionate experiences with several adverse mental health outcomes, like depression and substance abuse, and to translate the results of these studies into psychosocial interventions to improve the health of the LGBT community.

John Pachankis, PhD, is associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University. He studies the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. His research specifically seeks to identify the psychological and social contextual influences that might explain LGBT individuals’ disproportionate experiences with several adverse mental health outcomes, like depression and substance abuse, and to translate the results of these studies into psychosocial interventions to improve the health of the LGBT community.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction Matthew D. Skinta, Palo Alto University Aisling Curtin, ACT Now Ireland 1

Part I Mindfulness and Acceptance for Coming Out and Shame

1 Self and Perspective Taking for Sexual Minorities in a Heteronormative World Aisling Curtin, ACT Now Ireland Lisa Diamond, University of Utah Louise McHugh, University College Dublin 11

2 Using ACT Interventions to Help Clients Explore the Possibilities of Gender Identity Trish Leonard, ACT Now Ireland Lauren Grousd, private practice 29

3 Coming Out with Compassion Aisling Curtin, ACT Now Ireland Danielle (Danny) Ryu, PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium Lisa Diamond, University of Utah 49

4 Compassion-Focused Therapy in the Treatment of Shame- Based Difficulties in Gender and Sexual Minorities Nicola Petrocchi John Cabot University Rome Marcela Matos Sérgio Carvalho, University of Coimbra Roberto Baiocco, Sapienza, University of Rome 69

5 Mindfulness and Acceptance for Malignant Shame Matthew D. Skinta, Palo Alto University Paul D'Alton, University College Dublin 87

6 Treating Disordered Eating in Gay Men and Other GSM Clients Using DBT and ACT Joseph C. Walloch, University of Nevada, Reno Mary L. Hill, Georgia State University 109

Part II Building and Rebuilding Relationships

7 Healing the Wounds of Rejection: Deepening Vulnerability and Intimacy with Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Matthew D. Skinta Kimberly Balsam, Palo Alto University R. Sonia Singh, Bowling Green State University 131

8 Elephants in the Room; Straight Therapists' Microaggressions with GSM Couples Joanne Steinwachs, private practice Thomas G. Szabo, Florida Institute of Technology 149

9 Starting a Family: Same-Sex Parenting Amy Murrell, University of North Texas Fredrik Livheim, Karolinska Institute Danielle Moyer Melissa Connally Kinsie Dunham, University of North Texas 171

10 Religion, Spirituality, and Gender and Sexual Minorities: What Clinicians Need to Know Finn Reygan, Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS), University of the Witwatersrand Aisling Curtin, ACT Now Ireland Geraldine Moane, University College Dublin 187

11 Minority Stress and Resilience Brian A. Feinstein, Northwestern University Brian P. Marx, National Center for PTSD 207

Part III Life in Context: Challenges in the World

12 The Lasting Impact of HIV/AIDS C. Virginia O'Hayer David S. Bennett Jeffrey M. Jacobson, Drexel University 227

13 Doubly Disenfranchised: An Acceptance- and Compassion-Based Approach to Being a Minority Within GSM Communities Khashayar Farhadi-Langroudi, American School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University-San Francisco Bay Area Kayla Sargent Akihiko Masuda, Georgia State University 247

14 Flexible Organizations: Creating a Healthy and Productive Context for GSM Employees Frank W. Bond Joda Lloyd, Goldsmiths, University of London 265

15 Queering the Globe: Promoting Equality, Connection, and Community Matthew D. Skinta, Palo Alto University Kip Williams, Market Street Center for Psychotherapy 283

Index 303

Interviews

Skinta resides in San Francisco, CA; Curtin resides in Dublin, Ireland.

Editorial Reviews

This empowering volume shows how to bring powerful, evidence-based methods to gender and sexual minorities (GSM): do it through the application of GSM-affirmative, scientific principles linked to evidence-based procedures. Acceptance, mindfulness, compassion, and values-based action open the door to a new and more progressive conversation with the entire field about how to best meet the wide-ranging needs of GSM populations. Comprehensive, powerful, and clearly stated, this wonderful book helps show us all a new way forward.”
—Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Foundation Professor at the University of Nevada, and codeveloper of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)


“Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities is an important addition to the literature on mental health of GSM. Since the 2000’s, we have seen growth in sophisticated epidemiological research leading to better understanding of patterns and causes of mental health of GSM. But guidance on treatment has lagged. We have learned a lot about minority stress but less about how to help people who experience it. This clinician’s guide comes to fill this gap in our knowledge, updating the literature on treatment of GSM. The writers, experienced therapists and researchers, apply research on mindfulness- and acceptance-based therapies to treating minority stressors related to stigma and prejudice experienced by GSM. The chapters in this book bring insight to broad areas of concerns in the lived experience of GSM, from coming out, to raising families, to creating salubrious environments.”
—Ilan H. Meyer, PhD, Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at The Williams Institute UCLA School of Law, and coeditor of The Health of Sexual Minorities


“Skinta, Curtin, and the chapter authors respond to the need in the field to articulate ways in which mindfulness-based approaches can address many specific challenges faced by gender and sexual minority (GSM) individuals. It is increasingly important to ensure that GSM (and other minority) populations are able to access mental health treatments that are both evidenced-based and follow culturally competent, affirmative care. This book is a unique intellectually stimulating resource for clinicians to have in our tool box, both those who are familiar with mindfulness-based approaches and desire information about how to work with GSM, as well as those who work with this population and require information about mindfulness-based approaches to care.”
—Steven Safren, clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Miami


“This volume includes the latest thinking and therapeutic interventions in our field to help guide clinicians in their work with gender and sexual minorities. Each of the chapters includes the nuts and bolts involved in helping GSM clients. No stone is left unturned in the array of chapters that include such topics as coming out, same-sex parenting, shame, and being a minority in GSM communities. The book is clearly aimed at detailing therapeutic interventions for clinicians, including compassion-, acceptance-, and mindfulness-based treatments as both standalone as well as integrated with other approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP). This volume includes specific suggestions as well as case examples that clinicians can apply in their work. It even includes a chapter to address the issues confronting straight therapists working with GSM clients. Their goals are not only to help clinicians be effective with GSM clients, but also address implications for society. I highly recommend this extremely interesting, timely, and well-written and edited book.”
—Robert J. Kohlenberg, PhD, ABPP, professor in the department of psychology at the Center for the Science of Social Connection at the University of Washington


“I finished this book feeling both humbled and at the same time empowered in my work with GSM clients. It provides a very approachable overview of the theoretical foundations central to contextual behavioral science, while at the same time being extremely practical and directly applicable for clinicians, offering numerous clinical examples and suggested exercises. This book is an essential read for any clinician working with issues of sexuality, gender and gender identity, stigma, and shame from a functional contextual perspective.”
—Jenna LeJeune, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist, and cofounder and director of clinical services at Portland Psychotherapy Clinic, Research, and Training Center in Portland, OR


“Matthew Skinta and Aisling Curtin have edited the preeminent book on GSM-affirmative treatment. Writing from their core personal and professional experiences, the chapter contributors inspire readers to become not only more insightful and effective therapists, but to strive for cultural humility and societal equality. This deeply thoughtful and heart-stirring treasure trove will guide clinicians for generations to come.”
—Mavis Tsai, PhD, coauthor of A Guide to Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, and research scientist and clinical faculty at the University of Washington


“Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities is an important contribution to the next wave of therapies for GSM. As we move beyond a focus on affirmative and non-pathologizing therapies, it is crucial that we begin to adapt evidence-based therapies to meet the needs of the diverse populations that we treat. Mindfulness and acceptance are approaches that are especially suited for GSM clients struggling not only to accept themselves, but also to live effectively in a changing, and at times, hostile culture. This book is essential for any clinician treating GSM clients.”
—Jayme L. Peta, PhD, coauthor of The Gender Quest Workbook


“There is a kind of violence that occurs when we tell people, in bold headlines and in small, quiet ways: do not express your difference, do not wonder about who you are, certainly not out loud, but really not even to yourself. Just be quiet and fit in. The palette of human sexuality is broad, and that breadth is largely unknown because we have suppressed the knowing of it, even among individuals who have a sense of these differences from the inside out. We have a choice. We can create a kinder, more curious, and more thoughtful context for our clients to come to know themselves and to help us to know them. This is an important book if you want to be part of that kinder context.”
—Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Mississippi

From the Publisher