Apply Queer History, Knowledge, and Theory in Clinical Practice: Strategies that Build Connection, Rapport, and Trust While Reducing Client Shame and Minority Stress

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Aaron Testard, LMFT, LPCC Related seminars and products

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Aaron Testard, LMFT, LPCC, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago, IL and the San Francisco Bay Area in California with over 20 years of experience. For 7 years, he served as director of clinical programs at the Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBTQ counseling and support center where he designed an implemented psychotherapy serves for individuals, couples, and families, 24 adult peer support groups, and an after-school youth program. He also has trained and supervised numerous interns over the years and has been an LGBTQ community mental health consultant for local clinics and organizations. Aaron has spent the majority of his career as an LGBTQ specialist. Including time as an addiction counselor, a high school counselor, and a consultant for a felon re-entry program. In his current practice, he focuses on sexual and gender identity. He works with adults, adolescents, and couples and consults with clinicians throughout the United States.

Aaron received his MA in counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a trained drama therapist, sensorimotor therapist, and practitioner of the Gottman couple’s method, EMDR, and DBT-informed client work.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Aaron Testard maintains a private practice. He receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Aaron Testard is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the Gaylesta, the Bay Area Open Minds; Kink and Poly Aware Therapists Association, the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counseling, and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health.

Objectives

1. Utilize LGBTQ+ historical knowledge in clinical practice to build connection, rapport, and trust, with GSM clients of multiple generations. 
2. Appraise conditioned clinician biases about sexuality and gender that often impede treatment with LGBTQ+ clients.
3. Apply queer theory principles strategically in a clinical setting to decrease the traumatic effects of shame and minority stress and to increase psychological flexibility for LGBTQ+ clients.

Outline

• Queer history every clinician should know
  • Frameworks and discourse of sexuality and gender over time
  • Key events (traumatic, courageous, and healing) that shaped the LGBTQ+ narrative
  • Use this knowledge to strengthen the therapeutic relationship
• Current Queer Principles Applied in Practice (With Self and Clients)
  • Challenge dominant discourses of sexuality and gender
  • Challenge binaries in the exploration of identity, expression, and disclosure
  • Engage in sex positive and sex critical dialogue
  • Address intersectionality of identity and experience
  • Political resistance as an intervention
• Ongoing Assessment through a Queer Lens
  • Safety and harm reduction
  • The language of the client
  • The meaning of identities and experiences
• Limitations of Research and Potential Risks

Target Audience

• Addiction Counselors
• Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Psychologists
• Therapists
• Social Workers
• Other Mental Health Professionals