Celebrating Pride Month with Inclusive Mental Health: Trauma-Informed Care for the LGBTQ+ Community

By:  Cheyenne Bowman, LCPC

EMDR Trained

Happy June! I am overjoyed with the start of the summer season each year. I love this season for many reasons, but I enjoy pointing out that it is the month we celebrate pride!  I love that there is a time dedicated to celebrate our beautifully diverse world as it relates to gender identity and sexuality. I feel that during June, I see more people dressing the way that they want, and owning their style and personality.. As much as I wish this was the case year round, there is something special about seeing the world light up around me during the month of June.

This month also gives me a great opportunity to bring up the need for culturally competent and trauma informed therapists in our world, especially during these uncertain times. There are several populations that we work with who are fighting for their basic rights to be who they are, to be safe, and to be accepted. It is of the utmost importance that therapists provide a space where these individuals can process their experience in a space where they do not feel psychologically or physically in danger. If you’re familiar with trauma work, you might know something about the AIP Model. It essentially tells us that clients have access to adaptive information in the brain, but need the right conditions for it  to be accessed and utilized. For example, it is hard to have confidence in yourself when people around you are doubting you, or telling you directly that you should not be confident. As therapists, we have the duty to provide a safe environment that in turn allows clients to access the insight and wisdom to know what they need (and already possess!) to make positive changes in their lives. You may be the first person that has provided that for them. What an honor to experience and facilitate that process! It is one of my favorite things about being a therapist. 

Basics of Trauma-Informed Care

If you’ve joined me for our Foundations of Trauma Therapy course, you’re familiar with some of the basics of Trauma-Informed Care. Here are a few things I go over in our training:

• Creating Safety (Being attuned, non-judgmental, predictable, communicative, etc.)
• Choice and Autonomy (Giving clients options, letting them make decisions for themselves and for their treatment)
• Collaboration (Allowing their own insight to be a guiding light in the relationship and for treatment goals)
• Fidelity (Follow through on what we say we will do for our clients. Also, communication with flexibility)
• Empowerment (Letting our clients know that “You are the expert on you,” which increases trust in self and ego strength)
• Don’t work based on assumption (Our world views often shape our expectations. When we have different world views, you could do harm by operating off of your own assumptions)

How to go a step further for LGBTQ+ clients

Take a moment to think about what may need to be added to these principles to better care for our LGBTQ+ clients. What unique challenges do they face? How can we show these clients that we are supportive of them and there to build them up? (I’m talking celebrate, not tolerate). 

• Don’t hide it - I believe that now more than ever, we should be showing our support for LGBTQ+ clients in a visible way. If you support LGBTQ+ clients, list that on your bio. Have something in your office that shows your client that you accept them, without you even having to say it out loud. That helps with the aspect of safety.
• Educate yourself - If you work with a client who has felt a lot of discrimination, spend time educating yourself on their experience, the history of their culture, and learning any terms or aspects of the culture that may not be common knowledge. This again brings safety into the room and shows the client that you care about them, and that they do not have to teach you about things we are able to access on our own. Take continuing education courses that focus on gender affirming care, and how to best support queer clients. Accredited training should already be vetted and will help you to know that the information is accurate and up to date.
• Ask questions, don’t assume - to piggy back off of the last point, we can read and research things about the experience of being queer or LGBTQ+, but we cannot assume that because someone identifies a certain way, that their experience has to align with what you already know about it.
• Learn the policies, keep up to date with what could impact them. There is a lot of fear right now in the U.S. about the LGBTQ+ community losing rights or being able to be openly discriminated against without consequences for the perpetrators. Please make yourself aware of these things. If the client does not keep up with what is happening politically or in the news, at least we can begin working on ways to best support them.
• Lastly, ADVOCATE! Actions speak louder than words. If the safety of the LGBTQ+ community is a priority for you, advocating can make a huge difference in our community and also to your clients. I have enjoyed being an advocate and even seeing a client there as well. What exemplifies the principle of fidelity more than that?

Resources for both you and your clients:

Human Rights Campaign - HRC | Resources - Organizations like HRC are well known and have a lot of funding.  Therefore, they have research about “ratings” for different states and companies on how well they support the LGBTQ+ community. This may help you find resources that are well-known for being affirming.

The Trevor Project - Suicide Prevention for LGBTQ+ Young People - Resources for anyone, but especially professionals that support this community, backed by research. The Trevor Project promotes transparency and as a bonus allows you to view all of their financial reports if you are curious about how they use funds to support people.

Check out your local resources: 

Frederick Center - The Frederick Center - LGBTQ+ Support Services - The Frederick Center provides information just like HRC, but on the local level. They provide groups, activities, connection to physical and mental health resources, and even food and housing security assistance. Familiarize yourself with local resources for clients ahead of time. If you have the time to do so, you can compile a folder with information, or have a company directory for your practice with the information for all of your clinicians/clients! 

Happy Pride!

References:

“Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) Model.” EMDR International Association, EMDRIA, 19 Dec. 2024, www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/aip-model/.