Liberating Psychotherapy: Liberation Psychology and Psychotherapy with LGBT Clients

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper argues that neither science nor psychotherapy can be separated from values, and it calls on the insights of liberation psychology to examine the role of the social and the political in understandings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) experiences. Liberation psychology challenges the separation between the personal and the social, suggesting that their interwoven quality provides fertile ground for both personal and social change. Using the concept of internalized homophobia as an illustrative construct, the paper explores strategies for bringing these understandings to bear in psychotherapy with LGBT people, as well as in interventions that move beyond the therapy hour.