Trans-Cending the Mononormativity of Relationship Therapy: An Intersectional Framework for Increasing Competency

Abstract

According to disciplinary standards, therapists offering relationship and family therapy are ethically obligated to inform their work with published knowledge about specific client factors to practice competently. Relationship and family therapy research and resources, however, generally lack flexibility in their application to relationships that aren't captured by dominant discourses of relationship composition. The challenges many therapists face in working with clients who have multiple marginalized identities are most often located within the individuals and relationships (rather than within the lack of systemic support available to inform competent practice). In response, we propose an intentionally intersectional structure a therapist could follow to systemically analyze, synthesize, and utilize currently available research toward more ethically and responsively competent practice and apply it to transgender and nonbinary clients in consensually nonmonogamous relationships.