Despite being more at risk of experiencing mental health problems than their non-queer peers (Dhejne et al, 2016), previous literature suggests that queer clients have poorer experiences in therapy (Beard et al, 2017). Looking to address this, Hadjiioannou & Saadi (2023) suggest that psychotherapy as a whole perpetuates harm to queer clients, because of binary narratives that permeate within therapeutic spaces. Therefore, in an attempt to better understand, and subsequently unlearn these binary beliefs, three non-queer therapists participated in semi-structured interviews, with the aim of developing insight into how therapists both experience and make sense of queerness.
Following this, an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the transcripts were carried out, uncovering the following five Group Experiential Themes (GETs): (1) queerness is unfamiliar; (2) queerness requires caution; (3) attitudes towards ability to work with queer clients; (4) queer-related learning and (5) simplification of queerness. When examined in conjunction with pre-existing literature, the current findings allude to the existence of binary beliefs, characterised by the suggested presence of incorporation, microinvalidation and privileged irresponsibility within therapeutic spaces (Bozalek & Zembylas, 2023; Plumwood, 1993; Sue et al, 2007). Additionally, the current findings identify diversity training as a source of binary beliefs, crediting such formation to the ‘us’ and ‘them’ narrative alluded to within its modules (Nilsen et al, 2017). Looking to the future, the current study exists as an invitation for growth, advocating for a queer-affirmative approach to care, that sees revisions made in all aspects of psychotherapy, to facilitate the unlearning of any binary beliefs present within the domain.
PLEASE NOTE: You must be a member of the University of Lincoln to be able to view this dissertation. Please log in here.