Many authors have questioned the preparedness of family therapists to deal with sexual minority clients. Even though the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) has called for the integration of sexual orientation into the curriculum of marriage and family therapy training programs, the subject continues to be marginalized. The purpose of this article is to encourage trainers to examine their programs' curricula for evidence of heterosexist bias and introduce ways that they might integrate issues related to same-sex affectional and sexual orientations into their programs via the classroom and the clinic.
Heterosexism is a form of multicultural bias that has the potential to harm both clients and supervisors. Supervisors are encouraged to examine their own heterosexist lens as a first step in providing a safe environment in which supervisors can challenge their own heterosexism. The issue of heterosexism is first discussed from an ethical vantage point. The second section of the article examines four facets of heterosexism (discrimination, lack of knowledge, stereotyping, and insensitivity) and how they might be exhibited by the supervisor in the supervision arena. Special topics discussed in this section include: the possible consequences of "coming out" in the supervisory context; the presence of heterosexism in the foundational family systems theory; the need for recognition of the special family characteristics of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals; the value of personal and professional relationships with persons who are gay, lesbian, and bisexual; common heterosexist stereotypes and research that refutes them; and the use of language. The final section of the article offers suggestions for working with supervisors around these issues.
Although feminist family therapy has been studied and practiced for more than 20 years, writing about feminist supervision in family therapy has been limited. Three supervision methods emerged from a qualitative study of the experiences of feminist family therapy supervisors and the therapists they supervised: The supervision contract, collaborative methods, and hierarchical methods. In addition to a description of the participants' experiences of these methods, we discuss their fit with previous theoretical descriptions of feminist supervision and offer suggestions for future research.
Theoreticians in adolescent sexuality have called for research that is contextual, health-focused, balanced between males and females, and from the perspective of adolescents, noting that scales developed by Buzwell and Rosenthal (1996) are promising. Cross-cultural validation of the measures in the United States. should include Latino adolescents, as they are the fastest-growing ethnic group. Contextual issues for this population include the roles of culture and the family, country of origin, and acculturation. The scales were tested with 155 Latino adolescents, Mexican-identified, and third generation plus. Scales indicated good reliability overall although several subscales were determined to best be combined as they created a single factor. Hierarchical agglomerative methods revealed a four-cluster solution with clusters conceptually mapping the original study. Clusters were significantly different on important sexual behaviors, such as virginity status, likelihood of engaging in safer sex, and number of sex partners.
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