Lesbians With Physical Disabilities: A Qualitative Study of Their Experiences With Counseling

Abstract

The authors interviewed 25 lesbians with physical disabilities about their counseling experiences. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, the authors identified 9 themes. Five themes addressed participants' perceptions of their counselors: general satisfaction or dissatisfaction, counselors' general effectiveness, counselors' awareness and education regarding sexual orientation and/or disability, discrimination and bias, and counselor identity. Three themes related to the participants' attempts to negotiate the counseling process: coming out or selfdisclosure, self-advocacy, and accessibility/accommodations. The final theme related to depression.

Conducting Research With LGB People of Color: Methodological Challenges and Strategies

“…Hunt et al (2006) interviewed 25 White lesbian women who had a variety of disabilities and derived several characteristics of the phenomenon of counseling for these women. These characteristics included participants' views of the counselor (e.g., effectiveness, bias, lesbian and/or disabled identity) and the counseling process (e.g., coming out, accessibility, accommodation).…”

Homens gays com deficiência congénita e/ou adquirida, física e/ou sensorial: duplo-fardo social

“…Em consonância com a revisão bibliográfica, observa-se no presente estudo que os discursos dos participantes reforçaram a convição de que a sociedade na qual estão inseridos tendencialmente considera as pessoas portadoras de deficiên-cia, seja ela congénita e/ou adquirida, física e/ou sensorial, como seres assexuados (Hunt et al, 2006). Para Cheng (2009), essa sociedade normativa parte de pressu-posto erróneo de que essas pessoas não são atraentes nem desejáveis e que as suas limitações físicas e sensoriais as impedem de terem desejos dessa natureza, ou até de estabelecerem um relacionamento sexual satisfatório.…”

“…Tratou-se de um objeto de estudo abrangente e ainda pouco alicerçado empiricamente, dada a temática da deficiência ser historicamente analisada através do modelo médico (Cheng, 2009). Também a temática da homossexualidade tem sido retratada na literatura científica, na sua maioria, através de postulados teóri-cos (Hunt et al, 2006) e/ou dos discursos dos técnicos e especialistas (Goldfried & Pachankis, 2007). Por esta razão, considerou-se, por um lado, a metodologia fenomenológica e, por outro lado, a entrevista semiestruturada como os métodos mais adequados para compreender em maior profundidade as experiências únicas desta população minoritária.…”

Perceptions of Self-Disclosing Counselors Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

“…Many researchers have also focused on the general factors that contribute to LGB perceptions of helpfulness in counseling (e.g., avoiding heterosexist language bias, acquiring knowledge regarding LGB experiences, having involvement in the LGB community; Hunt, Matthews, Milson, & Lammel, 2006;Israel, Gorcheva, Burnes, & Walther, 2008). However, much remains to be studied regarding the specific counselor strategies that can be used to support the development and expression of these factors as well as the effective facilitation of positive counseling outcomes.…”