Male counselors' discomfort with gay and HIV-infected clients.

Abstract

This study examined male counselors' reactions to gay and human immunodeficiency virus (HlV)-infected clients in light of counselors' homophobia and death anxiety. After completing measures of homophobia and death anxiety, 34 male counselors viewed a videotaped, male client-actor in 1 of 4 conditions: either gay or heterosexual and either HIV negative or HIV positive. The dependent variable, counselor discomfort, was assessed through (a) the ratio of avoidance to approach verbal responses to the taped client, (b) self-reported state anxiety, and (c) recall of certain words used by the client. As hypothesized, counselors experienced greater discomfort with HIV-infected than HIV-negative clients, and counselors' homophobia predicted their discomfort with gay male clients. However, client sexual orientation did not affect counselor discomfort, and death anxiety was unrelated to discomfort with HIV-infected clients. Implications regarding countertransference and counseling were discussed.

Therapist perspectives on countertransference: Qualitative data in search of a theory.

“…Furthermore, that only two types of cultural issues (gender and race) were described by therapists suggests that this is likely an incomplete category of origins that may include other, yet-to-beidentified subcategories (e.g., sexual orientation, social class, religion). In fact, homophobia has been found to be a significant predictor of countertransference behavior with gay and lesbian clients Hayes & Gelso, 1993). Taken as a group, the origins we identified may help to normalize these various sources of countertransference, thereby facilitating therapists' awareness of and openness about their unresolved issues in these areas.…”

“…The clinical and empirical literature indicate that countertransference reactions can assume myriad forms, both internal and external. Internally, countertransference often manifests itself in three forms: anxiety (Cohen, 1952;Gelso et al, 1995;Sharkin & Gelso, 1993;Sullivan, 1954;Yulis & Kiesler, 1968), misperceptions of the frequency with which the client discussed certain topics (Cutler, 1958;Gelso et al, 1995;Hayes & Gelso, 1993;Singer, Sincoff, & Kolligan, 1989), and feelings of liking or antipathy for the client (Fiedler, 1951;McClure & Hodge, 1987). Behaviorally, countertransference may be displayed by withdrawing from or otherwise avoiding the client (Bandura, Lipsher, & Miller, 1960;Yulis & Kiesler, 1968), becoming overinvolved with the client , or exhibiting nonverbal behaviors that may be peripheral cues of countertransference (Sherman, 1965).…”

“…Analogue research on countertransference has followed the general paradigm of testing hypotheses under laboratory conditions that approximate therapy. Analogue studies have yielded support for numerous and varied hypotheses, such as: Male therapists withdraw when they are anxious Yulis & Kiesler, 1968); therapist homophobia predicts avoidance behavior with gay and lesbian clients Hayes & Gelso, 1993); therapist awareness of countertransference feelings, in conjunction with adherence to theoretical framework, yields decreased countertransference behavior Robbins & Jolkovski, 1987); and therapist gender moderates the effects of countertransference Lecours, Bouchard, & Normandin, 1995).…”

Clinical Issues in Working With Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Clients.

“…Such gaps in knowledge leave us with no alternative but to draw from the societal and personal biases that we possess. Gelso, Fassinger, Gomez, and Latts (1995) and Hayes and Gelso (1993) examined therapists' reactions to lesbian, gay, and heterosexual clients in analogue studies and found that therapists' homophobia was positively correlated with their avoidance of gay-and lesbian-related material concerning relationship issues or sexual difficulties. However, it should be noted that as a group, counselors did not exhibit greater avoidance or anxiety with lesbian or gay clients than they did with heterosexual clients.…”

Propiedades psicométricas de la escala de ansiedad ante la muerte de Templer en sujetos mexicanos

“…Parece ser que el uso del formato Likert propuesto en este estudio permitió que la consistencia interna general del instrumento excediera el criterio de confiabilidad sugerido como deseable por Nunnally & Bernstein (1995) de 0.75 a 0.80. Estos resultados fueron también consistentes con las sugerencias hechas en este sentido por Thorson & Powel (1994), Hayes & Gelso (1993), McCordie (1979) y Hoogstraten et al, (1998.…”