Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults and Their Non-Accepting Parents
Book Details
- Publisher : American Psychological Association
- Published : May 2023
- Cover : Paperback
- Pages : 164
- Category :
Attachment Theory - Catalogue No : 97216
- ISBN 13 : 9781433836619
- ISBN 10 : 1433836610
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Many parents experience fear, shame, and loss upon learning that their child is same-sex oriented or gender non-conforming. Therapies to help parents become more accepting and foster meaningful relationships with their LGBTQ+ children are critical. Ongoing parental criticism, invalidation, and rejection of one's sexual or gender identity can take a profound psychological toll and lead to internalized homophobia, expectations for future gay-related rejection by others, depression, and other negative impacts. In contrast, parental acceptance is associated with lower rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, higher self-esteem, higher levels of perceived social support, lower levels of psychological symptoms, and better general health. While most parents become more accepting, or at least more tolerant, over time, others remain partially or fully rejecting even years after learning of their child's identity. Attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults (ABFT-SGM) helps reduce parental rejection, facilitate parental acceptance, and ultimately promote safer, closer, and more mutually respectful relationships between LGBTQ+ young adults and their parents. This informative book combines step-by-step guidance, real-life examples, and an empirically based approach to help therapists conduct transformative attachment experiences to keep these families connected.
Reviews and Endorsements
'Diamond and Boruchovitz-Zamir have developed the only evidence-based psychotherapy to help LGBTQ people and their parents resolve the often-unacknowledged, painful tensions that can linger between them. Every page of this book shines with clinical wisdom, concrete guidance, and compassion derived from the authors’ many years of firsthand experience working with these families. Therapists will do a tremendous service to LGBTQ people and their families by reading this book and applying its intuitive, accessible lessons to their own practice.'
John Pachankis, PhD, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
'This is the definitive work on this new and effective treatment for families struggling to stay connected. Attachment-based family therapy is a theoretically grounded, highly teachable treatment, and this rich description of it is rendered with clarity and empathy. Highly recommended!'
Laurie Heatherington, PhD, Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of Psychology Emerita, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, United States
'The authors describe a step-by-step process for conducting attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults and their nonaccepting parents. The ideas presented are very clear, and the book is well-structured, integrated, and organized. This excellent book will make a fantastic addition to the literature for family therapists and especially those who work with families of LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults.'
Yochay Nadan, PhD, Associate Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Social Worker; and Licensed Couple and Family Therapist and Supervisor
'Diamond and Boruchovitz-Zamir’s book is a hands-on clinical guide that walks therapists through the theory, structure, and mechanics of attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults and their nonaccepting parents. For the purposes of growth and transformation, the authors provide a clear strategy for helping families attune to the pain of feeling disconnected from one another as well as the incredible strength that comes from relationship repair. Through illustrative case examples and narratives, the authors take us into the room with their client families, help us to experience therapeutic emotional shifts, and allow us to witness the rebuilding of “sacred trust” through their work. Most important, we are reminded that parents are willing to come into contact with difficult emotions, such as pain and fear, for the sake of their young adult and can, therefore, use their caregiving instinct to respond in ways that have been previously unavailable to them. A powerful prompt for therapists to harness the attachment capabilities of parents in therapeutic practice with LGBTQ+ young adults.'
Jody Russon, PhD, LMFT, Department of Human Development and Family Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States
About the Author(s)
Gary M. Diamond, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and family therapist as well as the director and chief psychologist at the Ben-Gurion University Community Clinic.
One of the primary developers of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), in 2014, he coauthored with Guy S. Diamond (no family relation) and Suzanne A. Levy the book Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents, published by the American Psychological Association. He also took the lead in adapting ABFT for use with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender depressed and suicidal adolescents and, more recently, extended this work to sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults and their nonaccepting parents.
Dr. Diamond’s research examines the processes and outcomes of ABFT. He has studied the therapeutic alliance in family therapy, emotional processing, attachment anxiety and avoidance, parental responsiveness and parental acceptance, and corrective attachment episodes. In 2014, along with Guy S. Diamond, he received the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s annual research award. He trains people internationally in ABFT for SGM adolescents and young adults.
Rotem Boruchovitz-Zamir, MA, is a doctoral student and clinical psychology intern at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. She collaborated in adapting ABFT for SGM individuals and their nonaccepting parents. She is also an expert therapist in attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority (ABFT-SGM) for individuals, and she served as a therapist on the first ABFT-SGM clinical trial.
Her dissertation research examined how changes in parental behavior over the course of ABFT-SGM were associated with young adults’ sense of parental acceptance and rejection.
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