Clinical Practice with LGBTQ+ Patients: An Intersubjective/Relational Approach

Presenter: Dr. Jonathan Lebolt 

CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 

Appropriate for ALL LEVELS/WILL NOT BE RECORDED

What do we mean by LGBTQ+ (especially the +)? How can we work effectively with patients with a different gender identity or sexual orientation from our own? Drawing on Gray's intersubjective, improvisational approach to psychoanalytic treatment, I will present a case in which I demonstrate how the clinician's use of self in the relationship with the patient leads to a sense of agency and growth. I will invite participants to share their own case material.

Workshop Objectives:

At the end of the presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the meaning of LGBTQ+
2. Define "intersubjective" and "relational"
3. Explain Gray's improvisational psychoanalytic approach 
4. Describe how clinicians may use their sense of self to move treatment forward in work with LGBTQ+ patients.

Agenda:

• Introduction
• Define "intersubjective" and "relational"
• Explain Gray's improvisational psychoanalytic approach
• Q & A
• Break
• Case presentation
• Participant cases
• Wrap-up

Recommended Reading:

• Atwood G. E. & Stolorow, R. D. (1984). Structures of subjectivity: Explorations in psychoanalytic phenomenology. Routledge.

• Barsness, R. (Ed.) (2018). Core competencies of relational psychoanalysis: A guide to practice, study and research. Routledge.
• Benjamin, J. (1990). An Outline of Intersubjectivity: The Development of Recognition. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 33-46.
• Cornett, C. (Ed.) (1993). Affirmative dynamic psychotherapy with gay men. Jason Aronson.
• Davies, J. M. (1994). Love in the afternoon: A relational reconsideration of desire and dread in the countertransference. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 4, 153-170
• Dimen, M. (2011). With culture in mind: Psychoanalytic stories. Routledge.
• Domenici, T. & Lesser, R. (Eds.) (1995). Disorienting sexuality: Psychoanalytic reappraisals of sexual identities. Routledge.
• Gray, A. (2015). Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances: Improvisation in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 25, 725–742.
• Grossmark, R. (2018). The unobtrusive relational analyst: Explorations in psychoanalytic companioning. Routledge.
• Guzzardi, S. (2024). Toward a queered psychology of the self: Empathy and passibility from the margins to the center. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19, 33-48.
• Lebolt, J. (1999). Gay affirmative psychotherapy: A phenomenological study. Clinical Social Work, 27, 355-370.
• Malamed, C. (2022). A Safe Space to Play Dangerously: Contextualizing Gender Play in Therapy. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32, 198-206.
• Ogden, T. H. (1988). On the dialectical structure of experience—Some clinical and theoretical implications. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 24, 17-45.
• Suchet, M. (2011). Crossing Over. Psychoanalytic Dialogue