Minority Stress Counseling for LGBTQ+ Individuals
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Summary
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) individuals experience a breadth of mental health disparities. Reducing these disparities is an area of key psychological research. Minority stress is theorized to be an underlying source of the disparities (Meyer, 2003). Minority stress can be conceptualized as the internalized stigma that results from experiences of social marginalization. By reducing minority stress, it is hypothesized that generalized mental illness indicators might be reduced and indicators of wellbeing increased.
Description
Adult participants will respond to advertisements by emailing a research assistant. A research assistant will then arrange for a pre-screening interview to ensure inclusion criteria are met. A research assistant will review informed consent and receive a signed informed consent during the pre-screening. Participants who are accepted into the study will then be offered up to 12 sessions of ACT or receive an unstructured treatment as usual counseling condition delivered by graduate students in the UAB medical/clinical psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Borgogna. These sessions wi…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Must identify as non-heterosexual Exclusion Criteria: Suicide attempt within the past 12 months. Current eating disorder. Narcotics use within the past 3 months Non-suicidal self-injury within the past 6 months. Current/History of psychosis
Interventions
- BehavioralAcceptance and Commitment Therapy
Up to 16 session of unstructured counseling therapy informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tradition.
- BehavioralTreatment as Usual (TAU)
Unstructured counseling
Location
- University of Alabama at BirminghamBirmingham, Alabama