Moving Forward with Individuals

Abstract

As with any client, the issues that may be a focus of counseling or intervention with an African American nonheterosexual client necessarily depend on how the client defines the presenting issue. Is the client experiencing conflict with respect to his or her sexual orientation or gender identity? Is he or she struggling to deal with felt rejection from family, friends, or members of his or her faith community? Is the client torn between what he or she has been taught by religion and religious figures is appropriate sexual behavior and his or her own sexual desires and behavior? Many times, individuals experiencing these conflicts have been told and may have even come to believe as a result that any sexual orientation or behavior other than that between a male and a female is abnormal, deviant, and/or sinful.