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WHEN THERAPISTS DO NOT WANT THEIR CLIENTS TO BE HOMOSEXUAL: A RESPONSE TO ROSIK'S ARTICLE
Author(s) -
Green RobertJay
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2003.tb00380.x
Subject(s) - ambivalence , feeling , homosexuality , sexual orientation , psychology , social psychology , interpersonal communication , interpersonal relationship , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis
This commentary is a response to Rosik's “Motivational, Ethical, and Epistemological Foundations in the Treatment of Unwanted Homoerotic Attraction” (this issue). Such treatment raises complex questions that cannot be resolved by focusing on the therapist's conservative versus liberal values. Most such clients are deeply ambivalent about their homosexual attractions. The degree to which their homosexuality is “unwanted” is highly variable among them and sometimes within them over time. Clients who are exclusively homosexual are very unlikely to be able to change their sexual attractions, whereas some clients who are bisexual may be more able to “manage” their homoerotic attractions (acting only on their heterosexual feelings). Marriage and family therapists should be able to support a client along whatever sexual orientation path the client ultimately takes, and the client's sense of integrity and interpersonal relatedness are the most important goals of all.