Gender Affirmative Interventions: Theory and Practice Considerations

Mental health treatment for gender oriented issues has greatly evolved in the past half century. Treatment approaches emphasizing gender will be presented in this chapter. Recent professional guidelines for competent treatment of boys and men, girls and women, and TGNC populations will be summarized. Key themes of most treatment approaches in this area emphasize affirmative and liberatory approaches that centralize the voices of clients in therapy. Relational cultural therapy, originally developed for girls and women, is a major therapeutic framework that has been applied to many populations. Feminist and womanist therapy approaches are another fruitful area to review, as are therapy approaches emphasizing positive masculinity and strength-based strategies for men and male-identified clients. Finally, affirmative and liberatory approaches with TGNC people will be described.