Becoming a gay-affirmative counsellor in the area of same-sex intimate partner violence

Abstract

The overarching goal of this project is to offer the counselling community strategies to promote a gay-affirmative approach to same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV). Four goals are associated with this project: (a) encourage counsellors to become aware of their personal attitudes towards homosexuality and same-sex IPV, (b) educate counsellors about appropriate terminology when referencing topics associated with same-sex IPV, (c) compare and contrast same-sex IPV, and (d) address counsellors’ ethical responsibilities when working with victims of same-sex IPV. These goals were met by creating a 6.5-hour face-to-face workshop for human service professionals interested in learning more about same sex IPV. This detailed, user-friendly facilitator workshop manual is included in the report as an appendix. The chapters in this project provide a comprehensive rationale and offer the necessary background material to support the content presented in the gay-affirmative, counsellor-training workshop. Strengths and limitations of the project as well as areas of future research are also presented.