Lesbian Client-Lesbian Therapist:

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The author describes her experiences as an openly identified lesbian clinical psychologist working with 50 lesbians over the past 4 years in metropolitan Los Angeles. The women she has worked with have generally been Caucasian and middle-class; half were in their 30s, one quarter in their 20s, and another quarter over 40 years of age. The most common presenting problem is difficulty with a lover relationship—either in working out problems in the relationship or in dealing with the pain of separation. Single lesbians who wish to meet other lesbians encounter problems due to limited opportunities and undeveloped social skills for initiating contact. The relative lack of courtship rituals among lesbians sometimes results in mis-matched partners who then have great difficulty separating from each other. Fears of rejection and inflexible initiator roles during love-making lead to sexual difficulties. Therapeutic approaches to help lesbians with self-esteem issues and relationship concerns are suggested. Issues of transference and countertransference are discussed in light of the fairly common occurrence of client and therapist seeing each other outside of sessions at lesbian and gay community functions and events.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: