ABSTRACT
A starting point for this chapter will be the way good professional and ethical practice can be encouraged within the consulting room for lesbians and gay men. This will be considered in light of their role as either client or therapist. As a backdrop to this chapter it is important to recognise the psychological history that has been negatively constructed with the ‘help’ of therapeutic discourses for lesbian and gay populations. Such discourses incorporate ‘sexuality scripts’ (Simon & Gagnon 1986) which told us how to behave ‘appropriately’ meaning heterosexually. This pathologising discourse held that lesbian and gay people were in need of treatment to make them become heterosexual and ‘well’. Consequently, this chapter will consider the use of counselling scripts and sexual scripts and how these may be used when working with lesbians and gay men in the consulting room. A major shift in thinking has been introduced over the past decade through the concept of Gay Affirmative Therapy, which has tried to bring about a more positive image and understanding in the way we work with these client populations (Davies 1996; Milton 1998; Milton and Coyle 2003). The central principle of Gay Affirmative Therapy is that ‘it affirms a lesbian, gay or bisexual identity as an equally positive human experience and expression to heterosexual identity’ (Davies 1996: 25). This will be referred to within this chapter as an example of a good practice model.
