ABSTRACT
Challenging binary thinking and its constrictions creates a practice that is inclusive of all clients, including and especially those with nonbinary gender identities. Binary thinking creates a world where there is an either/or. The gender binary is perhaps the most central and obvious way that binary thinking appears and is deeply problematic in popular culture. Clients feel the impact of a clinician’s commitment to challenging a binary frame through our language and actions. Gender identity and sexuality are intimately connected in our culture and our individual experiences. This is also true for people who have nonbinary gender identities. Sexual orientation is often a site of unchallenged binary assumptions. “Sexual orientation” describes a person’s erotic attraction towards another person and is most often categorized into “gay or straight” or “heterosexual or homosexual.” Sexual orientation can expand outside the constraints of gender.
