ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the task of connecting with the LGBT client which provides the clinician with an opportunity to gain insight into this client's, couple's, or family's strengths, resources, and values. Elliott Connie was the originator of putting this connecting part of the conversation after eliciting a best hopes description, rather than before as it had historically been done. Eve Lipchik described the skill used here as listening with a 'constructive ear', and to some clinicians this may come quite naturally though to others it can take quite a bit of practice. Within every coming-out story an LGBT person might tell, is rich evidence of that person's strengths, abilities, resources, and hopes and especially so in the toughest of stories one might hear. The chapter presents a story of a middle-aged gay couple, when they came in with the brink of separation. Peter mentioned his mother and the difficult time he had after he came out to her.
