On Monday morning, May 7, I had the privilege of speaking to the Psychiatry Section of the Christian Medical and Dental Association about the Sexual Identity Therapy Framework. The Psychiatry Section of the CMDA always meets at the same time and place as the American Psychiatric Association conference, which met this year in Philadelphia. Thanks to Nadine Nyhus, section Chair, for the invitation.

Most of my time was spent presenting an update on developments regarding the SIT Framework since 2008. In May of that year, I was slated to be a part of symposium during the APA conference on therapeutic issues and same sex attraction. The panel was to be moderated by John Peteet with papers from Bishop Gene Robinson, David Scasta, Albert Mohler and me. The symposium was cancelled after Bishop Gene Robinson backed out. He had become convinced that somehow the panel would support reparative therapy. Of course, nothing could have been further from the truth. However, with his abrupt departure, the panel became the subject of intense controversy with gay advocates demanding that the APA to pull the plug, which they did.

The day after we were scheduled to present in 2008, I presented a talk, along with Rev. Mohler, to the Psychiatry section. My talk Monday picked up where I left off then and included a summary of the 2009 American Psychological Association Task Force Report. As we have pointed out here on this site, the SIT Framework was cited favorably in the APA report as a means of providing sensitive, affirming care for those who present with sexual identity conflicts.

The Power Point presentation I used can be viewed here.

Dr. Mark Yarhouse will be presenting at the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference in Nashville, TN, September 29, 2011. His workshop is on key concepts drawn from his research and clinical experience and tied to how he approaches sexual identity in clinical practice. These concepts include a three-tier distinction (between attractions, orientation and identity), weigthed aspects of identity (e.g., gender identity, biological sex, attractions, behaviors, etc.), and congruence (so that beliefs/values are reflected in behavior/identity). Dr. Trista Carr and Richard Morton will reflect on how they have experienced these concepts in practical ways in their work and ministry, as well as in their own lives.

Dr. Mark Yarhouse is offering an all-day workshop on addressing sexual identity in clinical practice. The workshop will be held on the Regent University campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It will be held Friday, October 1st, 2010, from 9am to 4pm. On-line registration is now available here.

From the registration page:

This workshop will introduce participants to sexual identity issues often addressed in clinical practice. Participants will learn about professional and ethical issues in navigating sexual and religious identity considerations. Participants will also learn foundations for the practical applications of sexual identity therapy in their work with people who experience same-sex attractions.

The workshop is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity and Genesis Counseling Center.

I just returned from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) International Conference in Atlanta. The theme of the conference was Critical Breakthroughs. I made a presentation titled “Navigating Sexual Identity Issues on Christian College Campuses.” It was a talk based on the past several years of visiting CCCU-affiliated institutions, speaking to faculty, staff, and students at these schools and providing consultations in the area of sexual identity. The talk also features some of the findings from the study of 104 Christian sexual minorities on three CCCU campuses.

The reason I am noting this talk on the SIT Framework site is that toward the end of the session I introduced Sexual Identity Therapy as an approach I prefer and discuss with campus counseling centers as the way I approach it is based on theoretical and research understandings of the four key concepts. First, I discussed the three-tier distinction between same-sex attraction, a homosexual orientation, and a gay identity. Such a distinction creates ‘intellectual space’ for using descriptive language while exploring identity considerations. Second, I discussed weighted aspects of identity, by which I mean that people consider many factors when they make decisions about public and private sexual identity labels. These ‘aspects of identity’ include biological sex, gender identity, attractions, intentions, behaviors, and beliefs/values. Third, I discussed joining people on an ‘attributional search’ for identity. This means exploring with students the meaning that they make out of the fact that they are attracted to the same sex. The fourth and final key concept for me is congruence. This means helping people line up their beliefs/values and behavior/identity. I have found this to be a natural result of the first three key concepts.

The audience was really interested in the various suggestions for navigating sexual identity issues on Christian college campuses. The introduction to SIT was more peripheral in the context of the larger discussion of these issues — I was emphasizing more of a community or systemic response; however, I wanted to discuss the direction I encourage on college campuses and the discussion of the four key concepts are also relevant to the community/systemic considerations as well.

Next week I will be travelling to Asbury College and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky,  for a series of talks. At Asbury I’ll be giving chapel addresses, meeting with Student Development staff, and participating in various panel discussions and coffee shop discussions.

The time as Asbury Theological Seminary will focus on pastoral care and applications of the three-tier distinction between same-sex attractions, homosexual orientation, and gay identity and how that distinction can be a helpful reference point in Sexual Identity Therapy. I will also contrast an emphasis on orientation with an emphasis on sexual identity, look at the potential benefits and drawbacks, as well as the importance of achieving personal congruence  through pastoral care.

This past year I have had the opportunity to speak to several seminary students, and I have another similar talk coming up. For the most recent talk, I had been asked to provide two lectures. One was on the etiology of sexual orientation; the other lecture was on whether orientation can change. At the end of the second lecture, I introduced the Sexual Identity Therapy (SIT) approach to working with people in my clinical practice, and I was reflecting with them on how it might be adapted for pastoral care.

I assume that pastoral care is different than professional counseling in any number of ways, but one way would likely be that there is more direction, more of a sense of a normative endpoint or something toward which the person is to move. I don’t know if all pastoral care providers function in this way, but it is an assumption I have about the nature of pastoral care.

In any case, this reminded me of the difference between telic congruence and organismic congruence as defined in the APA Task Force background document on appropriate therapeutic responses to sexual orientation. Recall that telic congruence has to do with who the person wants to become and aligning one’s choices with that, while organismic congruence has to do with aligning one’s choices with who one experiences oneself to be.

It would seem to me that most pastoral care would rely more on telic congruence and have some say in what that congruence ought to look like. In contrast, much of mental health care has probably been based more on a sense of organismic congruence, but some clinicians may recognize the difference and may work with people who are interested in either type of congruence outcome.

An implication, then, might be that pastoral care ends up adapting SIT by not having as much of an open-ended quality to the various ways in which congruence might be experienced. Again, I don’t know that this is the case, but I would be interested in how pastoral care providers approach their work and consider these different ways of understanding congruence. It would seem to impact how sexual identity and religious identity conflicts are navigated.

On Friday, November 6th, I’ll be heading up to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, for the Christian Association for Psychological Studies East Region Conference. The conference theme is actually on marriage and family, but I will be giving a presentation with two team members from the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity (ISSI) on the topic of multicultural competence and clinical practice with sexual minorities. The multicultural movement has emerged as a significant reference point for working with diversity issues in clinical practice, and the services that are provided to sexual minorities are also included in that discussion.

The presentation we will be giving will offer Sexual Identity Therapy (SIT) as an alternative to the often-polarized therapy options under consideration with religious sexual minorities: gay affirmative therapy and reorientation therapy. We will note the inherent limitations in both of these models and offer a third option, SIT. The presentation will then explore (and briefly critique) the multicultural movement and its approach to sexual minorities, as well as the place of SIT as a client-centered, identity-focused approach that is consistent with what is best about the multicultural movement as applied to multiple aspects of diversity, as is often found when working with religious sexual minorities.