Understanding Psychological Help-Seeking: The Role of Perceived LGBTQ+ Community Support.

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the relations between perceived LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy and both willingness to seek counseling and use of mental health services in the past year among 721 sexual minority persons. At the bivariate level, we found that LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was positively correlated with both willingness to seek counseling and use of mental health services in the past year. Further, LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was directly and indirectly related to willingness to seek counseling via less public stigma, less self-stigma, and more positive attitudes toward help-seeking in serial. LGBTQ+ community support for psychotherapy was indirectly related to use of mental health services in the past year via these same explanatory variables. Finally, we provide psychometric support for the LGBTQ+ Community Support for Psychotherapy Scale that we developed for this study. Our findings indicate the important role that contextual factors can have on psychological help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and behaviors for sexual minority persons.

Privilege and distress intolerance at the margins: Exploring the role of critical consciousness and entitlement.

With a U.S.-based sample of 219 people of color with diverse sexual orientations, the present study aimed to reveal how perceived privilege may be associated with distress intolerance, and the mediating roles of critical consciousness and entitlement. Data were also used to explore the interaction of sexual orientation status (heterosexual or sexual minority) with these paths. Via path analysis, we found that privilege was unrelated to critical consciousness, yielded a positive direct link to entitlement, and had a negative direct link to distress intolerance. Tests of indirect relations showed that privilege had a significant indirect relation to distress intolerance via entitlement but not critical consciousness. Regarding moderation analyses, the Privilege × Sexual Minority Status interaction predicting entitlement, privilege was significantly positively associated with entitlement among both heterosexual and sexual minority participants, but the association was significantly stronger for heterosexual participants. For the Critical Consciousness × Sexual Minority Status interaction predicting distress intolerance, the association of critical consciousness with distress intolerance was nonsignificant for both heterosexual and sexual minority participants, but the association changed direction and was significantly stronger for sexual minority participants. Indirect relations did not differ for sexual minority or heterosexual participants. Implications for future research and intervention are addressed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

"Me being myself isn't a barrier": Identity and praxis of nonbinary psychotherapists.

Experiences of nonbinary psychotherapists have largely gone unexamined in the present literature. Using critical-constructivist grounded theory, we explored the experiences of 13 nonbinary licensed psychotherapists through qualitative semistructured interviews. Interviews were an average of 1.36 hr, and participants were recruited via social media and professional listservs. We found that nonbinary therapists ground their professional praxis-the embodiment of professional theory, action, and practice-in identity across four interconnected areas: navigating minority stress, disclosing identity, utilizing identity, and centering anti-oppression ideologies. Findings add to the nascent examination of experiences of marginalized mental health professionals and note the value of identity integration into professional work. For this population, identity is used in praxis, as it permeates their entire professional sphere. We highlight how these clinicians use their identity in challenging binary understandings of the therapeutic profession. Furthermore, nonbinary therapists demonstrate resilience among systems of oppression and are empowered when challenging binary ways of thinking with clients, supervisors, and peers. Our results indicate the importance of supporting and training nonbinary clinicians in how to use themselves and identity disclosures as effective therapeutic tools and how to manage minority stress and microaggressions that occur in their professional practice. It also underscores the general need for increased training targeted to educators and binary mental health professions aimed at increasing competence in working with nonbinary people. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).