182: Jimmy Bridges: Therapeutic Considerations for Queer Clients with Conservative Religious Upbringings

Jimmy Bridges presented the following at the MO/KAN AAMFT Conference held in Kansas City, March 22, 2019. It is titled: Therapeutic Considerations for Queer Clients with Conservative Religious Upbringings What does it take to be queer and Christian? Clinicians working with queer clients consider the contextual factors of societal discrimination often involved in presenting problems. When queer clients come from conservative or fundamentalist religious upbringings, presenting issues and mental health can often be associated with deeply held religious beliefs. Clinicians grow in clinical competence with queer-religious clients by considering their own personally held narratives about religion, gender and sexual minority identities, and the intersection of both. This presentation will present findings from an original research project with a group religiously conservative and queer-identified adults. Jimmy Bridges, MS, LMFT is a doctoral student in the couple and family therapy program at Kansas State University. His research looks at the experiences of sexual minorities from conservative religious settings, particularly within Mormon communities, and feminist consciousness- raising processes for majority identity holding individuals, clinicians, and researchers.. Jimmy maintains a clinical practice at Symmetry Solutions LLC out of Wichita, KS. Please consider donating to Mormon Mental Health by going to: mormonmentalhealth.org.