Queer Therapy: A Framework for Working With Queer Clients

A book from a queer therapist to all fellow therapists, trainee therapists, and those working in allied professions. Queer Therapy shares a journey of discovering ways to work with queer clients and offers a personal, proven perspective on how to work in that way. Filled with stories, it presents a framework to integrate into any working style.

Working with queer clients is complex. Thomas Quinn-Smithson provides a straightforward, easy-to-understand, and adaptable framework for use by all practitioners, queer or not. His aim is to improve understanding about what queer clients might be experiencing and give ideas of how to proactively work with them. Alongside theory, Tom uses stories of his work to demonstrate how it works in practice.

Split into three, interrelated parts – the four pillars, the queer narrative, and the self-fulfilling cycle – the aim is to guide and inform the reader of a tried-and-tested way of working with queer clients. The “four pillars” are the areas therapists and counsellors need to be mindful of when working with queer clients: intersectionality, shame, rage/anger, internalised phobias. The queer narrative is the story clients tell themselves about how their life will progress from the overt and implicit messages they received growing up. The final part looks at the self-fulfilling cycle, which is made up of three elements: self-acceptance, community, and relationships. These different stages provide practical tools for working with queer clients which ultimately enable them to live a happier life.

Queer Therapy works alongside an integrative model of therapy, incorporating a range of person-centred, psychodynamic, existential, solution-focused and relational work. It does not provide its own individual “queer theory”. Instead, it enables practitioners to integrate the approach into their own way of working. This book is essential reading for practitioners working with adult clients who are actively struggling with understanding and accepting their gender and/or sexuality identity. It is also highly recommended for all mental health practitioners interested in continuing their professional development and for related professionals whose work involves working with queer individuals and communities.