A consortium of three Chicago-based agencies will launch the first-of-its-kind training program Oct. 20 for mental health professionals in clinical practice with LGBT individuals and their families.
Created jointly by Howard Brown Health Center, Horizons Community Services and the Chicago Center for Family Health ( an independent affiliate of the Center for Family Health of the University of Chicago ) , the program will offer a series of workshops this academic year that will be incorporated into a Post-Graduate Certificate Program in Clinical Practice with LGBT Individuals and Their Families.
The complete Certificate Program will be available in the 2001-2002 academic year. This year's full-day workshops, running from October, 2000 until May, 2001, will address a range of critical topics including: "Emerging Models of Clinical Practice with the LGBT Population," "The Relational Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men," "Clinical Practice with LGBT Survivors of Childhood Trauma," "LGBT Youth: Developing Identity and Managing Risk," and "Gender Issues and the LGBT Population."
Hours of attendance may be applied as credit toward completion of the Certificate, and continuing education units are available for social workers ( LSWs & LCSWs ) , professional counselors ( LPCs ) and clinical professional counselors ( LCPCs ) .
The program is unique in many ways, according to Theo Pintzuk, Training Program Coordinator for Howard Brown and one of the program's six faculty members. "In addition to being the first such post-graduate certificate program in the country, we are offering a degree of depth and breadth in content not available in any graduate training program."
Pintzuk observed that the curriculum, based on an affirmative model of LGBT mental health, would draw from a variety of related disciplines beyond psychology, including anthropology, history, sociology, and gay, lesbian, and queer studies