APA PsycNET

Sexuality and gender can be some of the most complex, intricate, and multifactorial parts of ourselves. Best practices in psychotherapy with sexual and gender minority (SGM) clients require deep consideration of how and when we listen to identity, in all its forms, which includes the intersection of all of the SGM clients’ identities (e.g., race, class, culture). This article will have two goals. First, we introduce the particular manifestations of transference and countertransference in treatments with SGM clients. Second, through the use of self-disclosure and case studies, we uncover the ways in which SGM-identified clinicians’ therapeutic relationships can take on and—often necessarily subvert—traditional notions of therapist disclosure, transference, and countertransference. When and how a therapist chooses to use transference and countertransference in the treatment is a very large and complex topic. These dynamics exist no matter what theoretical orientation a clinician has or whether these experiences are ever brought into the conversation (Wachtel, 2007). Case studies of SGM clients in psychotherapy will be presented, paying particular attention to dynamics of the therapist–patient dyad including countertransference and therapist self-disclosure, and the ways in which the management of these clinical phenomena facilitate the evidence-based relationship variables of empathy and genuineness (Norcross & Wampold, 2011). Names, demographics, and other identifying information of clinical cases have been altered to ensure privacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)