Counselors often face various challenges and pressure in their day-day activities, just like any other professional. They may experience problems associated with addressing personal expectation, including their life responsibilities, family, society, and work. Regarding professionalism, counselors may experience some difficulties while dealing with ethical dilemmas and professional issues such as conflict value and countertransference. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) are often targets of discrimination, which has a negative impact on their mental state. The psychological issue is associated with increased levels of anxiety and stress, lack of confidence, attempted suicide, drug dependency, and depression. Like other clients with psychological problems, LGBTQ individuals need counseling to help them live a normal life. For a long time in the U.S, the LGBTQ individuals have been ignored by the community, and they are left alone to deal with their own issues. Therefore, the purpose of this paper will be to explain the professional issues counselors dealing with LGBTQ experience in their daily lives.
Current situation
LGBTQ issues exist in the U.S and other parts of the world, but these individuals have been ignored by society, leaving them to solve their problems. A recent study by Hassan and Ghazali (2013), stated that the LGBTQ individuals have a high tendency to mental problems, suicide attempts, and psychological disorders because they fail to get moral support from their family members and the community as a whole (Hassan & Ghazali, 2013). Therefore, issues associated with sexuality have made counselors shift their focus to helping LGBTQ individuals live a normal life.
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LGBTQ individuals experience discrimination on various fronts. Many of them experience unequal treatment, familial rejection, physical violence, and harassment in their daily lives. Consequently, the rate of drug use among these individuals is three times higher when compared with the general population. Also, the rate of unemployment among the LGBTQs is much higher in relation to the general population. This is primarily due to factors such as poverty, homelessness, and work discrimination (Sutter & Perrin, 2016).
Many counselors avoid LGBTQ individuals because they are not ready to accept them, especially those with less knowledge of sexuality issues because they will reveal their incompetencies. Counselors need to play a significant role in sexuality problems (Case & Meier, 2014). An issue involving values and issues in sexuality usually make counselors feel like being in an uncomfortable or wrong situation as they cover religious holdings and personal values of counselors. Their responsibility to help LGBTQ individuals challenges their strong traditional values. LGBTQ groups are considered as minorities, making them to experience discrimination in society. Therefore, a counselor is believed to have real personal value if he or she responds negatively to the issue (Case & Meier, 2014).
For counselors to provide quality counseling services to LGBTQ individuals, they are required to have a strong knowledge, awareness, and skills base. To achieve this, the counselors need to understand the social justice issues affecting this group of individuals in their communities (Dispenza & O'Hara, 2016). Most LGBTQs have reported dissatisfaction with their counselors because of lack of competency among the counselors, which may be as a result of unwarranted differential treatment, lack of acceptance, or inaccurate assumptions concerning LGBTQ clients (Dispenza & O'Hara, 2016).
Professional issues affecting LGBTQ counselors
Counselors' limitations
The most common problem affecting LGBTQ counseling is that counselors have limited expertise to conduct sessions with the LGBTQs effectively. Most counselors lack knowledge about the issues affecting LGBTQ individuals which affect service delivery. In a study conducted by Jamal et al. (2018), all the respondents claimed that they experienced some limitations during the counseling sessions. Most often, these limitations occur because the counselor does not have the expertise to deal with such kind of issues (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018). For example, a counselor may not have knowledge about religion when dealing with an individual having erectile diffusion or HIV because it is not within their counseling scope.
When counseling is related to sex, religious treatment, and illness, the counselor is expected to consult experts in the issue or may refer them to other counselors. For example, in the above study by Jamal and his colleagues, one of the respondents claimed that he had to refer some of his clients to religious alternatives because he had no knowledge and expertise on treatment and religion (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018). The study proved that counselors are limited when it comes to conducting counseling sessions with LGBTQ individuals. Most counselors have specialized in areas such as group counseling and marriage counseling. Therefore, the compatibility issues of the LGBTQs will affect the quality of services offered by a counselor on LGBTQ individuals (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018).
Clients might have feelings for counselors
The second professional issue affecting counselors with the LGBTQs is transparency when the individuals develop some feelings for the counselor, thus causing discomfort to the counselors during the session (Walker & Prince, 2010). In a study conducted by Walker and Prince (2010), the respondents claimed those incidences often occur during the counseling session when they ask clients to state the characteristics of their desired individuals. It turns out that the characteristics are similar to the counselor.
Some counselors have been forced to refer their clients to other counselors because the clients tried to touch them. The incident often traumatizes the counselors, thus affecting their professionalism. The Code of Ethics provides that a counselor should not engage in a romantic relationship with the client or interact with the client's family members unless it is for the benefit of the client. In case, a counselor comes across such a case, he or she should end the session and refer the client to other counselors or else it will be performed poorly (Walker & Prince, 2010).
Client Issues Referred
Sometimes a client might be referred to another counselor because the referring counselor had limitations in terms of expertise or because of the client's problem. In some instances, the clients might be referred by their family members or partners because of their problems. It is the responsibility of the new counselor to help the client understand his or her behavior, including responsibility for her or his behavior (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018). In this case, the client needs to understand that he or she needs to control his behavior before things become worse. Many counselors shy away from referred clients because they claim it is hard to deal with them. The referred clients often distract the session, thus making it not to run smoothly (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018).
Counselors claim that clients who come to them voluntarily often are much easier to control than the referred ones, and this is because it takes time for them to understand the clients. The referred clients are hard to manage, which forces counselors to play a unique role in order to understand them (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018). This proves that the referred clients are more challenging to handle when compared to those who came voluntarily.
Value issues
Everyone has his or her personal values, which influence their decisions while helping others. These personal values include feelings and attitudes about a particular group of people and unacceptable and acceptable things. These personal values are significant when making choices. Regarding counseling of LGBTQ individuals, the personal values of counselors are always different from those of their clients. Although counselors are expected to accept their clients unconditionally, they still cannot deny the fact that religion considers the practices of LGBTQs as wrong. The work of a counselor is to help individuals deal with their psychological problems, and so during the sessions, they are not expected to bring in the value. In case, the counselor is a Muslim, dealing with issues of LGBTQ individuals is difficult because he would be violating held values by him as a Muslim. The counseling session can successfully be conducted if a counselor is well conversant with the issues affecting the group (Herlihy, Hermann, & Greden, 2014).
Consequently, counselors find it hard to change the values of their clients because they are associated with feelings and instincts. This means that counselors can pretend to be comfortable conducting sessions with the LGBTQs, but deep inside, they feel guilty (Herlihy & Dufrene, 2011). They often accept this group of individuals just like any other client, and they try their best to hide their negative facial expression. Therefore, we can conclude that for a counselor to successfully conduct sessions with LGBTQ individuals, they need to forget about their values and try to understand their clients. They need to accept the diversity associated with value systems that other people hold. This means that the counselors should serve all their clients with a humanitarian feeling (Herlihy & Dufrene, 2011). It does not mean that the counselors are forced to accept the values of their clients and completely forget about their values, but they should understand that it is for the benefit of their clients.
Lack of reference model
The last challenge that counselors often face during their sessions with the LGBTQs is the absence of a reference model, which they can refer to during the sessions. The reference model lacks specific procedure to do so, and so counselors achieve their counseling sessions with the LGBTQs just like any other case. The counselors do not have information about the strategies concerned with dealing with issues of LGBTQ individuals (Kocet & Herlihy, 2014). The guidelines are significant for counselors because it will help them perform better during their sessions with the LGBTQs. Counselors claim that most of the cases involving LGBTQ individuals are very serious and are classified which need some guidelines on how to handle them. In addition, the counselors do not have organized seminars and workshops to discuss sexuality issues and how to manage them as counselors (Jamal, Subhi, & Ghazali, 2018).
Recommendations for improvement
First, to deal with the limitation problem, counselors should be provided with training to provide them with knowledge and enable them to get prepared when dealing with the LGBTQs. The training will give the counselors sexuality knowledge, thus enabling them to provide the best services for LGBTQ individuals. Moreso, some counselors should be encouraged to specialize in sexuality issues so that they will gain some expertise on how to deal with the problems. With the knowledge they will provide their clients with counseling services, thus helping their clients deal with their psychological issues.
Second, the counselors should learn how to deal with referred clients. They should do everything possible to ensure they win the attention of the clients. Third, during the session with the LGBTQ, counselors need to separate their values with those of their clients to make the session run smoothly. The counselors should understand that everything they are doing is for the benefit of their clients. This means that they should drop their values and accept the diversity brought about by value systems. No matter what the counselors feel about the LGBTQs, they should try their best to treat LGBTQ clients just like any other client. They should maintain their professionalism while dealing with this group of individuals.
Forth, counselors should be provided with strategies on how to deal with cases concerning sexual problems. The counselors should be provided with guidelines on how to deal with such situations. There should also be seminars and workshops for counselors to discuss LGBTQ concepts. The significance of such an event is to enable counselors to understand the problems experienced by these individuals, thus allowing them to conduct their sessions in the right way. The courses should focus on LGBTQ counseling, psychological and physical handling, including the background. Most recently, the American Psychological Association (APA) published guidelines that can be used by LGBTQ counselors to handle such kind of individuals effectively.
Conclusion
Counselors often face many challenges that affect the quality of service delivery to LGBTQ individuals. They often experience some difficulties when it comes to dealing with sexuality issues because the issues involve human feelings and instincts. The first major problem that affects their professionalism is the lack of expertise to deal with LGBTQ issues. The second problem is that the clients may develop some feelings for the consolers, which may make the counselors feel uncomfortable during the session. Third, the clients might have been referred by other counselors because of their behavior, meaning that it is hard to handle them. Fourth, the personal values of the counselors may affect their decision. Finally, counselors lack reference model that guides them during their sessions with the LGBTQs. For counselors to deal with the challenges, they need to be trained on how to handle this group of clients effectively. In addition, counselors should always be ready and open-minded when dealing with such cases. Counselors can handle these challenges by improving their competency based on knowledge, specific skills, and experience.
References
Case, K. A., & Meier, S. C. (2014). Developing allies to transgender and gender-nonconforming youth: Training for counselors and educators. Journal of LGBT Youth, 11(1), 62-82.
Dispenza, F., & O'Hara, C. (2016). Correlates of transgender and gender nonconforming counseling competencies among psychologists and mental health practitioners. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 3(2), 156.
Hassan, A., & Ghazali, S. (2013). Sexual abuse and childhood traumatic experience: A case study on the psychological health of transsexuals in Malaysia. International Journal of Environment, Society and Space. 1 (1), 33-42.
Herlihy, B. J., Hermann, M. A., & Greden, L. R. (2014). Legal and ethical implications of using religious beliefs as the basis for refusing to counsel certain clients. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 148-153.
Herlihy, B., & Dufrene, R. L. (2011). Current and emerging ethical issues in counseling: A Delphi study of expert opinions. Counseling and Values, 56(1 ‐ 2), 10-24.
Jamal, S. H., Subhi, N., & Ghazali, M. F. (2018). Obstacles and Challenges in Counselling Gays and Lesbians in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(6), 953-964.
Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (2014). Addressing value ‐ based conflicts within the counseling relationship: A decision ‐ making model. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180-186.
Sutter, M., & Perrin, P. B. (2016). Discrimination, mental health, and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ people of color. Journal of counseling psychology, 63(1), 98.
Walker, J. A., & Prince, T. (2010). Training considerations and suggested counseling interventions for LGBT individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 4(1), 2-17.
Walker, J. A., & Prince, T. (2010). Training considerations and suggested counseling interventions for LGBT individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 4(1), 2-17.
