The factors contributing to gay and lesbian clients' decision to come out and its process during counseling

• Main Authors: Yu-Chin Wang, 王渝津
• Other Authors: Chi-Wei Lin
• Format: Others
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/jwqj5s

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 諮商與臨床心理學系 === 101 === Counseling is a profession that helps others, and the subjects receiving counseling are in a wide range. The complexity of the society today has resulted in a diversity of client characteristics, such as the gay and lesbian clients that are growing in number. However, the gay and lesbian community still holds much wariness and doubts toward seeking help on mental frustration, thus causing a line of division between the gay and lesbian community and counseling. This study probed into the internal process of gay and lesbian clients after they enter counseling, their gay and lesbian identification, context in the counseling venue, and social culture, in an attempt to understand the factors affecting the factors contributing to their choices of coming out, and their mental process on deciding whether to come out. This study adopted a qualitative counseling process research method to investigate the research themes. The subjects were four gay clients, four lesbian clients, and the counselors of three clients. In-depth interviews were conducted and major events reporting slips were used to collect data.Then, theme analysis and immersion/crystallization analysis were performed to discuss the factors contributing to their choices of coming out and their mental process. The research results were divided into two parts. The first part concerns the factors contributing to the gay and lesbian clients’ choices of coming out, which include four levels: 1)internal process: embedded anxiety, the development of gay and lesbian identification, the uncertainty of risk evaluation regarding coming out; 2) external environment: mainstream sexual environment, emergence of gay and lesbian messages in daily life; 3) counseling process: gay and lesbian messages as the corner stone, a counseling relationship like best friends, factors that are conducive to the positive outcome of coming out; 4) factors related to the counselors: personal background of counselors (biological gender, sexual orientation, age), initial counseling attitude, familiarity with gay and lesbian culture. The second part concerns the mental process of coming out, which includes five stages: 1)latent demands: the demands are not yet recognized; 2) prioritizing: consider the urgency of the issues and the significance of coming out; 3) deadlock of decision-making: the loop of judgment and evaluation, discomfort under contradiction and conflicts; 4) waiting for the right time: the guessing between the clients and the counselor, the instance of giving up evaluation and consideration; 5) taking action: mental separation, omission or avoidance of core issues. According to the research process, research results, and reflections, this study suggests that the counselors and educators should strengthen their sensitivity toward the gay and lesbian culture, their attitudes toward different cultures, and the recognition of thoughts. Lastly, suggestions on future studies are proposed.