CE Hours: 3 hours
Recorded Webinar
Presenter: Presenter: Melissa Dellens, MA, AMFT
Presenter: Melissa Dellens, MA, AMFT
CE Hours: 3 hours
Recorded Webinar
Abstract:
Nearly half of LGBT adults in the United States are religious, of which approximately three million identify as Protestant or Catholic (Williams Institute, 2020). Many LGBT youth raised with conservative religious face higher rates of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse than their cisgender and heterosexual peers (Gibbs & Goldbach, 2015). Cultural conflicts between sexuality, gender, and religion are deep, and create profound conflicts for religious people in gender and sexuality expansive communities. Identity gaps are discrepancies in different parts of an individual’s identities and can be helpful to conceptualize these conflicts (Jung, 2020). The stressors related to the identity gap between spirituality and sexuality can impact development and mental health in a variety of ways. This course will explore the intersections of sexuality, gender, and Christianity, focusing on the Bible as a source of resilience and recovery from religious trauma and spiritual abuse for Christian LGBT clients.
Learning objectives:
- Identify bias and discriminatory beliefs toward Christianity based on historical oppression and cultural conflicts in order to make more space for religious identities in treatment.
- Describe the impact of the identity gap that exist when a client holds both a religious and sexual or gender expansive identity.
- Identify credible resources in LGBT religious communities as an intervention to social exclusion and isolation.
Melissa Dellens, MA is passionate about building strong, healthy communities both big and small. Melissa earned her Master of Arts in Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles with an emphasis in Applied Community Psychology. She is trained in looking at large scale trauma from a community level lens and supporting recovery and healing from empowered and preventative approaches. Melissa has worked with The Road Om, a body positive, trauma informed yoga practice to envision a program that works to bridge some of the conflicts between Black communities and law enforcement. She has supported Jay Nolan Community Services to evaluate the inclusivity of their community facilitation program for Autistic transition age youth. With Stepping Forward LA, Melissa assessed prevention models for youth aging out of the Foster system. Melissa has developed in service training for summer camp directors in developing more inclusive, affirmative programs. Melissa is trained in the Community Narration Approach to help organizations more closely align their missions and values with the populations they serve. This work has been published in the Global Journal for Community Psychology. For the Affirmative Couch, she has brought all her training and experience to offer Affirmative Organizational Development Consulting Services to help mental health providers create safer more affirmative healing spaces for LGBTQIA+, consensually non monogamous, and kink clients. As a white, cisgender, bisexual woman with both privileged and marginalized identities, she understands the importance of creating affirmative and inclusive communities.
Price:
$90 for licensed
$40 for licensed in non-profit organization (use code CLGBT40)
$30 for pre-licensed (use code CLGBT30)
You can also get free access to this course and all other courses with our memberships:
Testimonials
The models provide helpful lenses to approach identity development with clients as they explore their spiritual, sexual, and gender identity
100% Of users Recommend
Additional Information
Instruction Level
This course is meant for an intermediate to advanced audience.
Who should Attend
Psychologists, counselors, and marriage and family therapists and social workers.
Format
Recorded webinar recorded in January 2022.
Completion Requirements
To get CE credit, you will need to take the post-test with at least 80% score to receive your certificate for the homestudy course.
Financial Support
The Affirmative Couch pays course presenters for their teaching. There is no other financial support for this course.
Conflict of Interest
There is no reported conflict of interest or outside commercial support for this course.
Contact Information
For any inquiries related to subject matter, problem resolution, corrections, grievances, or anything else, please contact us.
Accommodations
The Affirmative Couch will work to accommodate reasonable accommodations requests. Requests can be emailed with “accommodation request” in the subject line. Requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Other Courses by Melissa Dellens, MA
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Continuing Education Approvals
The Affirmative Couch, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Affirmative Couch, LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Price:
$90 for licensed
$40 for licensed in non-profit organization (use code CLGBT40)
$30 for pre-licensed (use code CLGBT30)
You can also get free access to this course and all other courses with our memberships:
$90.00
