Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth: Transcending Homonormativity and Constructing Preferred Identities

by David, Nylund, Sheila McNamee

Overview

This is the first therapy book that focuses on clinical work with youth who construct queer identities (as differentiated from essentialized gay or lesbian identities). It's also the first practice-based book that draws on queer theory, constructionist philosophy, and cultural studies to inform and guide therapeutic work with queer youth. As such, it offers fresh, critical, and hopeful resources for therapists committed to culturally responsive work with youth. It also helps to make ideas from queer theory and cultural studies accessible to clinicians and widely applicable in therapeutic practice.

This book presents the perspicacious and provocative comments of the Q-Squad, five queer youth who served as cultural consultants to the research and writing of this book. By bridging the gaps that exist between social science scholarship and therapeutic practice, and between queer theory and the lived experiences of queer youth, Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth breaks new ground in the conceptualization and practice of therapy with queer youth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765709783
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	03/27/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Julie Tilsen, PhD, is the training director for the International Center for Clinical Excellence and an associate of the Taos Institute. Her work is featured in several counselor training videos including Queer Theory in Action: Theoretical Resources for Therapeutic Conversations, Feedback Informed Treatment, Therapy as Social Construction, and iYouth: Kids, Counseling, and Pop Culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Forward, by Sheila McNamee and David Nylund

Glossary of Terms

Introduction: Queering Your Practice or Practicing Queer?

Chapter One: Where Do You Stand? Queer Ethos and Accountability

Chapter Two: Social Construction: I Was Discursively Produced This Way

Chapter Three: Queer Theory: The Audacity of Difference

Chapter Four: Queer as Youth: Resisting the Homonormative of Identity Development

Chapter Five: Bringing Sexy Back: Sex Positivity and the Rejection of Erotophobia

Chapter Six: iQueer: Popular Culture and Therapeutic Moments

Chapter Seven: Bullies, Bible-bangers and Haters: When Others Don’t Want It to Get Better

Chapter Eight: Resisting Conclusions: Continuing the Conversation

Appendix A: Sex Positive Resources

References

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth is unsurpassed as one of the leading applied clinical queer theory texts written to date. Julie acts as a translator in her approach to discussing social construction and queer theory in accessible ways—which allows both experienced clinicians and novice students to grasp challenging concepts. Critical questions and case vignettes guide the reader to thoughtfully consider the significant, yet often unspoken and unacknowledged experiences of young people. She challenges ‘experts’ to move beyond academic and theoretical understandings to a place where insider perspectives of queer youth are heard and honored. Julie breathes humility and responsiveness into her work with queer youth, creating liberating therapeutic spaces. This book radically challenges the conventional diversity training that often guides work with queer youth. Reflecting on Julie’s words, it truly is an invitation to clinicians, educators, students, and youth workers to queer your practice.

Kristen Benson

Tilsen produces a sophisticated new vision for mental health professionals to better grapple with the nature of human identity, sexuality, and gender described through the lived experience of queer youth. Using both a scholarly and conversational voice, this researcher critiques the outmoded labels produced within identity politics and modernist psychology and provides a revolutionary and radical analysis for engaging with the complexities, possibilities, and preferences of queer-identified youth. The ultimate strength of this text lies in its riveting commentary on identity construction that unhinges our contemporary understandings of sexuality and gender and provides a fresh pathway to meaningful and respectful engagement with queer youth.

Gerald Monk

Julie Tilsen has written a book that is firmly embedded in both queer theory and narrative dialogic practices, bridging the gap between heady ideas and skilled clinical practice. This book has provided me with the answer to the most common question I am asked—to explain the word ‘queer.’ After years of linguistic stumbling, Julie Tilsen has given me language: ‘to queer something is an emergent process of disrupting expected norms in such a way that new possibilities emerge and standard, unquestioned practices become open for interrogation.’ This very queer book will help all who work with LGBT youth (and Julie Tilsen is clear that we must work collaboratively with these youths) to disrupt our own norms, and to question our clinical practice, developmental theories, and outdated perspectives on identity development. Revolutionary!

Arlene Istar Lev

Prepare to engage! Julie Tilsen takes you right into the middle of conversations with queer young people that are lively, fresh, and deeply respectful. She is not telling counselors how to do what she does. She shines a flashlight ahead of her and says come with me. The ride she takes you on is vibrant, spirited, and rich with intelligent commentary. This book is written to be practiced—not really surprising because Julie Tilsen gives more than sneaking glimpses into her own practice. She opens the door wide and says come on in. She writes with a rare verve and a disarming directness so that her words convey a vital, invigorating force. They blow out cobwebs in the back of the mind. People should read this book. Many people. Some will find it is worth it to turn round straight away and read it again. It hums so much it will repay the effort.

John Winslade

I immediately engaged with this book. It offers reflective exercises, cases, conceptual frameworks, and conversational resources while also introducing its readers to queer theory & cultural studies applied to youth.

Canadian School Counsellor