Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults and Their Nonaccepting Parents

Many parents experience fear, shame, and loss upon learning that their child is same-sex oriented or gender non-conforming. Therapies to help parents become more accepting and foster meaningful relationships with their LGBTQ+ children are critical.

Ongoing parental criticism, invalidation, and rejection of one's sexual or gender identity can take a profound psychological toll and lead to internalized homophobia, expectations for future gay-related rejection by others, depression, and other negative impacts. In contrast, parental acceptance is associated with lower rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, higher self-esteem, higher levels of perceived social support, lower levels of psychological symptoms, and better general health. While most parents become more accepting, or at least more tolerant, over time, others remain partially or fully rejecting even years after learning of their child's identity.

Attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults (ABFT-SGM) helps reduce parental rejection, facilitate parental acceptance, and ultimately promote safer, closer, and more mutually respectful relationships between LGBTQ+ young adults and their parents. This informative book combines step-by-step guidance, real-life examples, and an empirically based approach to help therapists conduct transformative attachment experiences to keep these families connected.

Author: Gary M. Diamond, Rotem Boruchovitz-Zamir
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 04/04/2023
Pages: 164
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.10w x 0.44d
ISBN13: 9781433836619
ISBN10: 1433836610
BISAC Categories:
- Psychology | Developmental | Child
- Family & Relationships | LGBTQ+
- Family & Relationships | Parenting | General

About the Author
Gary M. Diamond, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and family therapist as well as the director and chief psychologist at the Ben-Gurion University Community Clinic. One of the primary developers of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), in 2014, he coauthored with Guy S. Diamond (no family relation) and Suzanne A. Levy the book Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents, published by the American Psychological Association. He also took the lead in adapting ABFT for use with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender depressed and suicidal adolescents and, more recently, extended this work to sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults and their nonaccepting parents. Dr. Diamond's research examines the processes and outcomes of ABFT. He has studied the therapeutic alliance in family therapy, emotional processing, attachment anxiety and avoidance, parental responsiveness and parental acceptance, and corrective attachment episodes. In 2014, along with Guy S. Diamond, he received the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's annual research award. He trains people internationally in ABFT for SGM adolescents and young adults. You are invited to visit https: //www.bgupsychotherapyresearch.org/ to read more about his work.

Rotem Boruchovitz-Zamir, MA, is a doctoral student and clinical psychology intern at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. She collaborated in adapting ABFT for SGM individuals and their nonaccepting parents. She is also an expert therapist in attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority (ABFT-SGM) for individuals, and she served as a therapist on the first ABFT-SGM clinical trial. Her dissertation research examined how changes in parental behavior over the course of ABFT-SGM were associated with young adults' sense of parental acceptance and rejection.