At Inspire Recovery, our dedication to the LGBTQ community extends beyond our LGBTQ-focused treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida. We are also available to help other clinicians and centers grow in their understanding and sensitivity to clients who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex and asexual with our informative LGBTQ presentations.
The well-known AA/NA slogan shared in meeting rooms around the world is: “We are as sick as our secrets,” which resonates on a whole other level for the LGBTQ community in recovery. When LGBTQ individuals are comfortable sharing from their experience—in treatment center groups, one-on-one therapies, and AA/NA meetings—without shame or discrimination their recovery is positively impacted. One of the most powerful ways for that level of comfort to exist is for non-LGBTQ people to be more culturally aware and sensitive to LGBTQ persons. The big picture: the more comfortable someone is in therapy, treatment and “in the rooms,” the better our chances are at seeing the potential for long-term recovery for those who are LGBTQ!
By offering outreach and education in the treatment field, our goal is to help other treatment centers and colleagues provide the best possible care for all LGBTQ clients. With increased knowledge, clinicians can feel more confident in empathizing with the challenges LGBTQ clients face, and how their gender and sexuality may relate to their addiction.
Below are four sections of our Human Experience Workshop. If you’d like to customize your LGBTQ presentations by focusing on one area or spending more time for questions and answers, please let us know. Feel free to contact us here!
PART 1: The Human Experience (LGBTQ 101)
The LGBTQ community is much more than a four-letter acronym! We have created a colorful and fun way to teach others about the huge diversity that exists within the Pride rainbow of life. For many, a lot of the information we are covering is new territory. Clinicians can ask questions to ensure they are understanding the many ways people identify or express themselves.
The truth is, it may be very difficult for a client to speak about their gender or sexual orientation. However, these areas of their life may need to be processed therapeutically in order for clients to heal from their past and envision a positive and fulfilling life in recovery. By familiarizing clinicians with this information we hope your LGBTQ clients can begin to heal and grow in the safe environment a treatment center is able to provide.
This broad training educates on the entire human experience, helping you to understand the difference between Gender Expression, Gender Identity, Sexual Expression, Sexual Orientation and Anatomy. Each of these topics has terms and sub-topics that we will teach and explore with you. Should you have a desire to learn more about any specific section you may book a workshop focused on what your team desires to learn more of.
PART 2: Root Cause of Addiction from the LGBTQ Perspective
We present facts and statistics from a variety of sources covering some of the struggles that LGBTQ individuals face, starting in their youth. Although LGBTQ clients are generally the minority in treatment centers across the country, those who are LGBTQ have extremely high rates of substance use, as well as co-occurring disorders. We will discuss why fewer LGBTQ individuals gain access to treatment and why it’s so important for clinicians to be familiar with the LGBTQ culture in order to provide adequate care.
PART 3: How to Be a Good Ally
Many of our clients note being incapable of committing to recovery in a treatment center that “invisibilizes” their gender or sexuality. This common occurrence leaves treatment centers with the challenge of having clients without the adequate care every client deserves.
In this part of our LGBTQ presentations, we go over what it means to be a good ally to the LGBTQ community. An ally is someone who is in alliance with any marginalized group of people. Learning how to be a good ally means educating ourselves. More LGBTQ people are wanting to live their life not through the escapism that drug and alcohol addiction provides, but publicly and comfortably without the shame or discrimination that they have internalized for most of their lives. It is our goal to help treatment providers be able to be engaged with their clients about their gender identity and sexual orientation, ensuring that their time in treatment helps them process any part of their addiction that relates to these core aspects of their lives.
We are excited to provide your treatment center with tips and tools that will help you to be respectful and healing, instead of hurtful, to clients and individuals who face much discrimination in their daily lives. Together we can build a more kind and supportive space for the LGBTQ community in recovery—and the world.
PART 4: Best Practices for a Transgender-Affirmative Treatment Experience
This session will explore the application of the healing community approach to providing affirmative and long-term care to the LGBTQ community with co-occurring mental health diagnoses. Through research, case studies, discussion and experiential learning, the workshop will explore how a healing community breaks down the walls of a site-specific approach to treatment. Going beyond centralized, site-specific affirmative care, we identify the surrounding community, slowly dismantling statistical outcomes. Relying on the interlaced collaboration of clients, clinician, psychiatrist, and medical care, the benefits of incorporating an inclusive living environment strongly bound by its surrounding community will be examined. The session will explore the application of the healing community approach to providing affirmative and long-term care to the LGBTQ community with co-occurring disorders.