The 27th Annual Marriage and Family Therapy Institute, “Going Beyond Acceptance: Clinical Strategies for Working with Gay and Lesbian Families,” will be held Jan. 28 from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.
Part of “Celebrating Courage: 50th Anniversary of Desegregation” at UGA, the event is sponsored by the Pre-Professional Graduate Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy.
“This institute will provide timely and valuable information for a range of people, including helping professionals, friends and family members of the LGBT community, and anyone who wants to broaden their understanding of a group of people who have been historically oppressed and are still struggling to acquire the full benefits of being contributing citizens in our country,” said Nancy Williams, social work coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Pre-Professional Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy, who helped plan the program.
The workshop will be led by Stephanie K. Swann, an Atlanta clinician, instructor in UGA’s Master’s of Social Work program and former president of the Atlanta chapter of the Clinical Society of Social Workers, and Sarah E. Herbert, an Atlanta psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of children. The pair will discuss the intricacies of working effectively with the issues gay and lesbian families bring to therapy. Sessions throughout the day will cover topics such as the coming out process and sexual identity development in the current sociocultural climate, issues facing gay and lesbian couples, and issues facing families with a gay, lesbian or bisexual child or parent. Participants will conclude the day with a large group discussion.
