“Doing Gender” in psychotherapy: a theoretical framework to visibilize gender prejudice and stigma on psychotherapy with LGBTIQA+ clients

Abstract

Introduction: Health research in gender shows that today it is still possible to find acts of discrimination
and stigmatization in health care for people from LGBTIQA+ community, despite the intentions of professionals to
offer an affirmative and inclusive consultations. There is a gap between the intention and practice, and that collaborates
to reproduce stigmatization and social barriers for this population. Objectives: Present an updated framework to study
how this contradiction can be found inside psychotherapy with LGBTIQA+ clients. Methodology: asystematic review
about psychotherapy models for LGBTQA+ healthcare and socio constructivist frameworks about gender. Results:
Multicultural Competence models, Relational Theories of gender and “Doing Gender'' Perspective facilitate the
approach toward psychotherapy as a microprocess, to unveil the implicit processes in which gender stereotypes are
practiced and manifested there. Conclusions: It is expected that this line of research may contributes to broadening
the vision about the deep impact of gender prejudice and stigma on the practice of psychotherapy, and thereby aiming
to improve the healthcare for LGBTIQA+ people, rethink the competences models for psychotherapists and enhance
the critical position of psychotherapy in its role on the pursuit of social justice.