Written by Joe Kort
Reviewed by Kevin Jeffrey Goldwater
I don’t think it’s ever been easier to be a gay person. This perspective comes from a queer-identifying, twenty-one-year-old, living in New York City who also grew up in Chicago. Despite the news of the decimations of queer men around the world (Chechnya, for example) and strings of phobia and hate- filled rhetoric that stream from our Commander-in-Chief’s Twitter, queer youth, now more than ever, are finding opportunity to not only explore and question sexuality but to discuss and reckon with it. While it is still remarkably difficult to navigate today’s world as a queer person, apps like Grindr and Scruff link gay men to peers just down the block and across the country. Homosexual marriage has been legalized in the United States and non-monogamous partnerships are on the rise. I lived the first few years of my life in fear, ashamed of expressing the queer person that I am, but this cultural shift and increased discussion of non-heteronormative experience has allowed me to explore, question, discuss and reckon with my sexuality to the point where I have shed any associated taboos and am in full embrace and proud of my identity.
The cultural shift that allowed my transformation is the same shift that ignited Joe Kort to write LGBTQ Clients in Therapy: Clinical Issues and Treatment Strategies. In 2008, Kort published a similar book, entitled Gay-Affirmative Therapy for the Straight Clinician (GATSC). Kort’s new book is adapted from GATSC, and highlights the need for an updated, societally concurrent exploration of sexuality in light of the recent shift. Kort now expands his attention to gay teen, transgender, bisexual and sexually fluid clientele.
Kort begins his book by discussing the basics of psychotherapy and queer identity.
While relating the history and assumptions that go into treating queer clients, Kort also shares what it is to be a gay-affirming therapist and how to go about being such. Discussing myths and errors in tandem, Kort gives a clear and informed introduction to the more specific portions of his manifesto. Kort covers an in-depth examination of the development of queer clienteles in the following 16 chapters. Topics range from “Covert Cultural Sexual Abuse” to “Trauma from Growing Up LGBTQ to Coming Out”. The first seven chapters cover the expected processes of coming out and the role of queer identity on development, along with the roles of outside forces that become traumatic and abusive indirect or directly to LGBTQ clients’ upbringing. Kort continues with chapters eight through twelve by examining coupling in today’s queer relationships, whether related to monogamy or the identities of the partners. Kort then concludes his book with four chapters that seem to be themed with the ‘new’ material Kort is including—gay teenagers, trans and bisexual clientele and sexuality fluidity are all covered. Complete with introductory quotes, case examples, and a tone that is easy to follow and work with, Kort does an excellent job educating his reader on various dimensions of sexuality and the smaller subsets within them.
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Joe Kort is a licensed sex and relationship therapist specializing in sex therapy, LGTBQ issues and Imago Relationship Therapy. An author of four books and a regular blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, Kort is also part of the University of Michigan’s Sexual Health Certificate Program. He resides in Michigan.
Photo of Joe Kort by: John Hardwick Photography
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