Homophobia is still alive and well...in New Jersey!

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The LGBT Mental Health Syllabus

The Lesbian and Gay Mental Health Syllabus

Introducing a new website created by the LGBT Issues Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP).

The site's goal is to teach psychiatry residents about caring for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trangender, and intersex patients. The LGBT Issues Committee hopes it will also be useful to all health and mental health trainees and practitioners.The site includes a series of modules that can be used sequentially to provide a comprehensive learning guide for working with LGBT patients.

The eight modules are:

* The History of Psychiatry and Homosexuality
* Taking a Sexual History with LBGT Patients
* Psychological Development & Life Cycle
* Psychotherapy * Medical and Mental Health
* Transgender
* Intersex
* Diversity / People of Color

Each module begins with a pre-test to help participants assess their existing knowledge about specific topics. After the main body of each module, a post-test helps assure that learning goals have been achieved. Modules also have relevant links, resource lists, and references to facilitate deeper exploration of topics.

Development of this site was supported by a generous grant from The Gill Foundation.

The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) is a U.S. organization of nationally respected psychiatrists dedicated to shaping psychiatric thinking, public programs and clinical practice in mental health. Its 29 committees meet semi-annually and choose their own topics for exploration. GAP Committees have pioneered the exploration of issues and ideas on the frontiers of psychiatry and in applying psychiatric insights into the general medical, social, and interpersonal problems of our times.

The GAP web page can be found at:

http://www.groupadpsych.org/files/aboutgap

Loving Someone Gay by Don Clark

This book, now in its 4th edition, was the first time I had ever read anything about homosexuality from an affirmative point of view. It was given to me by a gay man who was two years older than I was in college. I was a Junior at Michigan State University and he was in graduate school. He saw my pain and panic struggling with my homosexuality. He gave me this book and it changed my life forever. I still have the original book which has yellowed and torn in places.

Loving Someone Gay by Don Clark helped start my coming out process and prompted the beginning of my becoming a clinical social worker and working as a psychotherapist with lesbian and gays providing Gay Affirmative Therapy.

Mrs. Hughes Live at the Ice House

This is hysterical and so true! This woman is very good.

Joe Kort's Workshops

Joe’s Workshops/Classes Dates

Click on the workshop title for more information and to register.

Getting the Love You Want (Heterosexual Couples)
March 1-2, 2008Dec 6-7, 2008

Getting the Love You Want (Gay and Lesbian Couples)
April 19-20, 2008Oct 18-19, 2008

Keeping the Love You Find (A Relationship Class for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Singles)
April 22 - May 27, 2008Sept 9 - Oct 14, 2008
(6 weeks)

Reclaiming the Man in the Mirror: A Workshop for Gay Men
June 21-22, 2008

Click on the workshop title for more information and to register.

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

from the book, “The Invitation”
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I
want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to
dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are, I want to
know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for
your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring
your moon. I want to know if you have touched the
center of your own sorrow, if you have been
opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled
and closed from fear of further pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine, or your own, without
moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know
if you can be with JOY, mine or your own; if you
can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tip of your fingers and toes without cautioning
us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations
of being a human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you’re telling me
is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another
to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation
of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to
know if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even
when it is not pretty every day, and if you can
source your life from ITS presence. I want to know if
you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still
stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver
of the moon, “YES”!

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or
how much money you have. I want to know if you
can get up after the night of grief and despair,
weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs
to be done for the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you are, how you
came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in
the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with
whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains
you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep in the
empty moments.

Comes the Dawn (by Veronica Shorffstall, 1971)

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning And company doesn't mean security,
And you begin to understand that kisses aren't contracts And presents aren't promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head held high and your eyes open,
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
You learn to build your roads
On today because tomorrow's ground
Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
A way of falling down in midflight.
After a while you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate
Your own soul, instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you can really endure, That you really are strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and learn ... and you learn
With every goodbye you learn.