Clinical Round Table 14 - Personalizing, Disseminating, and Implementing Lgbtq-affirmative CBT Interventions

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals face a high risk of adverse mental health outcomes. Fortunately, clinical trials show that LGBTQ-affirmative CBT interventions can reduce mental health symptoms and improve the psychological well-being of LGBTQ+ clients. Given evidence supporting the efficacy of these interventions, researchers and clinicians must ensure that treatment is individualized in a way that recognizes the unique stressors and strengths of each client. Efforts should also focus on dissemination and implementation to ensure clinicians are equipped in delivering these interventions. Expert panelists will discuss ways to personalize, disseminate, and implement these interventions across an array of clinical settings. Three panelists are full professors in departments of psychology, social work, and public health, with experience developing and testing LGBTQ-affirmative CBT interventions in clinical trials. These panelists will discuss how such interventions can be personalized via different modalities (e.g., online, group, couples) and across specific communities (e.g., youth, sexual minority men and women, trans and gender diverse populations). These panelists will also share lessons learned with regard to implementation in LGBTQ+ centers and community mental health agencies. Our fourth panelist, a board-certified clinical health psychologist, will describe how interventions rooted in contextual behavioral science can provide an alternative approach to address the mental health concerns of LGBTQ+ clients. Our fifth panelist, an assistant professor and counseling psychologist, will discuss how an intersectionality framework can be applied to address forms of intersectional stigma, as well as leverage clients’ intersectional strengths to inform treatment. Our sixth panelist, a third-year PhD clinical psychology student, will describe how graduate programs can implement trainings on these interventions to increase the cultural competence and humility of future clinicians. Our moderator, an assistant professor and clinical psychologist, will facilitate this discussion by drawing on experience delivering, supervising, and training providers in LGBTQ-affirmative CBT interventions.