Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults and Their Nonaccepting Parents

Diamond and Boruchovitz-Zamir have developed the only evidence-based psychotherapy to help LGBTQ people and their parents resolve the often-unacknowledged, painful tensions that can linger between them. Every page of this book shines with clinical wisdom, concrete guidance, and compassion derived from the authors’ many years of firsthand experience working with these families. Therapists will do a tremendous service to LGBTQ people and their families by reading this book and applying its intuitive, accessible lessons to their own practice. -- John Pachankis, PhD, Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States This is the definitive work on this new and effective treatment for families struggling to stay connected. Attachment-based family therapy is a theoretically grounded, highly teachable treatment, and this rich description of it is rendered with clarity and empathy. Highly recommended! -- Laurie Heatherington, PhD, Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of Psychology Emerita, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, United States The authors describe a step-by-step process for conducting attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults and their nonaccepting parents. The ideas presented are very clear, and the book is well-structured, integrated, and organized. This excellent book will make a fantastic addition to the literature for family therapists and especially those who work with families of LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults. -- Yochay Nadan, PhD, Associate Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel; Social Worker; and Licensed Couple and Family Therapist and Supervisor Diamond and Boruchovitz-Zamir’s book is a hands-on clinical guide that walks therapists through the theory, structure, and mechanics of attachment-based family therapy for sexual and gender minority young adults and their nonaccepting parents. For the purposes of growth and transformation, the authors provide a clear strategy for helping families attune to the pain of feeling disconnected from one another as well as the incredible strength that comes from relationship repair. Through illustrative case examples and narratives, the authors take us into the room with their client families, help us to experience therapeutic emotional shifts, and allow us to witness the rebuilding of “sacred trust” through their work. Most important, we are reminded that parents are willing to come into contact with difficult emotions, such as pain and fear, for the sake of their young adult and can, therefore, use their caregiving instinct to respond in ways that have been previously unavailable to them. A powerful prompt for therapists to harness the attachment capabilities of parents in therapeutic practice with LGBTQ+ young adults. -- Jody Russon, PhD, LMFT, Department of Human Development and Family Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States