Life passages: Paths to Empowerment for Sexual Minorities

Present day counselling can be traced back to 18th century medical models in the treatment of homosexuality. Because of this history, our profession has emerged within a social context of religious and cultural intolerance toward sexual difference. Such intolerance is by no means universal across time and from culture to culture. Leading social scientists conclude that attitudes toward sexuality are largely socially constructed. Noel (1994) suggests that racism, sexism, religious and sexual intolerance, and ethnic cleansing are often interrelated and overlap in complex ways which are externalised systematically in actions and institutions, and internalised in beliefs and attitudes. Since the 1970s many counsellors have worked to end such oppression and to explore paths to empowerment. By the 1980s conclusive evidence suggested that there was no basis upon which sexual difference could be rendered pathological, and ongoing research uncovered many flaws in previous conclusions. Today we recognise several reasons why work in this area can benefit mainstream counsellors.