LGBQ-Affirming and -Nonaffirming Supervision: Perspectives From a Queer Trainee

Research has suggested that culturally competent and supervision practices that affirm lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and queers (LGBQs) improve supervisory working alliances and enhance supervisees' confidence in their ability to work with diverse clients. In contrast, supervisors' heterosexism and ignorance of cultural considerations can make supervisees, particularly those who identify as LGBQ, feel marginalized, resulting in decreased depth and frequency with which LGBQ issues are discussed in supervision as well as weaker working alliances. In this article, I describe episodes in which 1 supervisor engaged in practices that I, as a queer trainee, experienced as supportive and affirming of diverse sexual identities. These actions included supervisor self-disclosure; early and routine discussion of cultural issues; and expressions of empathy, validation, and humility. In contrast, I describe episodes in which I experienced another supervisor's actions as nonaffirming. These actions included heterosexist microaggressions, infrequent discussion of cultural diversity, and downplaying the importance of sexual orientation and other cultural considerations. I contextualize both affirming and nonaffirming practices in existing research and make several recommendations for supervisors, supervisees, professional organizations, and researchers.