Competing Selves: Negotiating the Intersection of Spiritual and Sexual Identities

Psychotherapy has sometimes been seen as incongruent with religion and spirituality. This fact is even more pronounced when counseling lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients, who feel as if their sexual orientation places them at odds with religious doctrine that is experienced as antigay. Postmodern theory provides a context for understanding socially constructed identities that may be in conflict with one another and may also provide some insight into how therapists may approach religious issues with LOB clients. The current study uses a mixed method design to investigate the relation between religious and sexuality variables in a sample of 422 LGB respondents. Quantitative results indicated that conservative religious beliefs were related to higher levels of shame, guilt, and internalized homophobia. Qualitative results appeared to highlight eight themes, the more dominant of which indicated that issues around sexual orientation were the catalyst for questioning or changing religious affiliation or beliefs.