All In The Family: LGBTQ Issues in Therapy
Within a few short decades a vital queer community has grown from a once pathologized, reviled, and criminalized minority. Increased social acceptance (including marriage equality) has shifted the dialogue; however clinicians who are working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients need to be skilled in a wide-range of issues involving sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual diversity, and relationship dynamics.
Arlene Istar Lev, LCSW-R, CASAC will provide a working knowledge of sexual orientation and gender identity issues for affirmative treatment with lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients and families, and explore the clinical issues impacting LGBTQ individuals, couples, and families, within a systemic perspective.
Tuition: $40 for 1.5 CEU Credits, $25 for general admission, $150 for group registration (please note that CEUs are not available in group registration)
Credits: 1.5 CEU Credits
Parenting Webinars
Webinar: Gender in LGBTQ Families
Recorded: January 18, 2012
In this 1 ½ hour webinar, Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev, Albany-area family therapist, educator and writer, discusses gender in LGBTQ families, including roles within same-sex couples, gender identity, trans parenting, and raising gender-variant children. Ari also address questions such as, ‘How do we assist our children in developing healthy gender identities, whether they are “normative” or variant?’ and ‘How do we, as parents, manage our own angst about our children’s developing sex and gender identities?’”
Listen to/view the webinar now
“Arlene Istar Lev is a true gem to work with. As a top-notch contributor to Alternative Family and as an author, her work reflects her gift of overcoming the challenges that many GLBT families face. We are truly grateful to have Arlene as an ongoing columnist and consider her work to be a part of our success.”
-Kelly Taylor , Founder/Editor in Chief, Proud Parenting Magazine
Webinar: Talking to Children in LGBTQ Families About Their Origins
Recorded: March 7, 2012
Presenter Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev, Albany-area family therapist, educator and writer describes how to talk with children about their origins and their inclusion in LGBTQ families as they mature through various stages of life.
Webinar: Parenting Teens
Recorded: Feb 25, 2014
In this 1 ½ hour webinar, Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev, Albany-area family therapist, educator and writer speaking about Parenting Teens. Helping an adolescent become a responsible, independent, and compassionate adult with a full sense of their own identity is no small task. Doing so in the context of an LGBTQ-led family may pose additional challenges, and perhaps even a few benefits. As children mature into their own sexual and gender identities, familial relationships will shift This webinar will offer LGBTQ parents, and those who work with them, a greater understanding of emerging teen and young adult developmental stages, and tips on how to talk about difficult subjects such as drugs and sexuality. As children develop increased independence the question of how to build what will be an adult-adult relationship becomes paramount, while we are still trying to enforce house rules made for children, like those related to screen time, driving privileges, and curfew. Arlene will offer tips on how to negotiate the inevitable tension between offering adequate oversight to ensure your teen’s safety, and providing enough independence for them to take responsibility for themselves and maybe even make their own mistakes.
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Webinar: LGBTQ Family Topics: Nurturing Relationships between Parents
Recorded: March 19, 2014
In this 1 ½ hour webinar, Arlene (Ari) Istar Lev, Albany-area family therapist, educator and writer, discusses how to nurture relationships between parents.Maintaining loving relationships with a partner or spouse while rearing children is a Herculean task; the joke is that parenting is not for “sissies.” Well, now that queer folk have been out doing this for years, the joke might be wearing thin. We live in a culture that tells us relationships are about passion, and loving, affectionate, intimacy; parenting is more about tasks, organization, anger management, and an exhausting level of chores. On top of this LGBTQ parents have often been deeply invested in our cultural communities (sexually, politically, and socially), whereas parenting often means we spend more time at the PTA and soccer field than at gay pride marches. How do we maintain our loving connecting, find time for each other, and take care of the many responsibilities that challenge us as parents? The workshop will outline some helpful hints, as well as offer solace for those of us committed to maintaining and nurturing our love in the midst of the chaos of parenting.
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