Effects of a Workshop on Mental Health Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Counseling Effectiveness

Abstract

The effects of a training workshop on mental health practitioners' attitudes toward homosexuality and counseling behavior were compared with the effects of no intervention. Treated subjects (n = 21) were enrolled in a 3‐day multimodal workshop about gay/lesbian counseling, and no‐treatment comparison subjects (n = 31) were enrolled in other counselor education coursework. Before and after the workshop, subjects completed homosexuality attitude questionnaires and a quasibehavioral gay/lesbian counseling effectiveness measure. Treated subjects improved significantly more than comparison subjects on all measures, and the gains remained in evidence at an 8‐week follow‐up. The multimodal training workshop thus appears encouraging as a possible means of instilling needed attitudes and skills in counselors of gay and lesbian clients.