Thank you for taking time to review our fourth and final issue in volume 13 of the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling. As I write this letter, I am reminded that students and professors are heading back to their classrooms, and the first day of fall is only 27 days away. My hope is that your summer was a time of respite, amusement, grounding, and scholarly productivity. With that in mind, I want to invite you to consider submitting the manuscripts you produced over the summer to our journal to be considered for publication. Manuscripts should represent empirical research, innovative practices, or theoretical articles. Manuscripts should be of interest to clinical mental health and school counselors, counselor educators, and other helping professionals working in diverse settings including schools, mental health agencies, family service agencies, universities, addiction and offender treatment settings, and sexual health centers. For detailed submission guidelines or further questions, visit the journal’s webpage at Taylor and Francis Online, http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wlco20/current or contact me at [email protected].
This issue contains three important articles including one empirical study and two conceptual articles. The first article utilized thematic analysis to examine a sample of transgender individuals’ help-seeking behaviors and how their identities were affirmed within the context of the counseling relationship. The second article theorized how specific constructs from social psychology may be used by counselors to reduce internalized shame when working with LGBTQ+ clients. The last article included in this issue was a collaborative effort written by a taskforce comprised of members of the Association of LGBT Issues in Counseling and the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling. They proposed best practices for counselors to navigate the intersection between spiritual and/or religious identities and affectional and/or sexual identities when counseling LGBTQ+ clients.
We hope that you find these articles add value to your respective work settings and enhance your knowledge and counseling competence. Do not forget that you may complete the Continuing Education (CE) questions at the end of this issue to receive CE credit.