Pride Month Episode: 1973- The Year the DSM Got It Wrong- And Then Fixed It

In 1957 a psychologist named Evelyn Hooker gave the same psychological assessments to two groups of men — one gay, one straight — and asked a panel of expert clinicians to identify which results showed psychological disturbance. They couldn't tell. Sixteen years later the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM entirely. The science had been there for nearly two decades. What changed was who was allowed to define what mental health meant.

This episode of Licensure Lifeline uses Pride Month as a lens to explore LGBTQ+ affirming therapy — what it means clinically, what it looks like in the room, and why it is one of the most important competencies any pre-licensed therapist can develop. Whether you are preparing for the NCE, NCMHCE, LCSW exam, or MFT exam — or simply becoming the kind of clinician your clients need you to be — this episode is essential listening.

What we cover:

🏳️‍🌈 The History — Evelyn Hooker's landmark 1957 research, the 1973 APA vote, and what the field's willingness to correct course teaches every clinician entering practice today

🧠 Vivienne Cass's Six-Stage Model of Sexual Identity Development — the most heavily tested LGBTQ+ framework on every licensing exam. We cover all six stages — Identity Confusion, Comparison, Tolerance, Acceptance, Pride, and Synthesis — with what each stage looks like clinically and what your clients actually need from you at each point in the journey

📊 Meyer's Minority Stress Model — the foundational framework for understanding why LGBTQ+ people experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide. We break down the critical distinction between distal stressors (external discrimination and rejection) and proximal stressors (internalized stigma, hypervigilance, concealment) — and why that distinction matters both clinically and on your licensing exam

🌈 LGBTQ+ Affirming Practice — What It Actually Looks Like — not the theory, the practice. Intake forms, pronoun use, asking rather than assuming, being a non-anxious presence, the power of repair. What communicates safety before a client ever sits down. What affirming practice does and does not mean — including the nuanced ethics of value-based referrals under the ACA Code of Ethics

⚠️ What Future Counselors Get Wrong — the difference between affirmation and agreement, the risk of over-identifying with LGBTQ+ clients, and why Stage 5 Pride anger is developmentally appropriate — not pathological

🎓 Five exam-style multiple choice questions at the end — covering Cass model stage identification, Meyer's minority stress model, microaggression identification, affirming practice clinical application, and ethics of value-based referrals

This episode closes with a Future Counselor Moment that speaks directly to LGBTQ+ pre-licensed therapists and allies alike — about what it means to enter a field that has caused harm and to be part of how it corrects course.

This is not an episode about political positions. It is an episode about evidence-based clinical practice. Affirming therapy represents a fundamental shift from older approaches that pathologized LGBTQ+ identities — validating and accepting clients' gender identities and sexual orientations while addressing how minority stress impacts overall wellbeing. That is the standard of care. This episode shows you how to meet it.
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Want to go deeper? This week's Licensure Lifeline newsletter covers the Cass model in full clinical detail, Meyer's minority stress model expanded, affirming practice across specific populations including transgender clients and LGBTQ+ youth, and a full clinical case vignette. Always free — link in the show notes.

Resources:

📚 Access the LGBTQ+ Affirming Practice Cheat Sheet, interactive quizzes, and full resource library
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

In 1953, a psychologist named Evelyn Hooker did something that sounds simple in retrospect. She gave a psychological test to two groups of men: the Rorschach, the Tat, the MAPS. Standard batteries. Both groups completed the same assessments under the same conditions. The difference between the groups was this. One group was gay, one group was straight. She then gave the test results, stripped of any identifying information, to a panel of expert clinicians, trained psychologists, people who read these assessments for a living. She asked them one question: which results belong to the psychologically disturbed individuals? They couldn't tell. Not because they weren't skilled, because there was nothing to find. The gay men showed no greater psychological disturbance than the straight men. The profiles were indistinguishable. Hooker published her findings in 1957, and the field did what the field often does when confronted with evidence that challenges a comfortable assumption. It largely ignored her. Because in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association had published the very first DSM. And in that manual, homosexuality was listed as a sociopathic personality disturbance. It was a diagnosis, an illness, something to be treated, something to be cured. That was the clinical consensus. And it had enormous consequences for people diagnosed for the families told their children were sick, for therapists who believed they were helping when they were causing harm. But Hooker's research didn't disappear, it accumulated. Other researchers built on it. Gay activists, many of them psychologists and psychiatrists themselves, began challenging the diagnosis from inside the field. A man named Frank Kemene, who had been fired from his federal government for being gay, stood up as an APA at an APA conference in 1971 and said something that has never been said in the room before. We are experts on our own lives. Two years later, December 15th, 1973, the APA Board of Trustees voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM. Not because the science had suddenly changed, because the science had been there for nearly two decades. What changed was who was allowed to define what mental health meant. I want you to hold that story for a moment before we go any further. Because it isn't just history. About how long it takes for evidence to overcome assumption. About what happens when the people with the most at stake are finally allowed in the room. And it's a reminder that the DSM we study today, the one on the exam, is not a fixed truth. It's a field's best current understanding, which means it has been wrong before and it will continue to evolve. The question for every clinician isn't just what does the DSM say, it's what does the human being in front of you actually need? Welcome to the Leicester Lifeline Podcast, the podcast that helps you build the clinical knowledge and confidence to pass your exam and show up well in the room. I'm Matt Lawson, and this week's episode is one I've been looking forward to. It's Pride Month, June. And rather than do a standard clinical content episode, I wanted to do something that lives at the intersection of where clinical practice, human dignity, and your development as a therapist all meet. Today we're talking about the LGBTQ affirming practice, what it means, what it looks like in the room, how it shows up in your licensing exam, and what it asks of you as a future clinician. This episode is for everyone. If you identify as LGBTQ, welcome. This one is partly about you and partly for you. If you identify as an ally, welcome. What we're covering today will make you a better clinician for some of the clients who most need your skills and affirming care. Before we get into the episode today, just a couple of announcements. Thank you for everyone that's reached out to me about the link for the online community that I've been building. Um the links should all be fixed. And again, that is for this Leicester Lifeline Circle community. Um, you can try it out for 14 days for free. Just go give it a look. Um, you know, the link should get you into the group. Um, you know, I'm I'm putting in new stuff on a pr on a pretty weekly basis. Um, definitely that everything that corresponds with each episode. Um, I will be starting up the um live sessions here pretty soon. I'm waiting for um some more people to get to join to get those going. Um, but just just go take a look. Um, it's something that I'm really hoping to build upon and make it a part of your studying experience. Um, also to go along with that, I do have a newsletter that you can take a look at as well that is free. Um, that is meant as a companion to the podcast. So the hope is that we go over things in this podcast and then we'll add some depth with the newsletter. Uh again, a really nice piece of um literature to just add to your studying process um to get that information out there. I also want to apologize for getting this episode out a bit late. Um, I was uh spending the weekend actually up um celebrating Pride with my family um in Colorado, up in the mountains. Um, if you ever get a chance to come out here for um Avon Pride in the Park, it is one of the funnest um pride events that uh Colorado celebrates. Highly, highly recommend it. Um, but we spent the entire weekend up in the mountains. It was a blast. Okay, let's get into the show. All right, first up in the news. A new study from the Kinsey Institute confirms what clinicians working with the LGBTQ populations have known for years. LGBTQ young people face some of the greatest mental health challenges of any group, with worse outcomes than their straight cisgender peers across depression, anxiety, and suicide risk. And those um disparities persist into young adulthood. The researchers link these disparities directly to rejection, discrimination, and victimization. Something we really need to keep in mind as clinicians. Um, when people from the LGBTQ community come in for support, they are dealing with a society that oftentimes is rejecting them and causing their mental health issues. And, you know, being able to be there for them and to support these individuals as we do with all marginalized communities is a huge, huge, huge, huge help. Um, you know, it's it's a part of my practice to work with individuals in the LGBTQ community. And, you know, it's it is. It's I unfortunately hear very similar stories over and over and over again, regardless of where they are, either in the mountains or like down in Denver or wherever, um, that they're dealing with communities oftentimes that are not as supportive and accepting of them. I want you to notice that the disparities here in this report aren't caused by being LGBTQ. They're caused by what happens to individuals that identify as LGBTQ, um, people in that environment that don't feel safe. And more, I think, than ever before, with the way the world is right now, um, I'm seeing more and more individuals in this community that are just struggling with just not feeling safe. Um, so you can be an advocate, you can um be clinically essential to these individuals' lives. Okay, next story. This Pride Month, the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention launched Pride Pathways, a new public resource specifically designed for LGBTQ plus suicide prevention, with national presentation, with a national presentation on June 15th and June 25th. AFSP notes that having supportive inner social circles and in communities is a protective factor against suicide for LGBTQ communities. The last part um about communities is really important to hold on to. Um, supportive community is a protective factor, not a nice thing to have. Um, you know, then this is something that you're going to see a lot in your practice. Um, you know, when we get people involved in communities that support them, that are inclusive, um, their outcomes become um improve, right? Um, you know, and this goes for every everyone. Um, so many individuals I see come in and they just have very little social interaction. Um, they they don't, especially adults, they just so many of them just don't have regular um community activity. And, you know, especially for people in the LGBTQ plus communities, um, helping them, supporting them in and getting connected to other individuals that can support them, that can relate to them is just going to help their outcomes. All right, let's get into the main topic today. Um, we're gonna start with the CAS model of sexual identity development. When an LGBTQ client walks into your office, what are they walking in with? Not just their presenting concern, their history, their relationship with other with their own identity, the journey they're taking to get here, or the journey they're still in the middle of. And understanding that journey isn't just culturally competent, it's clinically necessary because where someone is in their own identity development shapes everything. What they need from you, what they can hear, what feels helpful and feels like a threat. In 1979, a researcher named Vivian Cass proposed a model of homosexual identity formation that became one of the most influential frameworks in the LGBTQ community, affirming practice. And while the field has evolved significantly since then, the Cass model remains the most heavily tested identity development framework on every licensure exam. Here's the model, six stages, and I want to give you a more than just the names. So in stage one, you have identity confusion. Something doesn't quite fit. A person begins to notice thoughts, feelings, or attractions that don't match the identity they've been assuming for themselves. The question underneath this stage is could I be gay? What this looks like clinically, distress, denial, avoidance, the person may be actively trying to not think about what they're thinking about. They may present with anxiety, depression, or vague distress without naming a source. They may not even be consciously aware of what is driving this discomfort. What they need from you, a safe, non-judgmental space, not pressure, not premature labeling. Um, the therapeutic relationship needs to be sturdy enough to hold whatever emerges. This is such a significant piece here. Um, because you have to imagine somebody coming in with thoughts that up to this point, you know, society, you know, the that family that they grew up in potentially, um, you know, it doesn't quite align with what they've been taught. And so there are a lot of questions, and they need a safe space to explore these questions and a person that can sit across from them in a non-judgmental way and really listen to them. Stage two, identity comparison. The question shifts from could I be to maybe I am. There's a tentative acceptance of the possibility, but it comes with a profound sense of social alienation. Everyone around me is straight. Where do I fit? What this looks like clinically is often isolation, grief, a sense of being fundamentally different from everyone the person loves. Sometimes a desperate search for information, reading, researching, looking for others who feel the same way. And you know, everybody's experience is different. Um, you know, it's uh I probably unfortunately hear a lot more people that lean toward the side of, you know, I wasn't raised this way, my family doesn't have these values. Um, you know, I'm I'm different than them. Um, you know, but also every once in a while I get somebody that, you know, is fortunately raised in a family that is extremely accepting and open and supportive of their exploration of identity. Um, so you know, it it is like no assumptions here. We just again are creating space. Stage three, identity tolerance. I'm probably gay, not fully accepted, tolerated. The person begins seeking out other LGBTQ people, primarily to reduce isolation, but there's still a significant gap between their public and private identity. Um, out to some people, not to others, living in two different worlds. This is another one that I've seen people really struggle with, another stage that I've seen people really struggle with. Um, you know, I see people come up to a certain point and you know they seek out individuals, but they still have a kind of like almost alter ego where they're straight presenting, um, maybe in their jobs or in their homes. And it's really, it's really tough to watch sometimes because it's you can see just the battle in their minds between these two places where they are are holding these two different identities and that sometimes feel like they're in opposition. In a clinical sense, you're gonna see compartmentalization, um, relief in some context, but also exhaustion, kind of like what I was saying, right? Stage four, identity acceptance. Um, this is where you hope people like start to get to, right? The private identity is increasingly accepted, and the gap between public and private begins to close. The person may be coming out more broadly to friends, family, colleagues, positive contacts with the LGBTQ community increases. This stage often brings significant relief. And I this that cannot be stated. Um, people getting to this stage where they're able to open up a bit more, and it's kind of cool because you see individuals that you know maybe get involved with a community that are that that haven't quite hit this stage, and they start to meet other people that can relate to them and that they can relate to. Um, and that uh, you know, a lot of the times gives them more confidence to open up to others. And it's really neat to see that relief that comes with this. Stage five, um, this is identity pride. Something shifts in this stage. A person moves from private acceptance to public ownership. There's often anger at the system and people that are required to hide in the first place, and a strong sense of identification with the LGBT, LGBTQ plus community, um, us versus them, my community versus the world. And that didn't affirm me. In in a clinical sense, this often looks like advocacy, um, visibility, sometimes conflict with family or institution. Um, you know, I'm saying these pieces, these clinical pieces for you know what might show up in in the room when you're working with an individual that are is maybe going through these stages or comes to you in the midst of one of these stages. Like these are the types of things that you'll see them talk about. And stage six, identity synthesis. The gay or lesbian um individual ident the gay or lesbian identity is no longer a defining identity, it's one part of a whole, a complex self. The usver them framework softens. The person can hold positive views of both LGBTQ and some non-LGBT LGBTQ plus people and institutions. Identity feels integrated rather than compartmentalized. Okay. What this looks like clinically, psychological integration, less energy spent managing identity, more comp more capacity for full engagement in relationships, work and meaning. So, what this model really shows, and what I want you to see underneath the six stages, the caste model is not really a model about sexual orientation. It's a model about relationships between a person's internal experience and their social world. At every stage, the person is navigating a gap between who they know themselves to be and who the world around them assumes they are. The psychological work for each stage is about closing the gap, finding safety, finding community, finding integration that's not unique to the LGBTQ community and the identity and development that goes on there. That's the work of every marginalized identity navigating a world that wasn't built with them in mind. Which means the caste model teaches you something about clinical work that goes far beyond the LGBTQ community. Um, it teaches you to ask, what is the gap this person is navigating between their internal experience and their external world? Right? You know, this is this is what we're looking for. We're looking for these gaps in that, you know, the things that don't align in a person's life. And, you know, like this is saying, you know, this isn't just about the LGBTQ plus community. Um, these are for everybody that feels marginalized in a world that, you know, isn't quite made for them. And, you know, this are a lot of the themes, these stages are a lot of the themes that are gonna come up for all of these individuals. So let's talk about what an affirming practice really looks like. And let me be specific, because affirming practice is one of those terms that can sound obvious until you actually try to do it. It starts before the first session. Your intake forms, your website, your waiting room, all of it communicates something before you've said a word. Does your intake form include options for gender identity beyond male and female? Does it ask for preferred name or pronouns? Does your website use language that signals inclusivity? These aren't just nice gestures. They're clinical decisions that affect whether someone decides to come back after their first appointment. You gotta get this right from the get-go. I mean, that's that's what this is saying. Um, you know, it's it is we are in the in the in the world, in the practice of creating safe spaces for people. And it's not just when they're sitting in front of us, it's showing them from the get-go, showing them from the beginning from that first call that they make to the office. And granted, like, you know, coming into the field, you're not gonna have too much um control over this, but um, you can look at practices and look at places that you want to work um and be able to say, like, hey, is this a place that I want to work based on what they have going on here? So you just don't want to assume a client's sexual orientation or gender identity from their presentation um or their relationships. Um, don't assume a client's partner is the same gender, gender as their previous partner. Don't assume coming out is a is complete because a client is openly gay in one context. Assumption is not good. Um yeah, I should have said that more elegantly. Um, but assumption really, and uh again, for so many areas of the work that we do here, we don't want to make assumptions, folks. We just we don't like there's like you need to get to know the person, you need to get their own words, you need to get their pronouns, you need to get how people identify, all the people that we work with. Um making assumptions, I've I've experienced it myself early on in my career. Um, making assumptions never works out. I shouldn't say never, oftentimes doesn't work out um the way that we thought it was going to. Um, I wish I could give an example, nothing's coming to me off the top of my head. So we need to ask questions. Ask gently, ask directly, and with genuine curiosity. How do you identify? What pronouns do you use? Is there anything about your identity that feels important for me to understand as we work together? These questions don't just gather information, they they signal that you're a clinician who can't. Can handle the answer. All right, let's go into minority stress. Ian Meyer's Minority Stress Model, published in 2003, now a foundation, foundation in foundational instrument in the LGBTQ mental health community, explains the health disparities we talked about in the news segment. LGBTQ people experience unique stressors that are directly related to their stigmatized social status. These include distress, um distal stressors, external events like discrimination, violence, and rejection, and proximity stressors, internal experiences like internalized homophobia, expectations of rejections, and concealment. The cumulative effects of these stressors on top of general stressors everyone experiences, it is what drives the mental health disparities, not identity itself. That's the stigma, right? Um, what this means clinically, when an LGBT LGBTQ plus clinic um client presents with anxiety, depression, or trauma symptoms, the minority stress context is always relevant. The question isn't just what happened to the person, it's what it has been like for that person as they walk through the world. Um, some clinicians get nervous around LGBTQ content, afraid of saying the wrong thing, asking the wrong question, using the wrong language. That anxiety is understandable and it can get in the way. LGBTQ clients can feel clinicians' discomfort, and discomfort communicates you're not safe here. The goal isn't perfection. When we work with anybody, you will occasionally use the wrong pronoun, stumble over terminology, not know a reference the client makes. What matters is how you respond. A clinician who says, I used the wrong pronoun just now. Thank you for your patience with me, is doing something important. You're modeling repair. They're showing that the relationship is strong enough to hold in perfection. Okay, so let's get a bit into exam strategies here. Um here's how LGBTQ affirming practice shows up on the licensure exams. The most common exam trap, a vignette, describes an LGBTQ client presenting with dis depression, anxiety, or relationship concerns. One answer choice addresses the identity itself as the clinical issue. Another focuses on the presenting concern within the affirming frame. The correct answer almost always focuses on the presenting concern, not the identity. Being gay is not a diagnosis. Being trans is not a diagnosis. An LGBTQ client who presents with depression has depression, which may be related to minority stress, family rejection, or any number of things. The clinician's job is to explore that, not to treat the identity. The cast model on the exam, exams love to give you a behavioral description and ask you to identify the stage. Here's the quick guide. So stage one, confusion, does not does doesn't know denying distressed by the question. In stage two of the cast model, that's comparison. Um accepts the possibility but feels alienated and alone. Stage three, this is tolerance, probably true, seeking community, still compartmentalizing. Stage four, acceptance, accepting privately, coming out more broadly, managing reactions. Stage five is pride. Um, often met with anger, advocate advocating strong community identification, us vers them. Stage six, synthesis, integrated identity is one part of a whole self. Let's us verse them. The exam trap in stage identification, confusing stage five pride with pathology. Um, anger as systems that anger at systems that causes harm is a healthy and appropriate response. It's not a clinical concern. It's a stage. Don't choose answers that pathologize it. Then with the Myers minority stress model, know the distinction between distal and proximal stressors. Distal equals external events, discrimination, rejection, violence, uh, microaggressions, proximital, proximal equals internal experiences, internalized stigma, um, expectations of rejection and concealment. Both are clinically relevant, both contribute to the health disparities, and both are testable. All right, let's get into some multiple choice questions. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from the DSM. Which of the following most accurately describes the primary basis for this decision? Is it A, a change in social attitudes made by the diagnosis politically um politically unattainable? B, research, including Evelyn Hook's landmark study, has demonstrated no inherent psychological disturbance associated with associated with homosexuality. C. New medications made treatment for homosexuality ineffective, or D. The Supreme Court required the APA to revise the its diagnostic criteria. Answer here is gonna be B. Evelyn Hook's research, along with accumulating evidence from other researchers over nearly two decades, demonstrated she demonstrated that gay men showed no greater psychological disturbance than straight men on standard psychological assessments. Question number two A 19-year-old client presents to therapy with vague anxiety and difficulty concentrating. During the second session, she discloses that she has been having romantic feelings for her female roommate and is confused and distressed by this. She says, I've never thought about girls before. I don't know what's wrong with me. According to Vivian Cass's model of sexual identity development, this client is most likely in which stage? A.d. B. Identity comparison, C Identity Confusion, or D. Identity Pride. The answer here is gonna be C. Identity confusion. The defining feature of stage one is the question: could I be gay? The client is experiencing distress about the possibility. Not because being gay is inherently distressing, but because it doesn't match her assumed identity. She hasn't yet moved to the tentative acceptance, to tentative acceptance. She's still asking the question. The phrase, I don't know what's wrong with me, is classic stage one presentation. Question number three. A gay male client in therapy describes feeling exhausted from constantly evaluating whether new people in his life are safe to come he to come out to. He monitors his speech, adjusts his behavior, and manages others' potential reactions. According to Meyer's minority stress model, this experience is best understood as an example of a a distal stressor, external discrimination, B a proximal stressor, expectations of rejection and hypervigilance, C an internalized internalized homophobia, negative self-evaluation, or D, identity confusion, uncertainty about sexual orientation. The answer here is going to be B. Meyer's minority stress model distinguishes between distal stressors, external events like discrimination and violence, and proximal stressors, internal experiences like expectations of rejection, hypervigilance and concealment. This client isn't describing an external discriminatory event. He's describing the internal vigilance and exhaustion that comes from anticipating potential rejection. Question number four. A therapist is working with a 24-year-old lesbian client who recently came out publicly and has become heavily involved in the LGBT LGBTQ advocacy. The client expresses significant anger toward her parents and religious communities for not being affirming during her teenage years. The most clinically appropriate response is to a gently challenge the client's anger as disproportionate given that her parents were acting from their own cultural context. B refer to refer the client to a support group to process her anger with peers rather than in individual therapy. C recognize the anger as a developmentally appropriate response consistent with identity pride, stage five of the caste model. Or D. Explore whether the client's anger is masking unresolved grief about her childhood. Answer here is gonna be C. Stage five of the caste model, identity pride, is characterized by anger at the system and people that required concealment, strong LGBTQ plus community identification and us versus them framework. This is a developmentally appropriate, not pathological reaction. Option A pathologizes a healthy response to real harm. Option B is avoidant and would be experienced as rejection. And option D may have clinical merit eventually, but choosing it here treats the anger as a problem to be explained away rather than a stage to be understood. Question number five. A pre-licensed therapist who holds conservative religious beliefs is assigned an openly gay male client. The therapist is concerned about whether she can provide affirming care while maintaining her personal values. The most ethically appropriate course of action is to a disclose her religious beliefs to the client in the first session so he can make an informed decision about continuing. B refer the client to another therapist because her personal values are incompatible with affirming practice. C. Consult with a supervisor about how to provide competent affirming care while managing her own values and continue to treat and continue treatment unless the values conflict and raise it to the level of clinical incompetence. Or D proceed with the treatment without disclosing her values, personal beliefs, or relevant um understandings. The answer here is going to be C. This is a nuanced ethical question. The ACA Code of Ethics prohibits referral based solely on clinical personal values when refer when referrals would harm the client. And in this case, the client hasn't presented any concerns related to his sexual orientation. The most appropriate response is supervision and consultation. That is going, I'm telling you right now, that is going to be the answer to so many of these questions on the test. Um, it's gonna come down to just go talk to your supervisor and get some consultation. The therapist can hold personal religious beliefs and still provide affirming care. The two are not inherently incompatible. Got it? All right. Okay, before we conclude today, I want to speak directly to you for a moment. If you identify as LGBTQ, you may have listened to this episode with a particular kind of attention. Because this isn't just clinical content for you. It's the story of a field that once called you disordered. That used to be that used the tools of psychology to cause harm to people like you, and that has spent the last 50 years trying to reckon with that. You're entering a field at a complicated moment. The science is clear. Affirming practice is evidence-based practice, but the political and cultural landscape around LGBTQ identities is charged in ways that will sometimes make your work harder. You may encourage, um, you may encounter supervisors, colleagues, institutions whose views don't align with affirming care. You may be asked to navigate that tension before you feel equipped to. You are not obligated to remain silent in those spaces. You are also not obligated to martyr yourself. This is a long game. Find your people and build your community and remember that being a clinician who affirms LGBTQ clients is not a political position. It is an evidence-based clinical stance. Um, if you identify as an ally, thank you for showing up for this episode. Whatever what we've covered today will make you a better clinician for some of the clients who most need skilled, thoughtful care. And here's what I want you to know: the work of becoming an affirming clinician isn't completed when you learn the cast model or memorizing the APA guidelines. It is completed in the room, one relationship at a time. When a client who has been told by the world that they are wrong or broken or disordered sits across from you and experiences something different. That's the work. And it matters more than you know. And that's gonna be it, folks. Um, happy Pride Month. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Um, LGBTQ or Allied or somewhere beautifully in between. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad you're becoming the kind of therapist who shows up for all of this. Um, we need you. And, you know, take a look again for the newsletter. Um, please, please, please pass this podcast along. Um, if you were finding this beneficial, somebody else might find this beneficial as well. Um, let's let's grow the community. And, you know, if this can help out somebody else to become an amazing therapist, yes, um, let's do that. Um, you know, reach out to me through um licerlifeline at gmail.com if you have any questions, comments. Um, you want me to um, you know, if there's a topic you want me to cover, just uh shoot me an email. Um, but until next time, everyone, never stop learning.