Advanced Clinical Practice with LGBTQ Populations
MSW Course, New York University, Silver School of Social Work, 2027
Instructor and Course Developer. This course supports students in developing thoughtful, grounded approaches to practice across micro and macro settings with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/gender expansive, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. With attention to critical intersectional analysis, students will examine the histories of how sexual and gender identities have been constructed, how they are regulated, and how they continue to be lived today – alongside how these realities shape client experiences, therapeutic relationships, and broader systems of care. Drawing from sociopolitical and decolonial frameworks, this course invites students to critically reflect on their own positionalities and to engage in practices attuned to both structural harm and collective strategies of endurance and care. Attention is given to the impacts of systemic violence and marginalization, including minority stress, alongside possibilities for joy and solidarity. Resilience among marginalized communities will additionally be explored as a contested concept, with attention not only to how it can obscure structural violence, but also to what it means to affirm survival in clinical work with care and accountability to the communities we aim to support.