An ever-growing number of gay and lesbian couples search for psycotherapeutic help. Some of the problems for which homosexual couples seek therapeutic help are not very different from those experienced by heterosexual couples, while other issues are unique and peculiar to gay and lesbian partners.

 

The goal of this work is to furnish therapists, who work with homosexual clients, some suggestions about the assessment and the tools to help their clients to resolve the difficulties encountered during the treatment.

 

We’ll discuss how therapist should assess the level of internalized homophobia with instruments like SIOIL (Italian Internalized Homophobia Scale for Lesbian) and SIOIG (Italian Internalized Homophobia Scale for Gay) since homophobia can strongly interfere with a serene lovelife. Regarding the treatment, we’ll show how to overcome difficulties to make them understand that construction of their relationship on the basis of the heterosexual couple’s model does not work for them. The therapist should know how to motivate gay and lesbian couples to promote a new model, different from the heterosexual one, that fits both the individuals in the couple, outside culture stereotypes.