Initial Assessment and Screening with LGBTQ Clients: A Critical Perspective

Counseling with people that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ), or who are otherwise nonheterosexual or cisgender identified, should be based on a critical approach to assessment. Although general competencies have been articulated, further guidance is needed to help counselors avoid hetero-normative and cisgender biases in their assessment practice. The authors provide recommendations, based on critical review of the literature, for how counselors can address biases in assessment and screening tools in work with LGBTQ clients.