Pride Counseling :: Reading List

These tried-and-true Pride Counseling titles now available
through Amazon.com:

	How Homophobia Hurts Children A comprehensive look at the overwhelming challenges facing GLBT youth: offers concrete steps for making homes, schools and communities safer for all. A plainly written step-by-step call to arms for the youth who cannot break the silence by themselves.
	Out of the Closet Into Our Hearts: Celebrating Our Gay/Lesbian Family Members Reading "Out of the Closet Into Our Hearts" is a joyful experience. All too often, books and stories about gay family members who come out to their straight family members are about coping with the experience instead of celebrating it. Gay family members have added much happiness to many lives. This book tells stories of family members who have had many positive experiences because of a gay sibling, child, parent, cousin, or other loved ones. It simply was an incredible book and a must for everyone. It will certainly open your eyes and your heart.
	Beyond Acceptance : Parents of Lesbians & Gays Talk About Their Experiences Various people speak about how they came to their misinformed views about gayness, their religious beliefs, their fears that friends will abandon them after finding out about their child's homosexuality, and their anxieties about AIDS. Often people find similar solutions to their problems, and sometimes different ones, but in all cases the message is that understanding, love, and a need to own up to, and dispense with, ignorant homophobic attitudes can bring families back together in a wholesome and nurturing manner. Frank, informed, and filled with insights and practical suggestions.
	Gay Fathers: Encouraging the Hearts of Gay Dads and Their Families Written from a therapeutic and academic perspective and filled with the insights of gay fathers themselves, as well as the authors (Bryan Robinson is a professor of child and family development, Robert Barret a professor and psychologist), Gay Fathers draws on new research to explain the difficulties that gay men face in parenting, and the ways in which their own feelings about their sexuality can affect their relationships with their children.
	Accepting Ourselves and Others : A Journey into Recovery from Addictive and Compulsive Behaviors for Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals in a fully revised and expanded second edition. accepting ourselves & others examines recovery as it affects gay lesbian, and bisexual people, as well as their friends, families, and therapists. the authors address the relationship between substance abuse and being in a sexual minority, as well as the impact of anxiety, depression sexual abuse and learning disabilities. Many therapists have made this book their "basic text". The workbook format is excellent for working the steps.
	Being Homosexual : Gay Men and Their Development Many psychiatrists still tend to view homosexuality as an emotional disturbance arising from unsatisfactory childhood relations with parents. Disputing them, Isay, a psychiatrist who has treated gay men for more than 20 years, views his patients' homosexual orientation as totally normal, nonpathological and constitutional in origin. In this succinct, clearly written volume, he maps the developmental stages in the gay male's life cycle.
	Couple Therapy with Gay Men "Among the numerous books on couples therapy it can safely be said that none match Couple Therapy with Gay Men in scope or depth....We are provided a step-by-step narrative of an exciting behavioral process, rooted in Minuchin's structural theory of family therapy, which aims at corrective experiences and personal growth through an interactive, here-and-now process. This program, richly illustrated by case examples, offers some valuable pointers, some directed specifically at gay therapists working with gay couples.
	Gay Men Choosing Parenthood Using a "decidedly gay-affirming lens" that does not assume heterosexuality is the norm, Mallon's study of gay parenthood employs case studies and interviews to illuminate its subject. Focusing on dads in New York and Los Angeles and using cogent, non-technical prose, Mallon explores issues such as the initial reactions to bringing a new child home, community responses to gay dads and gender politics.
	Peculiar People: Mormons and Same-Sex Orientation This book is must read for anyone struggling with sexual identity while still trying to maintain a love of God and church. Whether you are Mormon or belong to another faith this book is equally as powerful. Through the essays of gay people, their families, spouses, and clergy members, Peculiar People portrays the painful choices sometimes chosen by, and sometimes forced upon, those whose only sin is loving the "wrong" people. This is the book that every person who is struggling with being both Gay and Mormon. It gives a history of the church's policies on homosexuals, and accounts of some of the members of the church who are same sex-oriented.
	Two Flutes Playing "We had many saints, many heroes, both female and male, but I want to speak here of the saints and heroes of the gay tribes. For this is a period of human history that has been lost through time, whose return is vitally needed. For you know the heroes of the other tribes. But of this small, sacred tribe, whose history has been obscured, you remember nothing." So tells acclaimed author Andrew Ramer in Two Flutes Playing. Within these pages can be found insight and wisdom. Ramer serves as a mythologist for gay men, providing evidence to the harmony of gender, love and sex.
	Gay Soul : Finding the Heart of Gay Spirit and Nature with Sixteen Writers, Healers, Teachers Gay spirituality and sensibility come to light in these pages of striking portraits and trenchant interviews. Thompson brings out the unique contributions of the esteemed gay men – including Will Roscoe, Joseph Kramer, Harry Hay, James Broughton, Andrew Harvey, Paul Monette, Malcolm Boyd, Clyde Hall and Ram Dass – who lead the spiritual life. Thompson elicits vivid musings on such provocative issues as the third gender, S&M, ritual as ‘holy fire’, and spirituality in the age of AIDS. His interviews call out the deepest emotions of each of these vibrant leaders who reveal, as never before, the spirit and the soul of the gay life.
	Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture Walter L. Williams's excellent research has produced one of the most extensive studies of the berdache culture among Native Americans. Unlike the larger American society, Native Americans historically have respected, and in many tribal nations venerated, homosexuals. Williams explains the berdache as a custom, its social roles, and the berdache history, including its introduction to the European concept of sin and intolerance of sexual diversity. The word berdache applies almost exclusively to males, mainly because historical records only relate dealings with aboriginal males, but Williams also includes a chapter on female sexual diversity, using the word amazon to describe these often warriorlike women.
	Sex and Spirit : Exploring Gay Men's Spirituality Sex and Spirit is an exciting and provocative collection of essays. James Arimond discovers a 12th century monastic community based on man-to-man love. Laurence Hermsen reveals the shamanic foundation of The Wizard of Oz, and invites us all to follow the Yellow Brick Road. Buddhist priest Tundra Wind offers Zen as a tradition in which gay men can flourish. Michael Clark offers an ecotheology for our time. Joseph Kramer explores a healthy sexuality and how it brings healing to the whole person.
	Owning Your Own Shadow : Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche by Robert Johnson. The shadow in Jungian psychology is the unconscious dumping ground for undesirable characteristics of personality. "Owning" the shadow--accepting it as part of one's self--is seen as the first step toward wholeness. Using examples from history, mythology, and religion, Johnson, author of Inner Work and Transformation, offers a tour of the shadow, showing its origin and features, and demonstrating how and why it bursts into consciousness when least expected. Outstanding, must-read!
	Inner Work : Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for Personal Growth and Integration by Robert Johnson. In this book Johnson introduces a simple four-step method aimed at helping us explore the unconscious using our dreams. He encourages us to pinpoint the symbols that appear in our dreams and active imaginings. By providing clear instructions, with illustrations, he gives us a feeling for inner work, making it feasible without reliance on formal analysis. An excellent must-read companion to Owning Your Own Shadow
	Facing the Shadow: Starting Sexual and Relationship Recovery Facing the Shadow is an exciting hands-on process in which to experience healing. It will challenge the reader and offer the opportunity to embrace recovery. With new innovative research and experiential reflective materials, this practical workbook will serve as an excellent tool. The author remains the guru of the sex addiction field. This book is a step-by-step path to breaking free of sex addiction.
	Crucial Confrontations The authors of the New York Times best-seller "Crucial Conversations" show you how to achieve personal, team, and organizational success by healing broken promises, resolving violated expectations, and influencing bad behavior Discover skills to resolve touchy, controversial, and complex issues at work and at home. A great book to heighten awareness of why we don't speak up when we should. Also, when we do speak up, are we so aggressive that other's are brought to silence? Hands-on, practical, a must-read!
	In the Shadows of the Net : Breaking Free of Compulsive Online Sexual Behavior By Patrick Carnes. The Internet is a fascinating place, but for too many people, it is also fraught with danger, as they are sex addicts, and the Internet can become a sex addict's paradise. This book was highly readable, not too complex but didn't talk down to the reader, and includes exercises to help the cybersex addict get started on his/her recovery. If it has a flaw, it is that the authors' definition of sobriety is a little murky. Still, this is a very helpful book, with plenty of examples from real-life addicts. Should be read by everyone who compulsively uses the Internet for sexual gratification.