Counseling and Sexual Orientation

Counseling and Sexual Orientation

Introduction

Sexual identity or orientation is a complex concept that is used to describe the degree to which a person indentifies in respect to biological and social aspects of being man or woman. The most important aspect of sexual identity is the sexual orientation, which is based on the point that to whom a person is emotionally attached or physically attracted. Therefore, in this paper two different articles summary is presented that based on Counseling and Sexual Orientation. Thus, in this regard, the two articles selected for the review are 'Examining School Counseling Students; Multicultural and Sexual Orientation competencies through a Cross-Specialization Comparison' by M. P. Bidell (2012), whereas, the second article is 'Older Adults and Sexuality: Implications for Counseling Ethnic and Sexual Minority Clients' by A. K. Muzacz and A. M. A. Smith (2013).

In both the articles, the idea is to highlight the social how much sexual orientation is critical to a personal identity, therefore, two different sectors of the society selected. One article based on the school going children and the other one associated with the adults.

First Research Study

The first article that is by Bidell initiated the paper with the point that Specialized school counselors have an opportunity to directly address the emotional, social and educational problems that in reality faced by LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and also questioning to youth as well. Therefore, the function of the study was to emphasize and look at the sexual orientation and multicultural counselor competencies of school counseling students through a detailed cross-specialization assessment in relation to the community agency students. However, the results of the study showed that school counseling students had comparatively lesser sexual orientation counselor competency score in relation to self-reported multicultural.

The introduction of the article is very specific yet comprehensive because the researcher incorporated all the relevant background as per the title. Through the research it has been revealed that LGBT youth continuously facing different problems in terms of education, emotional and social. Whereas, schools are the places where situation can get worse or even violent for LGBT youth. The trend that has been witnessed is that majority of LGBT youth experience one or the other form of verbal harassment, sexual harassment, bullying or physical assault that is linked with their sexual orientation and gender identity. Therefore, due to this reason, the specialized role of School counselors is more critical because by desirable quality of their operational atmosphere and specialized role, school counselor posted specifically to provide assistance and support to LGBT youth and address multiple problem that the LGBT youth facing now a days. American School Counselor Association developed Ethical Standard for School Counselors stated that in to regulateand to fulfill the requirements of LGBT early stages, specialized educated counselors must be acquiring significant experience as per their education, consultation and instruction to get better information, skills, awareness and educational efficiency in working with completely diverse population that is related to radical/ethnic standing, sexual orientation and gender ...