Authenticity in the Face of Stigma: Challenges for MAPs, Clinicians, and Researchers

Saturday, April 15, 2023, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Baltimore, MD

This workshop focused on:

  • the challenges MAPs face living with their secret amid all the stigmatizing messages from the media, politicians, and even family and friends who are unaware of their secret.
  • hurdles to authenticity in client-therapist relationships due to MAP fears that simply disclosing their thoughts and feelings of affection and attraction to minors might result in them being reported or condemned by the therapist, or in therapy becoming focused on protecting minors from the MAP client rather than on their needs, such as addressing depression, anxiety, or the challenge of relationships while concealing their sexuality.
  • the tension between therapists’ role as mandated reporters and their desire to build trusting relationships with their clients.
  • the challenges MAPs face in their relationships with family, friends, co-workers, particularly in deciding whom to trust enough to disclose their secret to, the risks of such disclosure, the difficulties faced by those they disclose to, and the complex issues that can occur when some members of a family know the secret and others do not.
  • The “courtesy stigma” experienced by researchers and therapists who publicly state facts about MAPs and support them, sometimes resulting in public condemnation, threats, and loss of employment.

Social workers and psychologists who attended received 5.5 CEUs.