Psychologist Svetlana Clivadă: Such trainings help teachers and psychologists to work with LGBT adolescents

At the end of January, in the auditorium of Centru Prefecture of Chișinău, with the concent of the District Board of Education, was held a seminar for teachers and psychologists from schools, childrens’s centres and organisations on the topic “Important aspects of works with LGBT adolescents”. Often these people – teachers and psychologists – are more capable of having a heart-to-heart talk with teenagers than their immersed-in-the-work parents. And it’s exactly during the coming of age period some children may find out that they are different from their peers, and the surrounding world – friends, school and even family – may be able to understand and accept that difference.  Teachers and psychologists should help the children to find the rights path so that they disn’t harm their psychological and psysical health if pushed to the limit. The seminar facilitators, the community centre coordinator Natalia Esmanciuc and the GENDERDOC-M staff psychologist Svetlana Clivadă, told the attendees about sexual orientations and gender identitis, by what charectistics one cand detect if a teenager is facing identity problems, behavioural issues with classmates and friends who may have a clue about his or her homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender identity. Much of the information delivered was new for participants because in their practice the child psycholgists operate with a limited range of teenage issues: problems with mates, domestic violence, impact of single-parent familis, dysfunctional families and, of course, the control over intellectual and psychical development. At the same time, the potential homosexuality, bisexuality and trangender identities as the cause of teenage issues are overlooked or even ignored. According to Natalia Esmanciuc, the seminar participants at fist couldnțt understand why they needed a semina on ”such” topic: what kind of sexuality-related problems can teenages have if they haven’t ripened yet? Their opinion changed instantly after the only trivial example brought during the seminar. Here’s a seemingly happy, from all points of view, teenager who suddenly refuses to attend physical education lessons. Perhaps, this might be caused by his homosexuality. In a room full of boys he – not being a mature person capable of controlling his physiology – may get arousal. He’s ashamed of it; he’s afraid of mockery or even violence from the classmates. The participants agreed that something like this might be possible, and there were no other objectives regarding the seminar’s topic. The audience revived and even somewhat was shocked when they were offered the opportunity to assist at the public coming out of a young man present in the auditorium, who stood up and said loudly: “Good afternoon! My name is Alexandr, and I am 23. I am gay!” Alexandr told the story of how he realised he was different from many of his peers and what stages he had to pass to understand his “ailment”. First, he searched for some information in the Internet, and then he turned to the GENDERDOC-M psychologist. Alexandr also told the audience how he had come out to his mother and best friend, and how relatives perceived his homosexuality. Later Alexandr shared his impressions of the seminar: “When I said I was gay, I could feel the tension in the audience, a couple of people even “insensibly” changed seats. Concurrently, the atmosphere remained friendly The seminar participants asked many questions, thanked for explications and said that the information received would considerable help them in work”.   Asking the question to what extent child psychologists and techers would be readu to apply in practice received knowledge, the GENDERDOC-M psychologist Svetlana Clivadă said: “I don’t think everyone present at the seminar were prepared to positively receive the information. To comprehend it they need time as well. At the same time, several listeners had already possessed some information because they had LGBT people among their acquaintances. For the time being, the child psychology doesn’t possess particular techniques of identifying and working with LGBT teenagers. However, if an incident with the child (he or she will be mocked, humiliated or bullied) who is allegedly LGBT occurs, the professional will know it already how to react and, most likely, will apply the received knowledge.  A similar situation occurred when we trained army psychologists. Everyone goes all the way from the stage of bewilderment to analysing and accepting information. The biggest plus of such seminars is that the participating professionals raise their awareness and thus become armed with necessary knowledge”. Svetlana BURLAC 2014-02-12