Lesbians and Lesbian Families: Reflections on Theory and Practice

Edited by Joan Laird

Paper, 384 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-10253-7
$33.00 / £19.50

March, 1999
Cloth, 384 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-10252-0
$82.00 / £48.00

This cutting-edge collection of articles examines the sociocultural context of the lives of lesbians and lesbian families and reveals how new insights about lesbian identities, experiences, and relationships can be integrated into clinical theory and practice. A family therapist, Joan Laird presents several clinical approaches to working with lesbians as individuals and in couple and parenting relationships and to viewing sexual orientation in its full complexity of race, class, gender, and cultural identity.

Rich with clinical case studies and research on the everyday lives of lesbian families, this book includes chapters on the strategic language of self-disclosure, the family lives of lesbian mothers, and lesbian mothers who “come out” to their adolescent children.

Related Subjects

• Social Work

About the Author

Joan Laird is professor emerita of Smith College School for social work, where she chaired the Human Behavior in the Social Environment sequence. Her most recent book (coedited with Robert-Jay Green) isLesbians and Gays in Couples and Families: A Handbook for Therapists.

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