Therapist sexual orientation, gender, and counseling practices as they relate to ratings of helpfulness by gay and lesbian clients

Three hundred ninety-two lesbian and gay volunteers described their experiences with 923 therapists, reporting therapist sexual orientation, therapist gender, and perceived helpfulness of the therapist in each case. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual therapists of both genders and heterosexual female therapists were all rated more helpful than heterosexual male therapists. Participants also reported whether each therapist exhibited 9 negative and 4 positive practices. Relative risk ratios indicated that 8 of the 9 negative therapist practices were significantly associated with (a) client designation of a therapist as unhelpful and (b) termination after 1 session. All 4 of the positive practices were inversely associated both with unhelpful ratings and with termination after 1 session. Therapist practices accounted for more of the variance in ratings of helpfulness than did therapist demographic characteristics.