April 25, Alla Viktorivna Vozniuk, Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Psychology, Political Science and Socio-Cultural Technologies Department, organized and conducted a guest lecture on "Psychological Counseling for Clients of Different Social Categories" for applicants of the PL-11 group, specialty 053 Psychology, as part of the study of the educational component "Psychological Counseling".

The guest lecturer was Maryna Koval, a practical psychologist who specializes in working with LGBT and other vulnerable groups; a full member of the National Psychological Association, a certified counselor for working with LGBT+ clients; completed advanced training in the program "Psychiatric Propaedeutics", completed the course "Trauma Focused Therapy", which is approved by the Professional League of Trauma Therapists, continues her training as a trauma therapist and is a student of the program "Trauma Therapy".

The lecture covered the following main issues: individual psychological characteristics of LGBT+ people; basic requests in the work of a psychologist with LGBT+ clients; specifics of the work of an LGBT+-friendly psychologist; principles and rules of counseling work with LGBT+ families.

During the lesson, the lecturer focused on theoretical issues of the discipline, in particular, the content of the main concepts of the topic was substantiated: tolerance, LGBT+, gender identity, homophobia, coming out, outing, etc. A group discussion was held with students about the existing myths of homosexuality and the phenomenon of homosexuality was described in detail. In her speech, the lecturer noted that the main requests that clients make to a psychologist are related to their orientation (external homophobia, internal homophobia, exploring their own sexual orientation, finding a partner, LGB marriage and LGB parenthood, etc.) and not directly related to orientation (experience of violence, problems in a PTSD/kPTSD couple, depression, anxiety disorder, MRA, etc.) The system of diagnostic methods used to determine the level of the problem in clients was singled out and characterized as a separate issue. The specifics and problems of LGB parenthood were also discussed. During the lesson, Maryna Koval gave examples from her own practical work, engaged students in an effective dialogue on the specifics of the work of an LGBT+-friendly psychologist and why tolerance alone is not enough...

The lecture was organized in accordance with the accreditation requirements of the NAACP and with the aim of familiarizing students with the specifics of the work of a practical psychologist in the field of psychological counseling.