Palo Alto, California, August 23, 2019 – Adam A. Neal, M.A., AMFT/APCC, an alumnus of Sofia University’s Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program and current adjunct faculty member at Sofia, had his article published in the July/August issue of The Therapist, a statewide professional magazine for Marriage and Family Therapists in California.
Neal’s article titled, Delving into Desire: Discrepancy or Disorder, explores how therapists can work with clients in terms of their sexual interest in ways that are informed, culturally sensitive, and nonjudgmental. Neal addresses the importance of broadening the understanding of sexual desire, questioning the mainstream paradigm that tends to exclude those of non-traditional gender expression and relationship configurations.
“I felt inspired to write this article as a member of the LGBTQIA community who has experienced a sense of exclusion from mainstream media with regard to sexual desire and issues,” Neal says. He understands that the mental health community still has a long way to go in terms of normalizing alternative sexualities, non-traditional gender expression, and unconventional relationship types.
His goal is to expand the current discussion of desire in therapy to be more inclusive of those with non-traditional forms of gender expression (e.g. gender non-conforming, transgender, etc.) as well as those in non-traditional relationships, such as non-monogamous relationships or polyamorous relationships.
Jennifer Crane, LMFT and Program Chair for Sofia’s Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program is ecstatic to hear of Adam’s achievements. “The MACP program at Sofia University strives to provide a practical and transpersonal education to our students by preparing them for the many clinical issues and challenges they will face in the real world; I’m so very proud of his accomplishment, his work as an associate and the studentship he exhibited at Sofia to get him where he is now,” she says.
“The transpersonal ideology at Sofia gave me the space to recognize not only my desire to work clinically with others, but also my calling to serve others in ways that are not ordinarily expressed in words in mainstream practice,” Neal says.
