Psicoterapia fenomenológico-existencial com clientes homossexuais : a heteronormatividade e o poder-ser

Abstract

This monograph offers a reflection on existential-phenomenological psychotherapy with homosexual clients. The study begins with the recognition that homosexuality, historically pathologized, remains the target of stigma and discrimination rooted in heteronormativity. Through a narrative literature review, it investigates how this sociocultural context affects the being and existential suffering of homosexual individuals, particularly impacting the dimensions of being-with and potentiality-for-being. It is argued that existential-phenomenological psychotherapy, by refraining from imposing normativities and working toward the Dasein’s openness to authenticity, may act affirmatively—even without explicitly adopting the label of “affirmative therapy.” The concepts of the They, liberating care, and self-appropriation are discussed as foundations for a clinical practice that acknowledges the unique suffering of homosexual clients and supports them in expanding their possibilities of being. It is concluded that although existential phenomenology does not pathologize sexual diversity, its practice demands that therapists receive critical training regarding the normativities imposed by the They, in order to avoid reproducing them in the clinical setting.