Of course, you will refer your clients to the exercises below at your discretion and based upon your clinical judgment on whether you think they might benefit from engaging in the expressive writing. In this section, we describe some possible benefits of recommending these reflective writing exercises:

• They can support thinking through heterosexism & transphobia: The exercises on the “Grow” webpage guide clients to consider experiences of heterosexism and transphobia and develop responses to them that fit for their own context and culture. Clients might feel stuck or alone with these experiences. The exercises are designed to support clients to think through heterosexist, biphobic, and transphobic experiences and decide what they are needing, with an eye toward intersecting minority identities.

• They can support in-session conversation about these challenging topics: Sometimes it helps for clients to process ideas on their own before they are ready to talk about them in session. It can feel safer for some people to process on their own before they are ready to talk. It can help clients become more comfortable thinking about these issues by completing exercises as homework on their own. Asking clients if they would like to discuss these exercises in sessions can facilitate dialogue about these issues, as clients are ready. Multiple clients have written that the exercises encouraged them to seek therapy or to talk with their current therapists about their experiences.

• There is evidence that the exercises to heal from heterosexism help: Preliminary research has suggested that over 90% of people engaging in the general “grow” exercises focused on heterosexist experiences have found them to be beneficial (Collins, 2018). Although the exercises randomize clients to different sets of prompts, this research has found that the proportion of clients that benefits seems to hold across the sets of prompts — in other words, all three have been found helpful. After finishing one set of exercises, they can enroll again and may receive new sets of prompts if they like, (or can continue with independent reflective writing).

• They help clients access mental health information: The website includes resources that can give your clients information on LGBTQ mental health and mental health research. It includes crisis hotline information, educational resources, webinars, inspirational thoughts, featured research, and the exercises we are developing to support clients’ healing from heterosexism, biphobia, and transphobia.

• It can feel good to help your community: Clients may feel glad to contribute to research about their community and to advance the development of exercises to help other people resist the psychological effects of heterosexism, biphobia, and transphobia. We welcome feedback from our participants, both in our research and through our website, so we can continue to fine-tune our exercises and develop stronger supports for the LGBTQ community. This is what drives our research.

• It can be empowering to develop solutions that are tailored for your own life: Our exercises provide prompts that encourage clients to reflect upon their emotions, needs, and/or behaviors in relation to their specific heterosexist or transphobic experiences and ongoing relationships. The exercises can allow clients to name or recognize something that they have not been able to articulate before or to make differentiations that can open new possibilities. Because clients are intimately familiar with the constraints of their own lives, the solutions they develop may fit better than ones we might suggest. The exercises can give them time to shape suggestions that they better fit into their lives or to come up with alternate possibilities that make sense within their cultural contexts and identities. They help people get used to practicing self-reflection and developing introspective skills.