The guide advances LGBTQ+ affirmative mental health care by connecting decades of LGBTQ+ research and clinical experience with practical strategies to support resilience, hope, and well-being.
How can mental health professionals help LGBTQ+ clients navigate adversity while supporting their capacity to thrive? Dr. Shelley Craig’s new book, The Nuts and Bolts of Affirmative CBT with Sexual and Gender Diverse Populations, answers this question with practical guidance on affirmative cognitive behavioural therapy.
Published by Oxford University Press, as part of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Clinical Practice Series, the book is designed for mental health clinicians and trainees working with sexual and gender diverse youth and adults. It offers evidence-informed therapeutic strategies, case examples, clinical scripts, activities and tools that connect research with the everyday work of supporting clients.
Craig, INQYR’s Principal Investigator and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, draws on decades of clinical experience and research with LGBTQ+ communities, including developing and implementing a suite of interventions, including AFFIRM Youth and Adult, AFFIRM Caregiver, and AFFIRM Pro. The book brings that extensive experience into a resource intended to help practitioners deliver affirmative care confidently and competently.
For Dr. Craig, the publication responds to an urgent need.
At a time when LGBTQ+ identities, rights, and even the right to exist authentically are increasingly under attack, evidence-based affirmative mental health care has never been more urgent. I am thrilled to share this book, which offers clinicians practical, research-informed tools to not only help LGBTQ+ clients navigate these challenges, but also build resilience, reclaim hope, and thrive even in the face of adversity.
— Dr. Shelley Craig
The book bridges knowledge about minority stress, mental health and resilience with what clinicians can do in practice. Its practical focus addresses a central challenge: understanding the importance of affirmative care is only the beginning. Clinicians also need guidance on how to reflect that commitment in therapeutic conversations, activities and goals developed with clients.
That connection is especially relevant when LGBTQ+ people face social and political hostility. Affirmative care makes room for the circumstances shaping clients’ lives, recognizing experiences of discrimination and exclusion while attending to their strengths, relationships and possibilities for growth.
Craig’s emphasis on hope also gives the book a purpose beyond responding to immediate distress. Supporting LGBTQ+ mental health means helping people pursue fulfilling lives while coping with adversity, with opportunities for belonging, authentic expression and connection. Her call to build resilience and reclaim hope places those possibilities at the centre of clinical work.
For clinicians, educators and trainees, The Nuts and Bolts of Affirmative CBT with Sexual and Gender Diverse Populations offers a resource for translating that purpose into practice. It connects research-informed skills with a commitment to care that recognizes LGBTQ+ lived experience and supports people in shaping their futures.
Digital copies are available now, with physical copies available on November 12, 2026. Chapter 1 is free to read until November 4, 2026.
Explore the book and read the opening chapter