Indianapolis, Indiana
Richard Brandon-Friedman is a Doctoral Candidate and Associate Faculty member at the Indiana University School of Social Work. He has been a clinical social worker for over 12 years, six of them post-Masters level. His clinical work has focused primarily on male adolescents, both in home and in the child welfare system, but he has also worked with children as young as 3 years old and with adults. In his work, Richard incorporates trauma-informed therapy, familial and system integration, psycho-education, and behavioral/emotional self-management skills. He currently serve as the Social Work Supervisor for the Gender Health Program at Riley at IU Health, as the Chair of National Association of Social Worker's Indiana Chapter's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee, and as an Executive Board Member of GenderNexus, a community organization that serves gender diverse individuals. Over the past several years Richard has conducted numerous trainings on professional work with sexual and gender minorities, ranging from one hour to six hours in length. His current research focuses on the sexual development of youth in the foster care system and overall adolescent sexual identity formation. He has also recently published empirical and theoretical work on sexual health, sexual identities, and sexual behaviors.