Mitigating the Impact of Stigma and Shame Among MSM Living With HIV and Substance Use Disorders

This 5-session text-enhanced intervention is designed to mitigate the negative behavioral consequences of internalized stigma and shame among MSM and gender minority individuals with SUDs that perpetuate sub-optimal engagement in HIV self-care and consequently inconsistent viral suppression. The intervention involves five virtually delivered one-on-one therapy sessions focused on behavioral goal setting skill development and related self-efficacy, increasing meta-cognitive awareness(i.e.,non-judgmental awareness of emotions and cognitions), and teaching and reinforcing compassionate self-restructuring (i.e., self-compassion). Participants also receive daily text messages querying emotions during the one-on-one portion of the intervention. For eight weeks after the one-on-one portion, participants receive their compassionate self-statements via text in response to their indicated emotions. Participants will also receive phone-based resource navigation, as needed.

The control condition will involve five sessions of prerecorded asynchronous content related to local resources (e.g., information related to substance use treatment and other ancillary services).