Gender-Affirmative Therapy

HELPING TRANSGENDER CLIENTS BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY In 2016, the National Center for Transgender Equality released the results of a national survey showing that nearly 41 percent of the 6,450 transgender respondents reported that they'd attempted suicide at one point in their life. Any therapist wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychotherapy networker 2021-01, Vol.45 (1), p.61-64
Main Author: Garcia, Noah
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Gender
Hormone replacement therapy
Parents & parenting
Suicides & suicide attempts
Surgery
Transgender persons
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Summary:HELPING TRANSGENDER CLIENTS BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY In 2016, the National Center for Transgender Equality released the results of a national survey showing that nearly 41 percent of the 6,450 transgender respondents reported that they'd attempted suicide at one point in their life. Any therapist working with transgender individuals, including those going through gender exploration, medical transitions, and social transitions, has a duty to use correct names and pronouns, understand experiences of discrimination and harassment, and know how trans individuals can access hormones or surgery, to name a few necessities. Working with trans clients means developing therapeutic relationships with plenty of validation, normalization, and encouragement on the clinician's behalf-and recognizing opportunities for celebration, from beginning hormone replacement therapy (HRT), to starting to grow facial hair or noticing fat redistribution, to getting top or bottom surgery. "Alex, have you heard of doing the huevo for ojo?" I asked, referring to the old Mexican belief that rubbing an egg on the body removes a curse, evil, or witchcraft placed upon it by a jealous look or evil eye-in Spanish, the mal de ojo.
ISSN:1535-573X