[Intro music plays]
[Chase]: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the trans 101 series. Today, we are going to be talking about
therapy. So what is therapy? Why do we need to go to therapy?
Here's the thing, when you are trans, you absolutely have to go to therapy.
This is what they tell you. You have to go to therapy in order to get a
diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria and in order to get letters
um, in order to transition. So, letters for hormones, letters for surgeries and letters in order to change your name and your gender marker, legally.
So these are the people who basically decide your life and decide how you're going to transition
and when you're going to transition. Now, I'm saying it this way because this is a very big problem
and it is very hard to get through some of these gatekeepers because some people either have never dealt with trans people, don't know the
diagnosis criteria for Gender Dysphoria or refuse to do it.
So if you're looking to transition the first thing that you should do is look for a therapist, usually is what you should do.
So looking in these places is great
but if you don't live in a...in a...
big area, in a big city that offers any type of clinic like this, it is kind of tricky to find a therapist that is
good with trans people. So the best thing to do is, honestly,
post online in your area and see if anybody has ever had therapy in that area or even just a little bit further away in
order to get therapy. This way you know that you're avoiding
maybe like six months to a year of a therapist that looks promising,
but then refuses to give you a letter even though you know that you're trans
and you just need a letter from a therapist in order to transition.
So a letter by a therapist isn't always needed in order to get
uh, hormones or surgery. There are some clinics that offer informed consent hormones,
which is really great; you go in and you sign a paper and you get your hormones. No therapy needed.
This is really fantastic and it kind of breaks away the barrier of gatekeepers,
which is great.
But I do think that therapy should still be an option where people who are offering
informed consent also offer therapy at the same time, if the person needs to talk about some things.
Because I have known some people who just go to get informed consent T;
they sign the paper, they get their T and they j--..they're not ready; they're not ready for some of the emotional things that happen
when you transition,
uh, because they didn't know about them. And having a therapist kind of explain and kind of go through
the changes that hormones will give you, even though your doctor should be doing that, not all doctors do,
um, a therapist would be able to kind of walk you through it, and I think that that's super important.
But I don't think that we should have to pay for that
and I think that it should be optional and not mandatory. Making it mandatory makes
it...makes it tricky, alright, because when you are sitting in front of someone - you know you're trans -
and you just need...you're literally just sitting there, sitting through all these sessions just to get a letter for hormones...
it's very hard because a lot of people...
it's very hard because I feel like a lot of people don't express themselves 100%,
because they just want to get that letter, right. So if you're feeling like you like pink and you like musicals, some people kind of...
not...don't talk about these specific
aspects of their life because they feel that it's too feminine
and if they tell a therapist, the therapist is going to be like "oh, mmm, not trans, never mind,
I'm not giving you your letter," or "I'm going to charge you for more sessions in order to see if you are really trans."
So making therapy mandatory makes it hard for people to express themselves; it can cause problem later on.
So having therapy as an option and
offering informed consent T everywhere should be a really great option because then you're able to go to therapy, express yourself
how you want and just have somebody there to just talk to you and talk openly and explain things to you and
just to...just...just to have someone there, which I think is so much better than, you know, sitting there and
therapy and..hmm. Now, some people really like therapy, some people get it covered by insurance,
which is great; most people don't have it covered by insurance, and it is expensive.
I will say that you don't have to go to a specific gender therapist, alright. You don't have to. You just need to
find a therapist in your area that can deal with
um....
trans peop- can deal with trans people- that sounds weird...
You know what I mean. So if the person in your area has never dealt with trans people in the past, maybe put a little
little post online, on Facebook and try to see if any of them, any people that you have in your friends, anyone who knows anything about
the area that you live in, or the area near you, live in, maybe knows a therapist, um, that might be adequate to
either diagnose you or
um, give you letters or anything like that.
So what happens in your first gender therapy or therapy related to trans things? Here's the thing, a lot of people ask this question because
they're curious and they want to know what to prepare for.
There's not one answer that I can give you because all therapists are different;
there's not one big center in the world that kind of deals with trans people all the same way in therapy.
Um, usually they ask you about your past. That's usually the first therapy session;
they ask you, um...you know, "What was your childhood like,"
or "How are your parents," "Are you close to your parents," "How do you feel now?"
It's usually always about your past, and that's with any type of therapy at all. They always ask
what happened before, before they focus on what happens now.
So once that's over with, then you can kind of start talking about
how you felt your gender was and how you experience your gender when you were younger and how you know that you're trans and...and
when you realized it, and what makes you think that you're trans now, so it's a lot of
questions and some therapists take the approach of, like, you need to convince me that you're trans,
while other ones are just more passive; they sit down and let...I want you to tell me why you're trans,
and then we can talk about it.
So those are t- ...k-...kind of like the two types of therapists that I have experienced in gender type therapy and
it's hard to kind of go through the one where you're trying to convince them, because that's the one where you're like,
"Oh, gotta make sure I don't say anything too feminine because then like, I won't be trans." Just gonna say really quick, if you
identify as trans and you know that you're trans and the therapist is giving you a hard time and
making you convince them, you're still trans, okay.
Ah, th-...these doctors aren't here to invalidate you, but some don't know a lot, so some invalidate you without you knowing.
I literally had a...a panel of five doctors tell me that I wasn't trans enough
um...because I
told them that I don't identify 100% as male. I'm more
70-80% male, and they told me I'm not trans. Really? I'm not trans, really? You're gonna tell me I'm not trans, like...
I feel so much better with myself and my life and my body because I have transitioned, because guess what... I'm trans.
So examples like that,
those gatekeepers, literally it was like a wall of them right in front of me, like literally a wall in front of me, of...
of...gatekeepers, and it was very traumatic, but once you realize,
"Don't listen to them. I know who I am; I know that
I need to transition," or "I know that I need to do this,"
that's when you need to find yourself another therapist. Anyways, I hope this helped clear a little bit about therapy,
um, and if you have any questions at all, put them in the comments below.
I will put links in the description of anything that I can find for centers,
um, that deal with trans people that are kind of very big, ah, in big cities in America mostly, and Canada.
Alright, thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you later. Bye.
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