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Thank you, Therapy!

Started by Liminal Stranger, February 13, 2013, 09:59:02 PM

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Liminal Stranger

It's nothing physical like a letter for hormones or anything (someday...), but what it is is a start. I very awkwardly disclosed being trans to her briefly during the intake visit, and today I went in with the intention of talking to her about it. Boy was I nervous, but she was so awesome about it. All therapists should be like her- she listened to me, really listened! And she didn't write it off as me being too young or not knowing before or being a closeted lesbian or something like that. She reassured me that my mom can't have me locked up in a psychiatric hospital for mental observation like she's been threatening, told me I wasn't crazy (sometimes I really need to hear that after being around my mother), and said that really it's up to me- my decision when I'm old enough, because it's my body.

Thank you.

She also offered to call me by a preferred name, and I balked just because I get sad knowing I'd hear the name and then have to go by my birth name in school and at home. I don't think my mom would just agree to calling me Max. The therapist was cool with that too and said I can get back to her on it. Starting to think I should have her call me that, just to have a real-life safe space in which I can really be myself. Even though she's not a gender therapist, she was really understanding and I'm thrilled to know that I can talk to someone in person about everything without being judged or shamed.




"And if you feel that you can't go on, in the light you will find the road"
- In the Light, Led Zeppelin
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King Malachite

That is wonderful, Liminal!  It's great that you have such a cool therapist! 
Feel the need to ask me something or just want to check out my blog?  Then click below:

http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,135882.0.html


"Sometimes you have to go through outer hell to get to inner heaven."

"Anomalies can make the best revolutionaries."
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Devlyn

Have her call you Max, by all means. It's going to come to everyone calling you that anyway, right? Hugs, Devlyn
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aleon515

I agree-- go for it!  I don't think you'll regret it at all. Somewhere you can be who you really are.

--Jay
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ford

Glad you had a good session!

I agree with the name...use it!
"Hey you, sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is!"
~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Proton

I also chose not to have my therapist call me by my preferred name for now. I can only see myself asking her to change that once I ask the people on my everyday life to stop calling me by my birth name.

Personally, the idea of having two different names makes me uncomfortable.

Constance

A good therapist is worth their weight in gold (or hormones, as the case might be).

Congrats!