When should you see a gender therapist?

[bluebird]

Hello everyone
I live in Northern Virginia and I am a 23 and I'm questioning if I am FTM

I've been questioning my gender lately, and only recently I've started to bind and present as male. I've only been presenting as male for a 3 days now and I have only told 1 person to refer to me as he. I have a lot of questions that I want to talk to a professional about, but I don't know if a gender therapist is necessary this early. I'm only experimenting with my gender. I want to see a gender therapist to see if I'm just a cis girl going through a phase, or if I'm really trans. So when is it a good time to see a gender therapist?

[FTMax]

Hi there,

I also live in NoVA! Small world.

A therapist may be helpful to you. They don't necessarily have to have experience with transgender issues, but you may find it more helpful if they do. Any therapist can help you process your thoughts and get you started along the road to transition if that is something you want. A therapist that specializes in gender typically just has more experience doing those things.

My suggestion would be to hang out here a little more and do some reading. There are a lot of good threads about people realizing that they were trans or what the tipping point was for them. Read a bit and maybe see if anything resonates with you.

If you decide later on that you'd like some local transition resources, feel free to send me a PM.

[bluebird]

Hi there,

I also live in NoVA! Small world.

A therapist may be helpful to you. They don't necessarily have to have experience with transgender issues, but you may find it more helpful if they do. Any therapist can help you process your thoughts and get you started along the road to transition if that is something you want. A therapist that specializes in gender typically just has more experience doing those things.

My suggestion would be to hang out here a little more and do some reading. There are a lot of good threads about people realizing that they were trans or what the tipping point was for them. Read a bit and maybe see if anything resonates with you.

If you decide later on that you'd like some local transition resources, feel free to send me a PM.

Awesome, thank you so much for your help. And I will continue presenting as male and do some reading around the thread. I didn't know regular therapists can also help with trans issues. Again, thank you a lot for your help

[Bimmer Guy]

Awesome, thank you so much for your help. And I will continue presenting as male and do some reading around the thread. I didn't know regular therapists can also help with trans issues. Again, thank you a lot for your help

The thing to be aware of when you are speaking with a non-gender therapist is that some of your time will be educating them.  I have heard trans people say that a lot of their time with a non-gender therapist was spent doing this.

I personally suggest that a trans person only go to a non-gender therapist if they already confident that they are transgender and only need assistance in dealing with managing the world as a transgender person, or other unrelated issues.

If a person is trying to figure out their gender identity, I personally think that you need someone who is educated in the area of gender identity.  They are educated in sex and gender and know what questions to ask and can better help guide the person to determining their gender identity.  Most non-gender therapists know little about gender identity and very often have misinformation.  A person who is just starting to understand their gender have the same misinformation as a cis person.  Think about it...we all had to research and talk to others in order to get the correct information, right?  The gender therapist can help with this.  They have logged hours working with gender non-conforming people and have been trained in gender.

I have known many trans people who said their journey was stunted/delayed, or repressed after seeing a non-gender therapist.  Some say they would have transitioned years earlier if they had just gone to a qualified gender therapist.  Some will say they actually found their therapy to be damaging to their psyche.

The simple fact is that non-gender therapists don't know anything more about gender than the general population.  Gender identity is only now starting to be talked about in psychological Master's and Doctoral programs.  The same with medical programs.

If you live in a more queer friendly or metropolitan area you may find a therapist who knows more about it, but that is because the average person in their area are more enlightened to gender identity in general.

Most importantly, you can be confident that a gender therapist will not be unconsciously biased against a person transitioning.  I personally take pause when a non-gender therapist will work with a trans person, especially if there is availability of a qualified gender therapist in the area.  Therapists should only work within their scope of knowledge.  To not do so is unethical and is potentially damaging to the client.

[FTMax]

I just wanted to add to this after Bimmer Guy's post - OP, I don't know how often you get into DC or if you would be comfortable going there, but the local resource I would recommend is Whitman Walker Health. They have:

- Mental health professionals at all levels who could meet with you to discuss your feelings, write you referral letters, etc.

- HRT providers who will prescribe and monitor your HRT

- A FREE legal team that will meet with you to help you complete your paperwork for name/gender marker changes

- A Benefits team who can look into the insurance you currently have, or insurance that you plan to buy, to see how it matches up with any upcoming needs you have (like surgery!)

- On-site labs for blood work, so you don't have to go someone else to get that done

- On-site pharmacy, so you can just walk downstairs after an appointment and get your prescription filled

I go to them. I highly recommend them to anyone within an hour radius of DC. I haven't personally used the mental health resources beyond referral letters, but everyone I've spoken to in that regard has been really excellent.