Quote from: Jifoverskippy on January 04, 2019, 03:01:01 AM
Hi everyone! My therapist has been recommending that I try to go to a group meeting with other transgender men and women. I've been pretty resistant to that until our last session where she kind of confronted me, so I told her id try. While I'm starting to accept that I view myself as a transgender female I'm still nervous about other people knowing (even if they are strangers). What should I expect if I go to one of these support groups?
Expect to meet a diverse group of people, all at some stage of dealing with their gender related issues. A group meeting is typically led by a facilitator, who may or may not be a therapist. The facilitator's job is to help maintain a relatively safe and welcoming environment and keep the discussion moving along. (I'm a facilitator, BTW)
In general group meetings start off with some form of introduction for the group giving policies such as 'no talking over each other', and then each person introducing themselves, typically first name, pronouns, and a short bit of personal information such as their high point and low point since the last meeting, or a short answer to a question put forward at the start of the session.
There may be a preselected topic for the meeting, or a topic common to the concerns expressed by folks in the introductions might be selected. Discussion proceeds with all persons given a chance to speak.
Group ends with each person doing a 'checkout', typically offering their name again and some goal or self-care item that each of us will try to accomplish before the next meeting.