Meeting Psych

[Ninjette]

This upcoming Tuesday I have my second ever meeting with my counselor and I'm left wondering if I should ask at each meeting about the letter of recommendation or if i should just wait for her to bring it up...
Any tips??

^Edit: The letter of recommendation I'm referring to is the one for HRT.

[Renate]

The standard first question of a therapist is, "Why are you here?"

I said that I wanted a carry letter, an HRT letter and an SRS letter.

[LordKAT]

My first session was testing stuff, second was getting my letter, I never had to ask for it.

[Ninjette]

Heh, I have stated that I want the letters...the thing that concerns me is if i bring it up to often. You know?

[Sheila R]

I'm new to this site, but felt I had to comment that I recently sold a house to a psychotherapist whom I confided in that my daughter was transsexual. She immediately confided right back that she'd recently had a client who was also ftm and that "she just couldn't relate" to her/him! 

I felt SO sorry for that person, and immediately realized that unless a therapist is particularly qualified to work with transsexual people he/she is going to be totally useless.  I suspect that they learn in med school that transsexuality is probably a result of impaired mental health.  When I discussed the fact that my daughter, who identifies as a male though has not had sexual reassignment surgery, feels that you can fall anywhere on a scale from 1-10 gender-wise, without ever HAVING to be either/or, it gave her cause for pause.  She had simply been trained to believe that sexuality is abosolute.

[Colleen Ireland]

I felt SO sorry for that person, and immediately realized that unless a therapist is particularly qualified to work with transsexual people he/she is going to be totally useless.  I suspect that they learn in med school that transsexuality is probably a result of impaired mental health.

I decided early on that it was imperative for me to find a therapist who is knowledgeable and experienced with transgendered people.  From my own experience, and what I've read, we do have to be proactive in discovering what our needs are regarding practitioners, and specifically seek them out.  Not an easy task - it took me more than 6 weeks to find a good one, and it was almost by chance in the end, but I would have kept looking until I found what I needed.  But knowing in advance what your needs are is key.

[Epigania]

My Therapist has been dealing with Transgendered patients since the late 70's and he explained it as "All of the letters, HRT, GRS, etc are sort of mechanics.   They are formalities that come in time.  That's not what you should really focus on with the therapy sessions.   We should focus on the issues that cause you stress and emotional distress."

The jist of what he's saying is that you shouldn't focus so much on the mechanics of transitioning.   Don't look at your therapist as a formality, but someone that you can talk to and get advice from.    He had some great insights into our world and we very quickly seemed to be on the same page.  I hope that continues.

I've only had one session with the fellow, but he was awesome.  He understood all of the dynamics of what it means to be a Transgendered person and gave me some good things to think about.   I have my 2nd session in 2 weeks and I find I'm anxious to talk to him again.

It took me 4 weeks to find this fellow, and he has a heavy workload.  He's booking appointments out 2 weeks out simply because he has no available time slots.