Susan's Place Transgender Resources

After a long wait for our family insurance to be approved it is finally here so I'm able to receive therapy!
The local gender therapist is a bit expensive and to get insurance involved with her would require a lot of work that my mother would never do. I found a very nice LGBTQ specialized counselor near us and I really want to see him but I do not know the difference? His actual profile says he is very good with LGBTQ patients and topics so he is not just in the "transgender" category.
Will this be basically the same thing as gender therapy? Will he be able to refer me to get Testosterone as a counselor and help me come out to my mother fully and help me transition? I know I won't fully know until I talk to him but I just need an idea of what a regular counselor can do versus a gender therapist. I can really fight to go to the actual gender therapist if need be but my mom is very uninterested and I am surprised if I can get any therapy at all. Just wondering if it's worth it, he seems very promising!


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First, counselor and therapist is essentially the same title. When in doubt, take a look at the letters affixed to the end of their name and google those letters. Common ones you'll see are LPC, NCC, LMSW, LCSW, etc. They should all have at a minimum a Master's degree. Most of the highly sought after ones that I've seen hold doctorates.

All therapists/counselors have the same abilities in terms of making referrals for hormones and helping you through coming out and transitioning. The reason many people recommend seeing one who specifically touts themselves as a gender therapist or a therapist specializing in gender, is because they already have the experience of doing those things. But any therapist or counselor has the ability and authority to write you referrals and help you navigate a transition.

There is no special training that counselors/therapists go through to specialize in gender. Usually they have an interest in the subject, a personal connection to it, or have worked with the LGB community in the past and expanded their services to include transfolks. So it really depends on what you're looking for. I wouldn't turn away from a therapist with no gender related experience if they were willing to help me.

If you found this guy on Psychology Today, I'd strongly recommend doing a search here for his name and on other trans sites to see if anyone actually has experience with him. When therapists sign up on that site, they can check as many boxes as they want - there is no one fact checking behind them. Most of them want the most market reach possible, so they check lots of boxes.

Quote from: ftmax on August 21, 2015, 07:55:12 AM
First, counselor and therapist is essentially the same title. When in doubt, take a look at the letters affixed to the end of their name and google those letters. Common ones you'll see are LPC, NCC, LMSW, LCSW, etc. They should all have at a minimum a Master's degree. Most of the highly sought after ones that I've seen hold doctorates.

All therapists/counselors have the same abilities in terms of making referrals for hormones and helping you through coming out and transitioning. The reason many people recommend seeing one who specifically touts themselves as a gender therapist or a therapist specializing in gender, is because they already have the experience of doing those things. But any therapist or counselor has the ability and authority to write you referrals and help you navigate a transition.

There is no special training that counselors/therapists go through to specialize in gender. Usually they have an interest in the subject, a personal connection to it, or have worked with the LGB community in the past and expanded their services to include transfolks. So it really depends on what you're looking for. I wouldn't turn away from a therapist with no gender related experience if they were willing to help me.

If you found this guy on Psychology Today, I'd strongly recommend doing a search here for his name and on other trans sites to see if anyone actually has experience with him. When therapists sign up on that site, they can check as many boxes as they want - there is no one fact checking behind them. Most of them want the most market reach possible, so they check lots of boxes.

I went to his website and he says that he has an interest in the community and LGBTQ therapy and works a lot with them. He looks like a very good choice I just didn't know if it was worth it. Thank you


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Sterling,

FTMAX makes some very great points, I'm currently done looking for a therapist and I pulled up the list of who was available in the area I'm in and dozens of names came up including clinics and all kinds of stuff.  I read the details of each website and almost all talked about their family orientation or adolescent and child crises, substance ....they said everything but Gender issues in there descriptions they showed in the search just because they checked that box not necessarily because they had experience.  I do not think mentioning these in you advertising draws a lot of clients. 

I did find 8-10 Therapists with several hundred successful transitions mentioned in there practice some where teams and others were in private practice.

I'm learning from all the posts here that have a therapist that truly understands your struggle helps so very much.

Best Wishes  :)