well, I'll begin by stating my therapist is great and has brought me back from practicing high dives off of buildings. I'm 9 months in and psychologically the most stable I've been for a very long time. HRT is the perfect solution for me and I am very happy. The thing is has it ever happened that you start wondering why someone is so encouraging about your transition, like its too good to be true, like shouldn't there be some bumps in the road in regards to a therapist being so affirmative. I'll never turn back I was just thinking given the nature of the idea of changing gender you would expect more questioning. Does your psyche team present speed bumps for you or is it like having a tail wind and speeding toward  nirvana

Mine was both very encouraging and convincing me to go slow and adapt well. I could not have a better team! 

Mine wrote my letter for hrt after the first visit...she is a lovely therapist but I feel she might be a little too enthusiastic  with limited experience of trans issues. Had to tell her I didn't want the letter for at least 6months of therapy just to be sure it's right for me. Sometimes you gotta balance being in a rush to be happy with taking extra care of your own well being. :-)

Quote from: Jessica Merriman on August 10, 2014, 09:30:07 PM
Mine was both very encouraging and convincing me to go slow and adapt well. I could not have a better team! 

that has basically been what mine has done, maybe cause I'm older I question things more I don't know

Quote from: Laurenza on August 10, 2014, 09:48:06 PM
Mine wrote my letter for hrt after the first visit...she is a lovely therapist but I feel she might be a little too enthusiastic  with limited experience of trans issues. Had to tell her I didn't want the letter for at least 6months of therapy just to be sure it's right for me. Sometimes you gotta balance being in a rush to be happy with taking extra care of your own well being. :-)

very true

I'm my therapist's first trans client. She's learning from me. Luckily, I'm the patient type. She hasn't pushed, she hasn't been overly cautious, probably because she's extremely experienced in general therapy and GLB issues.

I found her by accident but she's liking the experience so much that she told me she's officially branching into trans care.

I have no complaints.

My therapist has been very encouraging. She also said go at my own pace and she'd help with letters, records etc. when I was ready. So far she has been true to her word and sooooo supportive!

Quote from: Dee Walker on August 10, 2014, 10:19:20 PM
I'm my therapist's first trans client. She's learning from me. Luckily, I'm the patient type. She hasn't pushed, she hasn't been overly cautious, probably because she's extremely experienced in general therapy and GLB issues.

I found her by accident but she's liking the experience so much that she told me she's officially branching into trans care.

I have no complaints.

same with me, she use to do teenage therapy and family therapy

My Chicago therapist was the first to diagnose me as trans*.  It happened in our very first discussion.  I was shocked and then relieved.  Only afterwards did we start processing and unpacking this and other issues that I needed to address.  An endo appointment was made immediately after the first therapy session.  Then and blood work and a consult with the endo, low dose hrt was prescribed

It was so obvious to her.  I really had no idea (either that or I was in denial or didnt really understand the trans* condition).  I was confused, embarrassed, ashamed and damaged by previous therapists.  Did she move too quickly - no.  Did I move too quickly, perhaps.  But I have spent a lot of time since then working with her and then with many other therapists who reached the same diagnosis and have been there to help me question, understand, accept and express myself.

Aisla

I guess in my case I just poured  out my mind of all my thoughts and past experiences from early childhood and agreed my brain is just wired like this and the best possible path is HRT. I'm extremely happy with their take on this issue. Totally better then jumping through a million hoops.

My therapist has been working with trans people for many years and is very well known in the community locally.  She was ready to write my letter after my first session with her too.  I told her that I felt ready for it but at the same time I didn't feel "ready" if that makes any sense....  I continued seeing her for a few months before I felt it was time to continue with transition and asked for my letter.  Apparently she already had it written and needed only to forward it to my endo! 

To answer the original question, I was taken aback some that I wasn't pressed more before getting my letter but at the same time it was just a HUGE sense of relief that someone believed me and I wasn't crazy!  So I'm going with tailwind for mine.  She's been really great and I'm so glad to be working with her. 

I was very apprehensive to say the least and HRT is not easy to obtain in my area, but for some reason the Dr.s and such have been very supportive and have recommended that I should get SRS as soon as possible

I can honestly say my therapist is in no way pushing me to transition at all, and I'm a tough o'l bird... I think before my first visit with her my mind was pretty made up as to what needed to happen, however for me I wanted to take it one step at a time. First and foremost getting my head screwed on right before I proceeded with anything. This by the way was highly encouraged. Six months in now I still have no doubts of the decision I have made and I truly have never been pressured to anything other than going through and analyzing what I am doing in the process. I actually work with both a gender therapist and a physiologist as well and believe me, they compare notes... If either one sees something a little out of whack they make me aware of it. Kind of a safety net so to speak. Then it is discussed in session. I personally think I have a great team on my side, and all options are on the table at any given time.

My therapist is supportive, sensitive and cautious. She specializes in gender issues and depression, and has many trans* patients. When I went to her, initially I was looking for some way of dealing with the effects of dysphoria, except that at the time, I didn't know that it was dysphoria. After a few visits, she brought up HRT, but she didn't push it. I was a bit reluctant to start. After a few years of working with her, it became clear to me that the only way I was going to stop the pain was to take her up on her offer. She faxed an endocrinologist that same day.

All this to exemplify that she didn't push me into this, but she did provide me with the tools to arrive at the decision when I finally hit the wall. In retrospect, I should have taken her up on the offer when it was first presented, and for that matter, I'm sure I would be in a much better place had I mustered the courage to face this in the 1970s

Mine gave me my letter after six months when I felt I was ready. She then mentioned that she was ready to give me that letter after one month but waited for me to ask.

The first one was pretty lame and i fired her as she seemed weirded out by me. The second could have had pom poms as she was like "go for it" but that was as far as it went . I fired her and moved on to one that can help me with the management of the day to day realities. The rejection and relationships. The new one will do our family as a group and i hope helpful as we have reached some sort of impass.

Good question for a post

Mine wrote a diagnosis of GID on the first visit, but waited 8 months to write me a letter for an endo. But, to be fair, I could only afford to see the guy once a month.

Transition didn't happen overnight for me either, I didn't even know it was possible for several years until I acquired a computer

I'd actually been pursuing my transgender issues for quite a few years and visited other sites as soon as I had a computer for about three years before finding Susan's Place

Susan's is where I felt comfortable and so I stayed, sure, I made my mistakes but eventually got a clue or two, made some darn good friends as well

Nine years ago Dr.s laughed at me for even bringing it up, now they ask how they can help

Well, that's the long and the short of that

Hugs

I've felt mine was a little too gung ho at times, and almost like i actually disappointed her during the periods where i pulled back from the idea.  I can tell she really wants me to transition which doesn't seem quite right.

I created my own speed bumps and haven't rushed things.  The team I'm working with has been good about helping me with each stage on an as-needed basis because they can tell I'm thinking about this and not rushing in without using my head.