I've been looking into finding a therapist to talk to discuss Gender Dysphoria among other topics like depression. I would like to meet with someone in person as opposed to online. I don't feel the online approach would work for me. My walls would never come down if I'm sitting around at home (not to mention I'd probably have the television on and some kind of food to stuff my face with). Unfortunately my search hasn't been going well for a variety of reasons.

- Most databases with therapists I've come across contain grossly outdated information that just leads to dead ends.
- When I do find an up-to-date listing very few list transgenders as the kind of patients they are able to assist and the few that do do not actually specialize in transgenders but just kind of list everything under the sun (to garner more patients I'm guessing).
- The therapists that seem to fit exactly what I'm looking for are way too far away. I can't afford to burn an entire tank of gas and spare 6 hours of driving (plus the therapy itself) each week (or so).

Should I chance one of the treat-everything therapists and hope for the best? Or maybe just use the treat-everything therapist to work on my secondary issues (assuming they can be worked on while completely ignoring another issue) until I can find another one? Should the therapist have a certain kind of degree or will any do? And do any of them accept Monopoly money as payment?

Ha Monopoly money, people need to start accepting that type of money as a form of payment

Sadly, I'm probably not going to be much help as I'm in a similar situation.
I would say to take a chance and see where it goes. Some therapists might even be willing to learn along the way (although annoying, it could be worse). I read a few places around the internet that sometimes you can set up brief sessions of maybe 15 minutes to just get a feel for the therapist, which might be an option for you to look into if you find someone that doesn't sound horrible.
I have other mental stuff as well (depression/social and general anxiety/panic attacks/etc), so I am aiming to find a "treat-everything therapist" with a cautious hope that they might be willing to work with my gender dysphoria as well. Worse case, I'm planning on asking them to recommend another therapist that could further help me.

Another thing to take note from Google, is the differences in types of medical people: http://berlinmentalhealth.com/What's%20the%20Difference%20Between%20a%20Psychiatrist,%20Psychologist%20and%20a%20Therapist.html
http://www.allpsychologyschools.com/psychology/differences-therapist-psychologist/
From my brief understanding (feel free to correct me if wrong), a Psychiatrist can write you perscriptions while a Psychologist has more of a focus on mental disorders compared to Therapists who have a more broad range of topics where they try to help you work through a process.

Apologies for the length, hope it helped somewhat. Good luck searching though, and keep in mind that not all therapists/etc are the right fit.

I think its best to get personal recommendations from other trans people. Search the forums for your location, or post it and ask if anyone can recommend one. I believe there's also some online therapists, but I don't know how good they are.

This is worth reading as well

Red Flags
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php?topic=162266.0

Baring living in a major metropolitan city with a built in Gender Clinic, the absolute best way to find a for real gender therapist is to ask around. Local TG support groups is where to start. Depending on where you live 'Local' could be some 90 miles away as it was for me. After support groups could be PFLAG (Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) as many do a good TG outreach. Next up will be a county or state umbrella Trans organization followed by an LGBT one

I'm in a rural area of California. The closest city to me is Bakersfield. With 363,000 people I'm hopeful that there's at least one therapist there that I can see. An alternate area would be the cities of Lancaster/Palmdale. There's of course Los Angeles (with a million options I'm sure) but given the great distance (and soul crushing traffic) I would only consider that city as a last resort.

I may have found a support group I can visit (which could lead to finding a therapist as suggested). However I also suffer from significant social anxiety and the thought of walking into a crowd of unknown people by myself is very nerve-wracking. I seriously get nervous just calling the cable company (and that's just talking to a robot).

Your first visit to a support group might be difficult but I suspect very quickly you will feel like you have known the people for a long time. When you meet another like yourself, you can see that part of you in others and you form a bond of kinship.

I live in HK and visited therapists there who was supposed to be good. He was not...I then tried another with the same result.  I decided to go online and I found two therapist that were outstanding.  They each had their personalities.

The two that I used and can recommend are Dr Michelle Angelo and Dr Carl Bushong. Dr Bushong has treated tg for over 30 years and better for the older transitioners as he also serves as a guide for the transition. Dr Angelo was affiliated to  Dr Marcy Bowers clinic and a caring lady.

The therapist I went to wasn't specifically a "Gender Therapist" but has had experience with transgender issues and was able to give me a referral to an endo who has taken good care of my HRT needs

I was very nervous but it turned out okay, it may be worth your while to check out various therapists in your area and ask if they have experience with transgender people even though they might not specifically advertise as a gender therapist

If at all possible, consider switching your health insurance to Kaiser during the next open enrollment for Obamacare -- or immediately if you have a qualifying event.  I am with Kaiser.  Kaiser does a two session gender assessment with an LCSW (more sessions if necessary) and then you get your hormone letter, go to the endo, and get your hormones -- as long as Kaiser has current health information about you in their system from your primary care physician.

Although I am in Orange County, Kaiser has offices everywhere, including a hospital and two other offices in Bakersfield.  And if you have to drive long distance to see a therapist, with Kaiser you may only need to do it a few times, since they work on a modified informed consent approach.  They also have a weekly support group, at least in my neck of the woods.

I was told by one of the heads of Kaiser's transgender support program in Southern California that the bean counters at Kaiser had figured out that it cost less for Kaiser to help people transition because it kept them healthier.  When people weren't transitioning, Kaiser was spending more money treating stress related chronic illnesses.

So if you want a fully integrated approach, and a supportive environment, and a place where you can dress however you like and use whatever restroom you are comfortable with, Kaiser fills the bill.

Thank you for that information. I'll definitely keep it in mind. Unfortunately I can't afford health insurance right now so everything I do is out of pocket. I'm not too optimistic in a pay increase over the next 12 months so I'm just hoping a therapist can keep me level for the time being.

 http://www.bakersfieldpride.org/resources/TransGender+Resources.pdf  good luck. I hope you find yourself and it is a wonderful ride.

Someone has posted this list before, although when I search there are a large number who say they work with transgendered clients.

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/prof_search.php

Has anyone found a councilor this way?

Joanna

That was one of the websites I initially viewed. I was kind of skeptical though as pretty much every therapist claimed they dealt with every single issue imaginable (no doubt just to try to attract as many clients as possible). They have a Specialty category for therapists so if Transgender appears in there then it might be worth a shot but if Transgender just appears under the generic Issues category then I'm not so sure.

Quote from: Semira on August 09, 2016, 11:27:51 AM
They have a Specialty category for therapists so if Transgender appears in there then it might be worth a shot but if Transgender just appears under the generic Issues category then I'm not so sure.

Thanks Semira. I have the same skepticism. I just can not for the life of me find the Specialty category, but your right in that it seems that everyone hit the checkbox in the Issues category.

I'm not sure if there's a way to just search for Specialties and I only saw Specialty after I selected a therapist to view. When I have an individual therapist selected some of them have a Specialty section where they list a few topics that they specialize in along with the 500 other topics they are willing to discuss below that.

Quote from: Semira on August 09, 2016, 12:22:24 PM
I only saw Specialty after I selected a therapist to view.

Got it.... thanks so much...... As a noob, to the forum rules allow to ask for referrals in the area? While I read the FAQ and TOS, I'm a little confused as to whether that causes someone to violate the TOS due to endorsing?

Jocee/Joanna,

I am assuming you prefer Joanna. Hi, from another one. Welcome to the site.

There are a lot of members from all over the country and around the world. You can share lists of people as long as the list is not a link to a commercial site.  People from your area should be able to share both lists of doctors, and facilities that are trans friendly.

You have been busy since joining. Thanks for sharing so much information to others. While I know you have looked over the ToF and FAQ we are supposted to contact newly posting members. So, I want to share some links with you. They are mostly welcome information and the rules that govern the site. If you have not had a chance to look through them, please take a moment:

Site Terms of Service & Rules to Live By	Standard Terms & Definitions	Post Ranks (including when you can upload an avatar)
Reputation rules	News posting & quoting guidelines	Photo, avatars, & signature images policy

Once again, welcome to Susan's. Look around, ask questions and join in.

With warmth,

Joanna

Not sure if that answered your question?

Quote from: Joanna50 on August 09, 2016, 02:20:39 PM
Jocee/Joanna,

I am assuming you prefer Joanna. Hi, from another one. Welcome to the site.

Hi back at you and thanks for the welcome. And Joanna is what I prefer, but JoCee is a concatenation of Joanna Chase....or JOanna C......  JOCee

Joanna

Quote from: Jocee on August 09, 2016, 11:07:21 AM
Someone has posted this list before, although when I search there are a large number who say they work with transgendered clients.

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/prof_search.php

Has anyone found a councilor this way?

I did.    I used that website to find my gender therapist, and it worked out great!  Before my first session, I contacted the therapist and asked him if he had experience working with MtF transgender clients (to which he said yes).  He is actually a part of a group practice, and many of the therapists at the practice have experience with LGBT clients.  And in case you're curious, yes, my gender therapist is a cis male, and I am a MtF trans woman.

Quote from: Jocee on August 09, 2016, 11:07:21 AM
Someone has posted this list before, although when I search there are a large number who say they work with transgendered clients.

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/prof_search.php

Has anyone found a councilor this way?

Joanna

Seven years ago when I was living in rural West Virginia I tried their list and made a fair number of calls only to learn that essentially they once had a class when they mentioned TG, or pretty much experience along those lines. The therapist I eventually saw was the one several in my new found support group went to and he even came a couple of times to meetings.

He was far from a specialist, but certainly TG friendly and, as the group moderator said, somewhat educated buy his clients. For the most part I was primarily interested in loosing the ton of emotional baggage I gathered up over 50 years of not handling being TG. HRT was the easy part