Gender Identity

As I mentioned in my welcome page, over the years, I have developed an interest in gender and it’s intersection with individual identity, culture and education. As such, I have developed a subspecialty within my practice of working with transgender people and their families.

This subspecialty actually developed rather early, during my internship. One of my first clients was a transwoman. Beginning with her, much of what I have learned about gender variance has been from my clients. Drawn to this population for their courage, their insistence on authenticity despite profound stigma, and their ability and desire to engage in deeply meaningful therapeutic work, I have remained fascinated and rewarded by working with this community for over 30 years. I appreciate the opportunity and challenge of helping people along this sometimes very difficult path. I also enjoy the opportunity and challenge of developing, synthesizing and presenting new and integrated theory based on clinical experience and trans narratives. I have seen hundreds of people of varying ages, age of onset of trans feelings and degree of dysphoria. I have also seen multiple outcomes along the gender spectrum.

I am Past President of  the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and current Co-Chair of the Global Education Initiative (GEI).

I have written and presented widely on the subject. See my CV for an overview of my publications and presentations. The article Depth Psychotherapy with Transgender People presents a nonpathologizing psychodynamic model for working with trans people. The talk Shadow Side of the Paradigm Shift- When Psychologically Correct is not Politically Correctis a cautionary paper to those who might potentially overlook an inner rather than outer transition. Another talk I gave in 1990,Observations About Transgender People has been distributed widely and seems to strike a chord for many people. I also do psychotherapy  online and my article on Etherapy describes the process.

As a general rule, whether in person or online, I am a proponent of slow careful depth work along the individuation path -one size does not fit all. I follow the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Standards of Care Version 7 http://www.wpath.org/publications_standards.cfm

I also served as a writer for the current version of the Standards of Care  as we continually update the SOC to fit the changing needs of the transgender populations. My article on  Psychotherapy in the SOC has been published in a recent volume of the International Journal of Transgenderism.

Aside from my writing, I also teach, give talks and offer trainings on the subject.

I especially enjoy doing long-term depth psychotherapy and sometimes see people for many years. I have found that the Jungian approach, with its comfort with mystery and complexity and its focus on meaning and individuation, provides a good holding environment for the deeply challenging situations trans people face. In the final analysis, I’m in agreement with the 2007  SOC, that the ‘overarching treatment goal is lasting personal comfort with the gendered self in order to maximize psychological well-being and self-fulfillment”.