My own therapy experience takes place in an establishment like this where everyone who practices there (as far as I’m aware) focuses on matters of gender, sex and the like. The therapist helping me had dealt with MANY trans patients before me. And honestly, I couldn’t have asked for better.
I wish places like this were everywhere. I know too many people who could benefit from something like this.
Also, I'm saving for SRS, and to be perfectly honest, I could use your help! If you can, great. If not, don’t worry about it. I totally understand (you don't need to feel bad or apologize if you can’t).
http://www.gofundme.com/4ql0j4
I have to say great story. I just found this web comic a few days ago and finished reading it for the 3rd-4th time. I love the Charactor of Rain and her intraction with Gaven. I know now that there isn't much much chance of them getting together but i was really hoping they would. Anyway thank you for writing such a great story. I hope to continue to read it for a long time to come.
It's something I've been thinking about. A lot of my trans friends say I have a sympathetic ear and I've worked in medicine for a long time. I just worry whether a straight cis person can make a good gender therapist...
It's definitely possible to be a gender therapist without being in a gender/sexuality minority. Theoretical understanding is usually better than practical experience - I, for example, can probably treat an unconscious person better than someone who happens to have been unconscious before, because I've been trained to do it.
Granted, it's a lot different with psychological treatment but you can see the comparison - a lot of trans* people wouldn't have a clue how to be gender therapists, or they'd have a much better understanding of themselves, among other things.
(Oh, and now I've stopped lurking to post a comment, keep up the good work, Jocelyn! Love the comic, although it's wasted a lot of my time which I should have spent doing something more productive, but I probably wouldn't anyway.
The comic means a lot to me too - being genderfluid, I can sympathise with a lot of these things - although I'm utterly clueless as to the HRT, SRS and such since I never plan to undergo any of them.)
Well, that was a needlessly long comment, wasn't it?
Having seen people with certain issues but no training trying to give therapy to people with those same issues, I think another analogy is sometimes apt as well:
You can probably treat an unconscious person better than someone else who happens to be unconscious.
So many, many times I've seen people trying to railroad those who came to them for help into the exact path that they took. "What, she asked *me* for help! This is how I handled it!"
I'm not saying that everyone who's been through a particular condition is bad at treating it, but one needs a therapist who at least gets that they are not their patient, and while their patient may have problems that were similar to what they experienced, they're not the same.
I've heard good and bad things about gender identity specific practices. Some have good, compassionate, therapists that help if you need help, and rubber stamp your diagnosis if you don't. Others insist that they're the experts and if you don't conform to their opinion of what trans is and how trans people should act and dress, they drag it out forever or refuse to give a diagnosis.
I was fortunate to find a therapist and a psychiatrist in a general practice that were willing to give me my official 'Yep, yer trans!' stamp of approval with just one visit each. Mainly, I think, because they didn't consider themselves experts on gender issues (bad had dealth with trans patients before), so they were willing to let me define myself rather than try to define me according to some theoretical understanding they had.
Granted, it's a lot different with psychological treatment but you can see the comparison - a lot of trans* people wouldn't have a clue how to be gender therapists, or they'd have a much better understanding of themselves, among other things.
(Oh, and now I've stopped lurking to post a comment, keep up the good work, Jocelyn! Love the comic, although it's wasted a lot of my time which I should have spent doing something more productive, but I probably wouldn't anyway.
The comic means a lot to me too - being genderfluid, I can sympathise with a lot of these things - although I'm utterly clueless as to the HRT, SRS and such since I never plan to undergo any of them.)
Well, that was a needlessly long comment, wasn't it?
You can probably treat an unconscious person better than someone else who happens to be unconscious.
So many, many times I've seen people trying to railroad those who came to them for help into the exact path that they took. "What, she asked *me* for help! This is how I handled it!"
I'm not saying that everyone who's been through a particular condition is bad at treating it, but one needs a therapist who at least gets that they are not their patient, and while their patient may have problems that were similar to what they experienced, they're not the same.
I was fortunate to find a therapist and a psychiatrist in a general practice that were willing to give me my official 'Yep, yer trans!' stamp of approval with just one visit each. Mainly, I think, because they didn't consider themselves experts on gender issues (bad had dealth with trans patients before), so they were willing to let me define myself rather than try to define me according to some theoretical understanding they had.