In graduate school, many of us learned therapeutic interventions to support folks in the dominant identities, cultures, relationships, and family structures. There are ways to shift language, navigate dynamics, and celebrate queerness in therapy. Queerness shows up through politics, gender, relationship dynamics, and sexuality. This is an introduction to what queering therapy can look like. We will address a little bit of trans 101 to get on the same page, acknowledge safe space doesn’t exist and move towards therapeutic interventions. This is not a space for debating transgender affirming therapy, and I want to go beyond the discussion of what gender is, to how we can support queer folks in therapy.
Learning Objectives:
- Define the basics of gender expansiveness and how gender exploration supports both trans and cisgender community.
- Identify 3 family therapy interventions for adolescents.
- Describe 3 ways in which a clinician can create a space that is more affirming to trans clients.
Kieran S. McMonagle (he)
Kieran McMonagle (he/him) is queering therapy—from supporting your trans kid, supporting relationships to improve the community, to doing parent coaching for when you just aren’t sure what to do. He works with therapists and organizations to increase their capacity to support the queer community. He is an individual and relational therapist licensed in California and Washington. He began working in the mental health field with folks in 2009 and started practicing therapy in 2012. He works individually and relationally with teenagers and every age of adult. Many of Kieran’s clients are queer, transgender, gay, LGBTQIAAP+, and polyamorous or wanting to learn more about these communities.
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