What Does Therapy For Gender Affirming Surgery Involve? (Gender Reassignment Surgery)
Every person in this world is different, including transgender people; therefore requirements and recommendations for anyone coming to therapy with any issue will be different. For example, two different people coming in for anxiety may have different goals and participate in a different type of therapy to address those goals. The transgendered population is no different than any other population in that treatment for everyone will be a little different depending on the needs of the individual coming in.
If you look up The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association’s Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders (http://www.wpath.org/documents2/socv6.pdf), you can read a little more about what general guidelines would be.
Generally, when I work with people thinking about taking hormones or having SRS surgery, I take a “client-centered” approach. What this means is that the client is their own expert. Since every person is different, the path of therapy will be different as well. I will help guide the client with questions and/or observations to help the client figure out what is right for them. Not all transgender people decide to take hormones and not all transgender people decide to get surgery.
Doctors performing surgeries and prescribing hormones often want a letter from a therapist (not always required by doctors). Generally what that letter involves is a therapist attesting that the client has been in therapy for a set period of time (often 6 months to 2 years depending on the doctor and depending on the procedure) and that the client is aware of the permanent effects of hormones and/or surgery, is wanting to change genders because they truly feel that they were born in the wrong body (a woman in a man’s body, for example) and they are not wanting surgery due to an underlying mental health issue (for example, depression). Let’s take depression as an example of one mental health issue. The medical doctor wants the therapist to determine if a client is depressed because they were born in the wrong body and don’t fit in to who they believe themselves to truly be (in which case hormones and/or surgery would help with that depression), or if a client is wanting surgery because they are depressed and are not happy with their current self, so they want to try something different. Although it seems unfair (and I could write pages of my opinion of this), it is currently how the medical field wants it handled. I look forward to the day where a transgender person can go to a doctor and just say “I’m ready” and that be enough. Until then, please call me to get support and to participate in therapy to obtain your letter. If you are looking for a gay friendly therapist in Long Beach, or Transgender friendly therapist in Long Beach, please call to set up an appointment.