Affirmative Counseling With Transgender and Gender Diverse Clients

In this video, Drs. lore m. dickey and Anneliese A. Singh explore the different dimensions of providing affirmative counseling when working with transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse clients.

This approach is based on theories of gender affirmation, intersectionality, multiculturalism, and social justice, all of which are applied to build a strong foundation for the therapeutic relationship. Attention to issues of cisgender privilege and the importance of psychologist self-reflection are emphasized, in addition to the role of psychologists as social justice advocates and change agents.

In this program, Dr. Singh demonstrates this approach with an agender person who is dealing with social anxiety and unresolved issues with being able to use the workplace restroom. Later in the program, Drs. dickey and Singh discuss the demonstration session and analyze the approach.

Affirmative counseling, specifically with transgender and gender diverse clients, aims to provide mental health practitioners with an approach that emphasizes a collaborative partnership guided by client-driven goals, while exploring the different dimensions of sexual orientation when working with transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse clients.

lore m. dickey is an assistant professor and doctoral training director in the department of educational psychology at Northern Arizona University. He is trained as a counseling psychologist and believes in the right to autonomy for gender diverse people.

He is the founder of My Bandana Project, an online suicide prevention resource for gender diverse people.

lore was a co-chair of the APA task force that developed the Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People.

lore has numerous publications addressing the lived concerns of gender diverse people.

lore is a queer identified transgender masculine person with a lesbian history.

Anneliese A. Singh is an associate professor and associate dean of diversity and equity in the college of education at The University of Georgia.

Dr. Singh is a cofounder of the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition, which works at the intersection of heterosexism, racism, sexism, and other oppressions and founder of the Trans Resilience Project, focused on sharing transgender research findings related to resilience with transgender communities for social justice change. She is a co-PI on a multi-site (Atlanta, New York, San Francisco) NIH longitudinal study investigating trans identity development, risk, and resilience.

Dr. Singh is a South Asian, multiracial queer American. She passionately believes in and strives to live by the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's beloved community, as well as Audre Lorde's quote: "Without community, there is no liberation."

• American Counseling Association. (2010). American Counseling Association competencies for counseling with transgender clients. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 4, 135–159. doi: 10.1080/15538605.2010.524839
• American Psychological Association. (2015). Psychological practice guidelines with transgender and gender nonconforming clients. American Psychologist, 7(9), 832–864.
• Coleman, E., Bockting, W., Botzer, M., Cohen-Kettenis, P., DeCuypere, G., Feldman, J., ... Zucker, K. (2012). Standards of care for the health of transsexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people, 7th version. International Journal of Transgenderism, 13, 165–232. doi:10.1080/15532739.2011.700873
• Singh, A. A. & dickey, l. m. (Eds.; 2017). Affirmative counseling and psychological practice with transgender and gender nonconforming clients. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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APA Books

• Handbook of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in Counseling and Psychotherapy, Second Edition
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• HIV+ Sex: The Psychological and Interpersonal Dynamics of HIV-Seropositive Gay and Bisexual Men's Relationships
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• The Lives of LGBT Older Adults: Understanding Challenges and Resilience
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• Multicultural Care: A Clinician's Guide to Cultural Competence
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