Therapy First Session

[hegemonycando.livejournal.com]

So I'm going to therapy for the first time tomorrow... I'm not really sure how to bring up my transsexuality to this person because I've never even met her. Should I basically throw it out in the open or wait a few sessions? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. :P

When

[transnomore.livejournal.com]

A Hypothetical set of questions.

1. If you were brought up in the Catholic faith in childhood but became a Buddhist when you went to college twenty-five years ago would you
(a) make sure you told every person you met that you were once a Catholic
(b) wear a badge to tell everyone that you weren't always a Buddhist
(c) Behave as the Buddhist you are - you are no longer a Catholic and it was so long ago it shouldn't matter to anyone

2. You are friends with someone who you met at a church discussion group for married women. You hear a rumor that your friend is actually 'living in sin' and isn't married to her husband, even though they've been together for over twenty years. Would you
(a) spread the rumor to everyone else; after all they have a right to know the history of this person even though they are an accepted member of the church community now
(b) spread the runor; if people hate her they might like you more
(c) tell your friend you've heard this rumour and see what she says
(d) tell no-one; if they are a couple and have been together for so long then that is all that matters and telling her or him that you know would hurt them.

3. When you were younger you had an abortion. The only people who know this for sure were your best friend at the time and your mother. You know some other friends had wondered about you disappearing for those few weeks but you've never confirmed or denied it to them as you think it is nobody elses business. Is that something you
(a) agree with; everyone has some things in their past that are nobody elses business and should be left in the past
(b) disagree with; everything about every person should be completely upon to public scrutiny and knowledge

4. You discover - many years after the event - that when your child went through junior high that they were treated as a member of the 'opposite' sex by all the other students and by the staff. They not only associated mostly with the 'opposite' sex but were placed in single-sex classes by the school staff that reflected that and were given a name by students and staff alike which was used throughout their time in school. The name and behaviour weren't used in an antagonistic or derogatory way, it was just that way. Some years later your child has transitions and has gender reassignment surgery. Twenty-five years later do you
(a) tell people you meet that you used to have a child of gender 'a' but they are now gender 'b'
(b) tell people you meet that you have a child of gender 'a'
(c) tell people you meet that you have a child of gender 'b'
(d) not tell people that have any children

5. You are that child. You have been the gender you have always percived yourself to be physically, even though you weren't when younger. Throughout your childhood though and for most of your life since, most people have thought you were the gender you are now even when you weren't trying to appear as anything in particular. You never had the benefit of "male priviledge" as nobody ever thought you were. So far as you know, most people know nothing about you slightly different physical history and that includes most of your lovers over the past thirty years. When one of your former partners was told that there was a rumour about you by a third party they insisted it couldn't be true and denied it. If 'trans-' means the action of changing or moving (transact, transfer, transmutate) and is merely a temporary state of affairs, then are you a 'transexual'
(a) always, without question it is a state that you can never leave behind you
(b) only from the time you seek medical/psychiatric involvement to the end of any SRS or other procedures; after that you are just a normal person
(c) only between the time you go down to theater for SRS and the time you are wheeled back to the ward

6. You lived across the genders since you were a child. You 'transitioned' for all other purposes over 25 years ago and had SRS a couple of years later. It has now been over twenty years since you used any other name or gender identity. Should other people ever say that you are a transexual.
(a) yes
(b) no

7. You become aware that some people keep digging about in your past and spreading what to you is irrelevant, if not actually false, information. You cannot cope with the way people will not let you move on and live your life peacefully. Do you
(a) ignore the knowledge that people are talking about you
(b) try to ignore the knowledge that people are probably talking about you but whilst they don't say it to your face you can just about cope
(c) realise that if too many people decide that you are destined to be trapped by your past you might as well kill yourself as you don't want a life like that

Therapists

[tigerwiccan.livejournal.com]

I've been reading a bit about therapists in genreral on here, and that reminded me of my first (and only, so far) trip to a therapist regarding my gender issues. I had called my company EAP and asked them to give me a list of therapists that dealt in gender issues. I found one that was relatively close, and called her to make an appointment. She verified that she did in fact deal with gender identity issues, so I made an appointment to meet her.

When I went to see her, I told her that I felt like a woman and ultimately would want to transition. She then proceeded to say that I could be just as happy living as a feminine man who occasionally wears women's clothes. For anyone else that has seen a therapist (I'm assuming that alot of people here have), did they first try to tell you that you could be happier as your birth gender, after only 10-20 minutes of conversation? Granted, I told her that I would never kill myself over being a man or anything, but there is big difference between not being totally miserable and being completely happy with myself when I look at a mirror. It seemed to me that her first suggestion to me as my therapist was to just "cope" with being a man. Is that the usual thing they tell people? Her response in that first session totally turned me off to seeing her or any other therapist again for the time. But I know that if I ever want to really transition anytime in the future, I'm going to have to go see another one eventually.

So should I just brace myself for another session like I had with the first therapist, or are there any out there that really understand the issue and don't try to talk you out of it from the start?

(no subject)

[waking-morgan.livejournal.com]

A snippet of a conversation in which our hero reveals some of his secrets to a long-time friend:

( Read more... )

He doesn't quite get it, but he brings up an interesting point. It goes back to my idea in my first entry about dealing with my dysphoria in ways other than transitioning. Any thoughts?