Your feelings about your therapist

[KathrynJulia]

Hi Everybody

I feel that spending quality time with a good therapist is very important. I've carriied around the knowledge of who I was since I was a young child. Society forced me to stand in the shadows and that has caused me some real psychological trauma along the way. Joanne my therapist has helped me to get through those issues and to gain confidence that I finally can be me and also give me practical advice on how to talk to people about my transition. Doing that alone can be done. But all of us just have one shot at our loved ones and what their first perceptions of the new me are. How you approach family and friends can have a large impact on the rest of your life. Will they take me seriously? How will they react with the news. Over time, I have become an expert in hiding my feminine side from everybody including myself. Joanne has heped me to realize that we hide ourselves from ourselves. We learn to live in denial and denial is a safe place to hide in. My therapist has helped me peel away those multiple denial layers. I hope your experiences with your therapist are as positive and as uplifting as Joanne is for me.

KathrynJulia

[Guest MiraJ]

I agree with you. To me it was very important that i get a GT that i can connect to and i feel comfortable with. Otherwise i would have never opened up all the way and that would have led to incomplete sessions.

Mira

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I was horribly terrified to start therapy. I will admit that. Now - oh my oh my oh my! She is a wonder!

Lizzy

[KathrynJulia]

I remember when my therapist convinced to come out to my doctor. That was the most terrifying and wonderful moment in my life. Joanne, i couldn't have ever done it without you, shaking legs and all.

Kathryn

[Guest KarenLyn]

I was my therapist's second transsexual patient. To be fair, she was an excellent therapist, she just lacked experience. Every appointment was a surprise, more for her than for me. I was dressed as male for the initial appointment but that was the only time. Apparently her first trans patient was taking her time. It all worked out.

Karen

[Guest RainbowGoth98]

Well, my therapist is an older woman who built her career around LGBT youth/couples.

[Guest Mia J]

I think that a good gender therapist can make major differences in our lives by not only helping with our GID but helping us figure out what steps we want to take on our journey.

My first therapist was 20 years ago and while she had some experience with some gender issues I did not find her really supporting and did not really have a good experience.

My current GT is fantastic. She is very supportive and I always feel great every time I leave her office after a session.

Mia

[Guest ZoeG360]

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much i have been hiding all my life. We are experts at it. What you (your therapist) said about having been hiding ourselves from ourselves is profound, Its the opposite of the way I have always thought about it.

I have always thought that I was hiding myself from everyone else, but upon reflection, I see the point. By being hidden, I had no idea who I really was until my GT helped me really see her/me. And once that happened, I have been losing the need to hide.

Thank you for that

Zoe

[MackenzieB]

Mine (er, the most recent anyway) was real good. Granted, she'd never written a letter before. But she actually met with my Doc to find out what he'd want in a letter. I think I night have been a learning experience for her. Did I gain much from our relationship? Nah, not really. But I set myself up for that from the beginning. She was my 4th due to not liking the first all that much and my relocating prior to, and after, a brief relationship with the third. The second one did the most for me. By the time I got to the fourth, it was pretty much strictly for "the letter". And I told her that at our first encounter. So while it was fun (She's a real nice person), nothing much constructive came from it. But then again, it did exactly what I wanted it to do.

I might go and start seeing a therapist again. Might as well be my previous one as she already knows me. I think my marriage may be heading onto someplace else. But for now I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude toward it. It's more of a "damned if I do and damned if I don't" train of thought at this point. We've been geographically apart for about 2 1/2 years. That saying about distance making the heart grow fonder is a lie (IMHO). I could just as easily exit the marriage and move on as I could stay in it at this point. I can't figure out too many reasons for staying. But I have no Earth shattering reason to leave. It's not like I've been swept off of my feet by anybody and I'm not looking for somebody else in my life right now anyway.