How to ask for a gender dysphoria diagnosis from my therapist

[Jax McLaurin]

I am a 16 yr old trans masc nonbinary person whom deals with a lot of gender dysphoria. (as most trans people do) I have a therapist to help me anxiety problems I have. Although she knows that i deal with dysphoria, we usually only talk about dealing with my anxiety (granted I have only seen her four times). I would really like to get a diagnosis so i can go on low dose testosterone and get top surgery later in life but idk how to ask her to diagnosis me. Should I wait until i have been in therapy for longer or should I ask now? And how do I ask for something like that? I know who I am and I know that I want to be able to start these things when i am 18+ but I know how difficult it is to get prescribed testosterone so I thought that it would be a good idea to get my gender dysphoria diagnosis out of the way while I am still young. Help?

[VickySGV]

Best way of all is to simply say that you believe you have Gender Dysphoria and is the therapist able to handle it.  The therapist likely will tell you its about time you got honest and lets go ahead and talk about it.  If the therapist has not dealt with Trans people before there are two possibilities that will happen fast.  If the therapist is NOT comfortable or knowledgeable, they can refer you to another Therapist who is comfortable and able to handle it.  The second one is that they may ask you to be their first client on the basis of them doing continuing professional enrichment.  Third possibility, again being hones and upfront would be to contact your local LGBTQ Community Center and get a lead or referral to a therapist that does know their stuff up front.  Work on getting the basic GD load out on the table first, leave the details of what you will do alone for time being or you can foul yourself up and prolong the time if they think you do not know what you want and need to learn more details, but they will help you with it.  One step and one day at a time and you will get there. 

[PixieOfTheHills]

On 5/17/2021 at 9:12 AM, Ellie Jean said:

Thirdly, therapists can't diagnose you with gender dysphoria. They can give you their best guess, but they don't actually have the power or authority to give you a clinical diagnosis. Only a certified psychiatrist can do that, meaning, they actually had to go to medical school and become official MDs, (Medical Doctors). 

A therapist is faaar lower on the ladder and doesn't have near as much power or authority lol. Their job is basically just to listen to you fret and worry or whine and complain for an hour, and occasionally offer little insights to you, rarely ever actually offering genuine advice. It's not a therapist's job to give you advice, contrary to popular belief. Their job is to help you help yourself by listening to you and being there for you to bounce ideas off of. You'd be amazed at how much we humans actually already know the answers to our inner problems, but just couldn't realize them until we found ourselves in a setting where we could feel free to talk about anything and everything with a total stranger lol...a total stranger who also happens to be an expert in psychology lol.

This is how I see it, too. 
i actually started a blog here yesterday, and my first entry was ‘you are your therapist’. It describes how actually you are guided to find your own answers. 
 

but to get back to the OP, you are quite free to give *yourself* any diagnosis you want. You can diagnose yourself as being a goat if you want. It’s in your head, and provided you don’t go down the road saying ‘baaaaaaa, I’m a goat.... give me a cabbage’ nobody will look twice at you. 
 

but when it comes to involving other people, and I’m talking about the uk here, OMG, docs want a diagnosis from somebody who is able to go to court, if it ever came to it, and privies beyond  doubt that their diagnosis was based on a professional assessment. A therapist can’t do that. 
 

docs are worried about two things here in the uk. 
1. Being sued at some time for doing something wrong. 
2. only spending money on cases that have a clear diagnosis, prognosis & affordable treatment plan. 
 

then also there’s a waiting list here. Maybe upto two years. It’s actually better to fund it urself, but even then, they’re going to want to check that any treatment is ethically arrived at.  

So, in a nutshell, it really depends on who your intended audience is regarding your diagnosis. Yourself? Go right ahead. It costs nothing, takes two minutes and nobody can eradicate it. For a doctor? Roll up your sleeves.