Hey everyone.
I am working on my masters in clinical mental health counseling, and I want to be multiculturally sensitive, including regarding the LGBTQ+ community.
I am a straight, cisgender male, and I have only had a handful of gay and trans friends/acquaintances. Multicultural awareness is certainly part of my education, but I don't believe it is close to enough. I want to hear from communities themselves, not just textbooks.
If you feel comfortable, I would really appreciate your feedback to make me a more effective counselor working with people in your demographic.
How can I best serve you?
What have you wished a past counselor could have understood?
What really pissed you off in a therapy session?
What is the most important thing for me to try to understand?
I hope this is received well. I genuinely want to be able to effectively serve all people.
I maybe got a little carried away in this comment.
TL,DR: lack of privacy, security, communication, and respect
I'm not going to discuss the conservative "therapist" I had. I did eventually get an LGBTQ-friendly therapist.
I discovered that my therapist was typing up her notes on a Windows computer with a keylogger enabled by default, sending the data to Microsoft. The notes were also stored unencrypted on a server accessible by the entire IT department of the clinic.
She didn't understand the issue. This clearly voids patient-doctor confidentiality, and it destroyed my trust in the clinic.
I've experienced another issue while searching for a new therapist.
I found a therapist on the psychology today site that listed a full address. I showed up to make an appointment for a first session just to learn that she doesn't accept new clients without a phone call or email.
The only reason I had considered her was that she listed a full address, implying that phone and email weren't needed.
So I would recommend clearly communicating things like this, be privacy-conscious, and respect patient-doctor confidentiality. Without these fundamentals, there is no foundation of trust and respect.
I think the most important thing to understand for trans patients is that everyone's transition is unique, including the personal story.
So for instance, some trans girls/women say they were always a girl/woman, while others say they became a girl/woman.
It's important to listen and understand the individual and not get ahead of yourself.
I hope this is helpful, or at least interesting.