Counselling on Transgender Issues

ithin the last decade there has been a revolution in world awareness of the range of human gender experience and expression. The discovery that someone's internal sense of their gender is not identical to their external sex is on the verge of becoming an accepted universal truth. We all exist on a spectrum between male and female.

The process of exploring and experimenting with one's gender is called gender transition and it is becoming an increasingly familiar phenomenon. Everyone knows about prominent trans people in the arts, sports and politics and more of us have friends or family members who have made a complete or partial transition from one gender to the other.

In America, this process of change is viewed holistically as a journey towards achieving someone's full human potential. It can be seen as a process of growing self-awareness and self-care, with the goal of becoming fully your own unique self, making it much more than a mere sequence of physical changes. Psychotherapy serves as the spoke of the wheel, with other services relevant to transition-hormones, surgery, voice coaching, for instance-provided by referral to specialists as needed.

Preparation for living in a new gender or with a different gender expression proceeds in a highly individualised fashion that acknowledges established medical guidelines. Additionally, knowledgeable counselling with reference to one's relationships and work-life is provided. Significant Others can also participate in sessions when desired.

A gender specialist for over 25 years, Dr Kenneth Demsky is a former Postdoctoral Fellow of the Program in Human Sexuality of the University of Minnesota Medical School (Minneapolis, Minnesota), a founding member of the Transgender Task Force of Fenway Community Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts), a full member of the World Professional Association for Trans Health, a former trustee of the Gender Trust and a current board-member of The Beaumont Trust. He has been quoted as an expert on transgenderism in the New York Times and has lectured on the subject in America, the UK and Europe.