If it is not a choice, why the therapy.|||The reasons are 3 fold:
1. Liability protection for the doctors and surgeons.
2. Weed out non-transsexual people who THINK they are transsexual.
3. Provide support for the transsexual person during transition. Many will say it's not necessary, but in reality transition can be a VERY stressful time. In fact I think transition is one of the most challenging things a human being can do. As a result I think that anyone that says they don't want to have a therapist to help them manage it all is a glutton for punishment. Let's list some of the areas conflict can arise:
Spouse
Family
Friends
Church
Employment
Insurance
Healthcare
Society as a whole
Learning a whole new way of presenting ones self and the rules involved.
Almost forgot.... Hormones!
It can be, and often is, overwhelming. A therapist helps us manage it all and remain in one piece. Personally I didn't look upon it as "gate-keeping", I looked at it this way: I was hiring someone to help maximize my chances of success.
Hope this helps.|||It's not so much for the trans person's protection, as much as it is to cover the a**es of the doctors and surgeons involved.
This way if a trans person should for whatever reason, regret their decision following their surgery, the docs and surgeons have a recourse of "well, we explained the consequences and they were ok with everything that was discussed" kind of thing.
Trust me, nothing goes on in the medical field without TONS of documentation. I should know. I work in a hospital. I'm also trans by the way too.
We don't just get counseling before the SRS. We get counseling long before that. Before we ever even start hormones we go through counseling. It's part of a ritual some self appointed brainiac psychologist thought we needed called the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care. It's a way to make sure we're following the 'correct' transition path, so we (more like THEM) don't make any mistakes or cause any more undue emotional and psychological suffering to the patient.|||A primary reason is to ensure that the person about to go through surgery is in fact transsexual. There are other psychological conditions that can mask themselves as the person thinking that they are transsexual. One of those conditions is Bipolar Disorder. Another is a homophobic gay person. They feel that the reason they are attracted to someone of their physical sex is because they must really be the other gender; aka they cannot possibly be a gay person because they despise gays so much.
Besides protecting the surgeons, this has the effect of trying to assure that the process has a very high success rate. For someone to fake their way through the process, the results are a disaster. The person is turned into a transsexual by the surgery. This has happened.
Frequently, transpeople are also dealing with symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. The therapist helps to keep a watch on those symptoms and to keep those symptoms in check.
For me, my therapist is my ally in the transition process, not a gatekeeper.|||The psychological assessment is to ensure that only those who are trans undergo transition.
There are apparently a few other situations where a person will think they need SRS and such. One is OCD... which boggled my mind when I was told about that (by the woman who did my psychological assessment). Others are things of a sexual nature, like suppressed abuse or such. That's not to say being diddled as a kid makes you trans, it just makes you all sorts of messed up if you don't have that dealt with and can confuse you and make you want to run as far away from the situation as you can.
"therapy" and "counseling" are sort of odd terms to me, because neither apply to my transition. I walked into my GPs office, asked for a referral to an endocrinologist, had to go in for a brief assessment to ensure I was trans, and within four hours of "psychological evaluation" it was confirmed I'm trans and that HRT and SRS were right for me.
I didn't need anyone to tell me I'm trans, it's just a protective measure to ensure that I can't go sue the doctors later for doing what I asked of them.|||"Gender therapy is for people who either:
1) want sissy training (gender therapist substitutes for usually dominatrix, sometimes dom) with a certificate redeemable for a vaginal graduation badge to be bestowed on the crotch of the sissy submissive at the end of the training
2) want boi training (gender therapist substitutes as dom or dominatrix) with a certificate redeemable for breast removal and a penile badge of male submissiveness bestowed upon them as a graduation reward.
3) desperately wants to feel intimacy and understanding from another person (usually from a woman) to the point they will pay for it with money they usually can't afford."
Polargirl360 - do everyone a favor and crazy glue your fingers together, and then crazy glue your hands over your mouth for added safety. You and a computer keyboard are a dangerous combination.|||In addition to a proper diagnosis of gender dysphoria and to prevent out of control transvestites from going down a dangerous path, (happens too much), we have issues to deal with due to societies ignorance.
Radgal hit on this. Sadly, we must learn to deal with other peoples problems with us. Not our fault just society and its ignorance about transsexuality. Look at all the hate that is thrown at us from everyone possible. Including our own LGBTs like Pete C who is a prime example of everything that is wrong in that segment of society.
We have courtesy of society and ignorance"
No civil rights
No insurance coverage
Joblessness
Hate crimes
and of course murder!
Sharon|||You want to weed out the crazies, and you want to make sure that the person understands the real world consequences of the therapy. But mostly it's just pomposity and arrogance on the part of the medical establishment.|||To weed out those that just think it would be cute to be the opposite sex, or try lying about being transsexual. Please read the Standards Of Care (SOC).....
http://wpath.org/Documents2/socv6.pdf|||To make sure they're 100% certain they want the surgery and are not going to make the wrong decision with results that will affect them for their entire life.|||The therapy is to make sure that they really want to go through with the surgery, not to "cure" them.|||Counseling is NOT necessary to get SRS. As long as a patient has a minimum of two evaluations by the same therapist a year apart when living as their target gender, that will suffice.
My boyfriend seen a therapist only twice in his life and had top surgery eight years ago. I only seen a therapist once for a letter to change the sex designation on my driver license and a letter for hormones. The same therapist I've seen agreed to give me my letter for SRS the next time I see her when I spoke to her years later. I haven't done that because I can't afford SRS at the moment.This is from a therapist that is by far the most experienced and conservative with her approvals in Portland, OR.
I was living as a female full-time already for barely over the three months minimum for hormones, already on hormones from a clinic in New York City, a legal name change process filed and pending, living 290 miles away in southern Oregon from the nearest gender therapist, and a lack of a previous sexual history (gay or straight) when she approved me.
Although three months living full time is a necessary requirement for hormones and a year for surgery, counseling is NOT necessary during that time. Just proof of living full time is.
No ethical therapist can deny you surgery if you've been living full time as your target gender for years and can prove it.
Gender therapy is for people who either:
1) want sissy training (gender therapist substitutes for usually dominatrix, sometimes dom) with a certificate redeemable for a vaginal graduation badge to be bestowed on the crotch of the sissy submissive at the end of the training
2) want boi training (gender therapist substitutes as dom or dominatrix) with a certificate redeemable for breast removal and a penile badge of male submissiveness bestowed upon them as a graduation reward.
3) desperately wants to feel intimacy and understanding from another person (usually from a woman) to the point they will pay for it with money they usually can't afford.
If you want to live as the opposite gender than that of what every one else told you that you have to live as growing up, you can without other people's permission (especially a sissy trainer's or boi trainer's).
The trainers are there for those that want them (and most SRS seekers seemingly do) however; often as a free complimentary or heavily discounted service when they buy health insurance.
Those that know who they are and what they are going to do, do just that and pass up on the consensual BDSM humiliation activities.
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