1 Introduction
The purpose of this CPD course is to improve the cultural competence of practitioners who may work or are working therapeutically with trans people. Trans cultural competence helps to ensure practitioners are in a position to provide benefit rather than harm to trans clients who routinely access their services.
Who is this training for?
This CPD is for anyone offering therapeutic or mental health support to trans people, e.g., practitioner psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists. Robust, self-reflective engagement with the course material should significantly develop a practitioner’s ability to engage with, empathise with, and understand the needs of their trans clients. This CPD may also usefully update the knowledge of people already working with trans people, including trans practitioners.
What this CPD does not do
As an 8-hour introductory CPD, this course does not provide sufficient training for people intending to specialise in working with gender diversity. Completion of the course is not a qualification or a guarantee of competencies. For those who complete this course and are interested in seeking further training, suggestions can be found in the Resources to support further learning section of the course.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this 8-hour course, you will:
- Have a critical awareness of the impact of (historical) pathologising of trans identities on the mental health treatment experiences of trans people today.
- Have reflected on the meaning of their own opinions, experiences and practices in relationship to therapy practice for trans people.
- Understand the range of ways that trans people have experienced psychological therapies/psychological therapists.
- Have considered the importance of an affirmative therapy model and learned what this might encompass.
You have read the learning outcomes but what do you want to gain from this course?
Pause for Reflection
Please take a few minutes to reflect, and take our pre-course survey.
Discussion
You might have had some experience of working with trans clients and want to learn more to improve your ability to support such clients, or this may be a totally new subject to you. If you don’t feel very confident don’t worry – engaging with this CPD will help.
A word about ethics
This training aims to improve your ability to work with trans clients in a non-discriminatory way. The ethical codes of most professional bodies in psychological therapies, including the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and the British Psychological Society (BPS), expect a commitment to anti-discriminatory practice.