3 Supporting clients through transitioning
In order to support trans clients, it is important to understand ‘transitioning’. To consider this further, try the next exercise.
Activity 3.1: What is transitioning?
a.
Accurate
b.
Inaccurate
The correct answer is b.
Discussion
In the past, stories about trans people have been overly focused on the external changes they may go through, whereas the internal experience of trans people has been largely invisible. Trans people were referred to with unhelpful phrases like ‘born in the wrong body’ or ‘sex change’, ‘used to be a girl’ or ‘wants to be a man’. These ways of thinking focus on the trans person’s body and the idea that changing their body is an integral part of being trans, and that the unhelpful notion that they ‘become’ who they are through a medical process.
a.
Accurate
b.
Inaccurate
The correct answer is a.
Discussion
It can be more helpful to understand trans as something a person just is. Accessing medical transition can be thought of as one possible accommodation for a trans person – a way for them to be able to live more congruently, comfortably and authentically. However, different trans people will need different accommodations, and not all trans people will require or want to access medical transition.
There is no one way to transition
Trans communities are diverse, and each trans person needs different accommodations in order to thrive. While UK culture might be preoccupied by a person’s genitals, trans people themselves might feel more incongruence with other aspects of their body, such as their facial hair, voice, hips, body fat, hairline, or chest, for example.
Or, they may be comfortable with their body, but experience incongruence with the identity people assume from that body. Changing their name and pronouns may be more important and meaningful to them, for example, and other people’s accommodation (or not) of this is more psychologically supportive than any medical process.
Lesson
Don’t assume what transitioning might mean for a trans person – ask.