6 Conclusion

In this last section of this course, you will reflect on what you have learned, whether your own learning goals have been met and what further learning you might want to consider. You will also find out and reflect on how Patrick experienced therapy with Jake and hear from Jake his thoughts about how to work effectively with trans clients.

The aim of this course was to deepen your understanding and thus your confidence and competence in working with trans clients. As a reminder, the course learning outcomes were that by the end of the 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.

In the pre-course survey, you were also asked to consider:

• What drew you to engage with this training material?
• Do you have any questions or concerns at the start of this training?
• How confident do you currently feel working now with trans (including non-binary) people?

According to the Government Equalities Office (2018), there are an estimated 200,000–500,000 trans people in the UK and as you have seen, the ICTA research has shown they carry a considerable mental health burden, whilst struggling to access culturally competent services and enduring protracted waits for healthcare. ICTA participants often identified a need and desire for therapy:

The need, therefore, for therapists with a robust understanding of trans experiences is considerable, as is the need to support trans students to enter and trans therapists to work within the profession.

In this course, you have learned about the ways practitioners can add to the minority stress of trans clients or provide a safer space than the ones they encounter outside of the therapy room, by practising in an affirmative way and consciously considering their unconscious biases around trans people.

It seems appropriate to end this course by hearing from our client and therapist again.

You’ve now come to the end of the course content and it's time to test your knowledge with the end-of-course quiz.

Books and other textual resources

Consider the book written by course co-author Sam Hope:

Hope, S. (2019). Person-Centred Counselling for Trans and Gender Diverse People: A Practical Guide. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Information about their training, free handouts and further resources can be found on Sam’s website.

Websites

Check out the other ICTA learning resources which have lots of videos and information.

Experiences of trans and gender diverse young people: This website provides lots of videos and information and was produced by research team also funded by NIHR.

Sam Hope is a queer, non-binary trans and disabled therapist, clinical supervisor, trainer and author. Sam was Patient and Public Involvement Lead for the ICTA research project on trans adults’ experiences of healthcare. They also acted as a critical reader for the mental health analyses. Sam has also been involved in trans and LGBTQA+ community work as well as the trans inclusive feminism movement for many years. Sam’s book Person Centred Counselling for Trans and Gender Diverse People: A Practical Guide was published in 2019.

Naomi Moller is a heterosexual, cis academic who works at The Open University. A Professor of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Naomi trained as a counselling psychologist. One of the researchers on the NIHR-funded ICTA project on trans people’s experiences of healthcare, Naomi took a lead on the mental health analyses. Naomi has worked with Sam to develop this CPD.

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Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources:

• Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

  Important: *** against any of the acknowledgements below means that the wording has been dictated by the rights holder/publisher, and cannot be changed.

Images:

412920: Course banner: Fox Fisher

412932: 1 Introduction: Fox Fisher

412942: 1.2 A note on language: Fox Fisher

412948: 2 Examining our biases and assumptions: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

581257: 2.1 Unpicking Sex and Gender – Sam Hope: © Sam Hope sam-hope.co.uk

412994: 2.3 Building Empathy: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

412999: 2.4 Thinking about transphobia: Fox Fisher

413007: 2.6 Living with transphobia: ojoel / Getty Images

413010: 3 Supporting clients through transitioning: Fox Fisher

413014: 3.1 Supporting clients around medical transition: Fox Fisher

413019: 3.4 Supporting clients who receive a gender dysphoria diagnosis: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

413025: 3.5 Supporting clients around the impacts of transition delays: Fox Fisher

413032: Summary: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

413036: 4 Creating a safe space for trans clients: Fox Fisher

413038: 4.1 Memorandum of Understanding Against Conversion Therapy: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

413040: 4.2 What is affirmative practice?: Fox Fisher

413043: 4.4 Cissexism and transnormativity: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

413049: 4.6 Affirmative practice and therapy modalities: Fox Fisher

413479: 5 Working with the diversity of the trans community: Fox Fisher

413480: 5 Co-occurring issues and how we view them: Zackary Drucker, The Gender Spectrum Collection, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

413481: 5 When therapists are cis: Fox Fisher

413482: 6 Conclusion: Fox Fisher

Video:

581257: 2.1 Unpicking sex and gender – Sam Hope: © Sam Hope sam-hope.co.uk

Glossary:

©Sam Hope 2025 sam-hope.co.uk