What is a gender therapist?
Coming out as trans, nonbinary, or exploring your gender identity can be a major life experience. Having mental health support during this time is important, and working with a therapist who specializes in trans issues is crucial. Not all therapists have the knowledge or experience to understand the nuances of being trans+ or to support you in your gender journey.
A gender therapist is someone who specializes in supporting trans+ people with their mental health, helps you explore gender identity in affirming ways, and may even be able to write letters of support for gender-affirming medical and surgical care.
Here are four signs of a good gender therapist:
They don’t burden you to educate them on trans+ identities and topics.
A good gender therapist already knows a lot about trans+ identities, topics, and mental health. While they may not know everything, you shouldn’t frequently feel like you need to educate them about trans and nonbinary topics. Therapy should focus on you and your mental health, not teaching trans 101 to your therapist.
They don’t inflate or overemphasize your gender identity.
It’s not good if your therapist frequently brings up gender identity or expression when it’s unrelated to what you’re talking about in therapy. If you have a good gender therapist, they will be able to balance between discussing your gender identity and discussing other topics related to your mental health and well-being.
They don’t invalidate your identity or dead name you.
Your gender therapist should trust you to know your own gender identity. They should respect your identity. They should never imply that your gender identity or expression is just a phase or refer to you incorrectly (e.g. dead name, incorrect pronouns).
They affirm you, affirm trans+ people, and celebrate trans+ identities.
A good gender therapist voices frustration that society makes things so difficult for trans+ people. They understand that trans joy is a form of resistance. They will affirm your gender identity and expression in session and celebrate significant milestones in your gender journey with you.
Can a gender therapist diagnose gender dysphoria?
Yes, and this diagnosis should be a collaborative process. In my opinion, a diagnosis of gender dysphoria shouldn’t be documented in your medical chart without your awareness and consent. If you are pursuing gender-affirming surgery, most insurances will require your therapist to assess for a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
Other care providers can diagnose gender dysphoria. If you are working with a medical provider to begin HRT, they can likely diagnose gender dysphoria. Currently in Minnesota, you do not have to meet with a therapist who diagnoses you with gender dysphoria to receive HRT. You can go directly to your medical provider to consult about gender dysphoria and HRT.
One thing I want to make clear is that being trans+ is not a mental health disorder.
How to find a gender therapist in Minneapolis, MN
This is a LGBTQ+ specific therapy directory that allows you to filter by therapist identity and people they are specialized to work with. For example, if you specifically want to work with a trans, nonbinary, or gender queer therapist, you can filter for that in the directory. You can also filter by the age and LGBTQ+ identities that the therapist is specialized to work with (labeled as ‘Populations’). This setting helps you filter for whether you are looking for a therapist who specializes in working with trans+ and nonbinary folks.
All in all, it is a great local directory that offers some LGBTQ+ specific filters that you won’t find with other online directories.
Therapy Den & Mental Health Match
These are national directories and are not LGBTQ-specific. You can search for a LGBTQ+ therapist in Minneapolis or Minnesota by selecting your desired location and LGBTQ+ related search filters. Therapy Den offers a search filter for the specialty Gender Identity and a Specialized Experience filter for a therapist who is Trans-Competent.
Mental Health Match begins your search by having you set your location. What’s nice about Mental Health Match compared to other directories is it leads you through a series of questions to match you with a therapist. Then it generates a list of therapists in order of the best to the least best match for you. This helps cut down on feeling overwhelmed by search results and prioritizes therapist-client fit when generating search results for you.
Mental Health Match will ask for your gender (including an option for ‘questioning’) when you complete the matching process. Itwill also ask you to select topics that you’d like to discuss in therapy, such as ‘gender identity or transition.’
Personal Recommendations
Asking your friends can be a great way to find a gender therapist. They might recommend a therapist they worked with in the past, or they might have a friend, or friend of a friend, who recommends a particular therapist. Your personal network is much more vast than you realize, so asking around might give you leads you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Plus, recommendations from friends means the therapist has been personally vetted by someone you trust.
If you don’t want to ask your close friends, you can ask other trans-affirming or queer professionals you know. Do you have a trans-affirming primary care provider? Odds are they have referrals for some local gender therapists they can offer you. What about asking your queer yoga teacher, hairdresser, or esthetician? They might have some helpful recommendations to share. Are you part of any LGBTQ+ organizations at work or at school? These organizations may also have a list of gender therapists they recommend. Ask yourself “Where do I interact with fellow queer and trans people?” and those are the people you can ask for a therapy referral.
Crowdsourcing is another way to snag some personal recommendations. You can post to your social media asking folks to name gender therapists they recommend. Another option is to search through local LGBTQ+ facebook groups (such as Queer Exchange MPLS/St. Paul) or discord servers for past posts about gender therapists.
You deserve to be supported and loved for who you are.
If you’re looking for a gender therapist in Minneapolis, MN, reach out to me for a free consult. I am a trans-specialized bi/queer therapist. I provide online therapy for LGBTQ+ people located throughout Minnesota. You can have a life where you are affirmed, celebrated, and supported in your trans identity. Let’s connect and nurture what your trans identity means to you. I’d love to support you.
This blog post is informed by the following research:
Velez, B. L., Scheer, J. R., Adames, C. N., Cavic, E., & Breslow, A. S. (2024). Development and validation of the Gender Identity and Expression Microaggressions in Therapy Scale (GIEMTS). Psychotherapy, 61(2), 110–124. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000523