1st Edition

Transgender Emergence Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families

By Arlene Istar Lev, Arlene Istar Lev Copyright 2004
    500 Pages
    by Routledge

    500 Pages
    by Routledge

    Explore an ecological strength-based framework for the treatment of gender-variant clients

    This comprehensive book provides you with a clinical and theoretical overview of the issues facing transgendered/transsexual people and their families. Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families views assessment and treatment through a nonpathologizing lens that honors human diversity and acknowledges the role of oppression in the developmental process of gender identity formation.

    Specific sections of Transgender Emergence: Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families address the needs of gender-variant people as well as transgender children and youth. The issues facing gender-variant populations who have not been the focus of clinical care, such as intersexed people, female-to-male transgendered people, and those who identify as bigendered, are also addressed.

    The book examines:

    • the six stages of transgender emergence
    • coming out transgendered as a normative process of gender identity development
    • thinking "outside the box" in the deconstruction of sex and gender
    • the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as the convergence, overlap, and integration of these parts of the self
    • the power of personal narrative in gender identity development
    • etiology and typographies of transgenderism
    • treatment models that emerge from various clinical perspectives
    • alternative treatment modalities based on gender variance as a normative lifecycle developmental process
    Complete with fascinating case studies, a critique of diagnostic processes, treatment recommendations, and a helpful glossary of relevant terms, this book is an essential reference for anyone who works with gender-variant people. Handy tables and figures make the information easier to access and understand.

    Visit the author's Web site at http://www.choicesconsulting.com

    • Foreword
    • Preface: Overview of Transgender Emergence
    • Acknowledgments
    • Introduction
    • The Language of Gender
    • Gender Dysphoria and Etiological Theories
    • The Families of Transgendered People
    • The Need for Training
    • Part I: Theoretical Understandings of Transgenderism
    • Chapter 1. The Transsexual Phenomenon Meets the Transexual Menace
    • Compassionate and Controversial Treatment of Transsexuals
    • The Mental Health Professional As Gatekeeper
    • Clinical Guidelines—Therapeutic Standards of Care
    • Chapter 2. The Legacy: Gender Variance in History
    • The Historical Legacy
    • Medical Science and Gender Variance
    • Chapter 3. Deconstructing Sex and Gender: Thinking Outside the Box
    • Four Components of Identity
    • Deconstructing the Assumptions of Sexual Identity
    • Part II: Diagnosis and Assessment
    • Chapter 4. Etiologies: Causes and Categories
    • Etiological Theories: Nature and Nurture—Essentially Constructed
    • Categorical Classifications: If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit—Force It
    • Chapter 5. Diagnosis and Transgenderism: The Creation of Pathology
    • The Power of Diagnosis
    • Gender As Pathological Diagnosis
    • Part III: Treatment Issues
    • Chapter 6. Learning to Listen to Gender Narratives
    • Mental Health Issues and Transgenderism
    • Clients Seeking Therapy
    • Transgender Narratives
    • Therapist As Midwife: The Birth of Story
    • Chapter 7. Transgender Emergence: A Developmental Process
    • Coming Out
    • Transgender Emergence
    • Chapter 8. Family Emergence
    • Partners, Spouses, and Significant Others
    • Developmental Stages for Family Members
    • Families Coping with Transgenderism
    • TransParents See
    • Chapter 9. Transgendered Children and Youth
    • Treatment, Prevention, and Parental Rights
    • Families with Gender-Variant Children
    • Gender Variance and Progressive Treatments
    • Transgender Emergence—Step-by-Step Maturation
    • Chapter 10. The Treatment of Intersexed People: Time for a New Paradigm
    • Assigning Sex and the Modern Medical Protocols
    • Creating Psychosocial Emergency
    • Standards of Humane Treatment for Intersexed People
    • Appendix A. The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Definition of Transsexualism
    • Appendix B. Common Intersexed Conditions
    • Appendix C. Letters of Recommendation for Hormones
    • Glossary
    • References
    • Index

    Biography

    Arlene Istar Lev, Arlene Istar Lev