Main description:

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

Contents:

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 GuidelinesTherapeutic 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 NurtureEssentially Constructed
Categorical Classifications: If the Shoe Doesn't FitForce 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 EmergenceStep-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