 "Photo: Matt Castro")
The Marriage and Family Therapy program at K-State is starting a new specialized treatment team, called the Transgender Therapy Team.
The program will train students in the MFT master’s and doctoral programs to provide therapy services to transgender individuals and individuals who are questioning their gender.
Joyce Baptist, assistant professor of family studies and human services, will oversee the training. She said the program will be headed by two second-year MFT doctoral students who are well-trained in the area. The goal is to train the therapists to provide transgender-sensitive treatment.
Baptist said it is challenging for people to be “out” as a transgender in the community.
“Oftentimes that person is very sheltered and it doesn’t help that there are no specialized treatments and services for people who are transgender or anyone who is questioning their gender,” Baptist said. “This program will equip us to outreach to the transgender community in Manhattan and its surrounding areas.”
Baptist said there was a major gap in the Manhattan community for transgender specialized treatment.
“I was really surprised that there wasn’t another program like this in the community,” said Marjorie Strachman Miller, an MFT doctoral student. “I thought this kind of thing would be really helpful because people who are transgender often get overlooked; often times they are all lumped in with the LGBTQ community.”
The idea to start the training came from Marjorie Strachman Miller, graduate student in marriage an family therapy, when she noticed a lack of services in the community for this type of therapy. She said people who are transgender are in a special situation compared to the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community because there might be medical issues associated with a sexual reassignment surgery, such as hormones or other treatments.
“Oftentimes a therapist is in a position of power because they often do the evaluation of a client before they proceed with their sexual reassignment surgery,” Strachman Miller said. “The therapist often has to sign off on their evaluation.”
Rebecca Culver Turner, an MFT doctoral student, said there are a different set of circumstances surrounding people who are transgender and each person’s experience is unique. She said training will build more awareness surrounding the factors that affect people who are transgender and people who are questioning their genders.
Turner is helping Strachman Miller get the training started so it will have maximum effectiveness. She is helping to gather resources and is coming up with different ideas.
However, the curriculum is still in the beginning stages of development. Baptist estimates the training will start sometime in the spring and will be completely voluntary, meaning MFT students can choose to participate and be trained to work as therapists with people who are transgender.
The training will focus on reducing transphobia, providing information on transgenderism and sexual reassignment surgery and training therapists to transgender-sensitive appropriate treatment, Baptist said.
Strachman Miller said the program will include presentations from other professionals such as Joyce Woodford, a counselor from the K-State Counseling Services. The training will include both didactic and clinical experience.
The clinical training is exclusive for graduate students enrolled in the MFT program. It will not be open to the public. However, the team is considering doing an awareness day and encourages the public refer friends and family who are questioning their gender to seek services at the K-State Family Center. The center offers a range of therapeutic services to the community, which is another effort to provide an inclusive environment.
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