I am a transgender man who has been navigating a medical and social transition since 2015. I became a social worker with a focus in mental healthcare specifically to support transgender & nonbinary clients and their families navigate elements of their transitions as well as providing various other kids of mental health support (including but not limited to addressing self esteem, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness skills, boundary setting & self advocacy, processing & healing trauma, etc.). I earned my LLMSW in Oct.2020 and earned my LMSW in Oct. 2022.
I have written over 3 dozen letters of support following the WPATH Standards of Care for clients seeking to access gender-affirming medical care (primarily surgeries with a few HRT letters for minors).
I am a referral source for Powers Family Medicine in Farmington Hills, MI as a mental health professional qualified to conduct informed consent sessions for patients preparing to begin gender-affirming hormone therapy.
I have completed a Dismantling Oppression Certificate Course in early 2022, further equipping me with skills to integrate anti-oppressive practices into my therapy sessions and professional perspective.
I am a member and a referral source for GALAP, Transgender Michigan, and Transcend the Binary.
I have a number of projects related to gender-affirming care going on, including: guest lecturing at the University of Michigan School of Social Work to discuss barriers to accessing care for transgender & nonbinary clients; designing and facilitating a training for therapists to learn how to conduct assessments for gender-affirming letters of support; developing a treatment plan template for treating various levels of gender-related distress/gender dysphoria; developing a screening tool / questionnaire intended to gauge intensity of gender-related distress; and creating a consultation group to support therapists in providing trauma-informed, gender-affirming mental healthcare.
I have created a template for therapists to use to write WPATH Letters of Support including clinical considerations upon doing so.