ABSTRACT
When parents learn that their child is trans or gender expansive (TGE), they often experience a range of reactions, including fear and loss, and seek therapy for assistance in adjusting to their child’s expressions and making grounded decisions about how to proceed. This chapter discusses a gender affirmative model for working with TGE youth and families, including assessing parental attunement, supporting gender expansiveness, psychoeducation with parents, supporting parents’ emotional process, engaging siblings and other family members in therapy, listening to TGE youth about what they need to feel congruent, therapists as advocates, and connecting the family to support systems. Next, intersection considerations are discussed, focusing on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and religion. The authors reflect on their own relational intersectionality in their work with clients and present a case example to illustrate many of these concepts.
