Looking for a Gender Therapist? These 2 Things Matter Most!

Dr. Z shares two important things that in her opinion anybody who claims to be a gender therapist or gender specialist must deliver on. Right now, especially, there are many people claiming to be gender therapists and gender specialists, and again and again, Dr. Z sees people come into her office who have spent many months or even years with somebody who claimed to be a gender therapist or specialist—not getting anywhere, spending a lot of time and money, getting very frustrated.

First, what is a gender specialist? The word isn't necessarily regulated—you can't go get a license and become a licensed gender specialist. In Dr. Z's professional opinion, after working close to two decades exclusively with transgender and non-binary adults, a gender specialist is somebody who has devoted enough time—not one year, not two years, not even five years, but in the very least perhaps 10 years—working either exclusively or primarily with transgender and non-binary folks. What makes somebody specialized is not that they use the word specialist, but how many years they have spent and how many individuals with gender issues and manifestations of gender dysphoria they've worked with.

Specialists of any kind in any profession are often going to cost you more than generalists. The reason specialists have to charge more is because they deliver more value and give you value back in a shorter period of time than you would have gotten at the same value (if at all) with a generalist. This is why these two things are a must.

Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses what clarity and guidance actually mean in practice, why gender-affirming doesn't mean blindly affirming everything you feel, and why passive versus active therapeutic approaches matter when you're tormented by confusion and uncertainty.