For them to receive the proper medication and treatment they were told to provide evidence that has to with 2 different letters, the first letter had to be written about the hormone therapy and the second letter was for surgery. Men that were transitioning were partner up with psychotherapist professionals, the psychotherapist were responsible for putting the letters together for there patients and of course asking multiple questions oh how they were feeling about the process as they continued through the assessments. The process had a course of 12 months of activities and treatments, they were assessed 8 time points using different methods. The assessments that were conducted included validated outcome measures, clinical interview for letter writing purposes with additional outcomes measures, and evaluating the process of letter writing was an aspect of psychotherapy, they were recommended to join this process because they figured it would provide improvement on the client outcomes.
It was an specific person they were studying on and his name was Lia he is a Latina, queer, transgender woman he was 18 at the time while going through this process, some of his family didn’t approve of the decision he was making and not only did he not get approval from some of his family it came out on middle school that he was gay so of course he started to get bullied, the only two people that did accepted him for he was really wanted to be was his mother and grandmother, he understood that living the lifestyle of transition into a women came with consequences such as not speaking to his father and grandfather again and he was okay with that and that didn’t stop him from showing up to his appointments. The type of research method that was used was “The SOC Version 7 the SOC version 7 indicate that psychotherapists should have specific knowledge related to gender dysphoria and must obtain continuing education related to working with transgender clients when writing letters for hormones and/or surgery, be knowledgeable about general assessment procedures but also assessments to be provided for the information placed in the letter, provide information regarding options for gender identity and possible medical interventions, assess for comorbid diagnoses, assess for eligibility for hormone therapy and surgeries (e.g., it is recommended that transgender women wait 1 year after starting estrogen- or testosterone-blocking therapies to obtain breast augmentation due to determining natural breast growth), ensure that clients’ comorbid diagnoses are “reasonably well controlled” for hormone referrals, check “full time” status, have a master’s degree or PhD to write letters for hormones and chest surgery (only one letter required), and have a PhD to write letters for genital surgery (two letters required)”.
Exactly what they measured were transgender outness inventory it basically examines how open they are about their gender identity, the OI examines gives back results on how openly discussed with another social network. Multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS; zaimet dahlem zaimet, & Farley, 1988). This part shows that the family tries to help out and be more consiterant and Lia is more open with talking about his problem without feeling embarrassed. The scale are for social support and how they move up and down for example, SO stands for significant other, F stands for family, and FR is for friends and as they go on the scale .92 is for SO .87 for F and .85 for FR and like previously said those number indicate his family being more open, on the other scale before the new results they progress was horrible but as time when on it progressed just like the hypotheses suspect they new this job were a perfect fit for psychotherapist because they knew they would provide improvement on the client outcomes. Finally, client task- specific change measure -revised (CTSC-R). This shows patients self-respect behavior change and awareness and how the therapy has contributed to there life style changes. On this scale they are measuring from 1-7 on how good of a job they therapist did.
The main results of the article are to highlight gatekeeping role of psychotherapists when assisting transgender with their medical transition process. In the beginning of the article Lia was a little worried and depressed because you she didn’t have lots of friends and family that supported her and that brought her confidence level down, she was semi suicidal at a very young age it was just hard for her to express her emotions at the beginning. As time went by she was able to communicate more noted by the evidence-based case study Lia reported improvement in her mental health, support, and identity process. She agreed that having he psychotherapy really helped her with her mood swings really with helping her express her emotions. At first Lia didn’t know about having to put together two letters in order to have the treatments and surgery but once she found out about it mad her confidence level increases juts knowing that she has someone helping her achieve her goal and wants her to be happy made her feel really good. She did have a fear of going into the program and being paired up with someone that didn’t know anything about transgender or wasn’t going to be able to help her get to the next step so as a psychotherapist that was their job to give them as much information as possible and make them feel comfortable in their own skin. In addition, Lia had a problem with accepting that she had a mental disorder which that s very common for new people that are transitioning but at the same time the psychotherapist always kept her up dated on why she had to take the medication and being reminded always made her feel better.
My personal take on this article I like the way they went about things they didn’t make the experience about other people they made it about their patient they made them feel comfortable in their skin, made they not be afraid to express their emotion, made them more confident they never had them second guessing they were always them to motivate them keep them going with the process. I liked the fact that Lia’s parents finally came around and started loving him unconditionally started opening they hearts for him and started to see that he didn’t choose to be that way but that’s what god wanted him to be, I’m glade that they realized that they raised a wonderful respectful person and they were very good parents and they wasn’t anything they could’ve done to make him change his mind on what he wanted to become. I feel like people that are afraid to come out the closet because they are worried about what they think other people will say should just say screw them because at the end of that this is life and no one is going to look after you but you, no one is going to pa your bills, make sure you are taken care of, make sure your eating no one is doing none of that stuff for you and until you find someone that is willing to take care of you sure they can have a say so but if their not doing anything for you they can just go mind their business.
