‘Not Becoming Mother’: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Therapeutic Relationship with Transgender Clients

ABSTRACT

LGBTI clients present specific challenges for the mental health profession with key issues for transgender people identified as including isolation, fear, stigma, and family rejection, all of which contribute to the transgender community's high levels of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, self-harm, and suicide. This qualitative research paper explores the experiences of Irish psychotherapists working with transgender clients to explore specifically the nature of the therapeutic relationship. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, it examines the subjective experience of three participant psychotherapists and endeavours to make sense of the phenomenology that emerged from semi-structured interviews. The phenomenological analysis of the data collected resulted in three salient themes emerging: (i) Therapeutic identification, (ii) Maternal countertransference, and (iii) Confusion. It is hoped that these findings which relate to the therapeutic relationship will be of utmost importance to others working within the mental health profession where recovery is dependent on the strength of this relationship.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Authorship statement

All of the authors listed meet the authorship criteria according to the latest guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and all authors are in agreement with the manuscript.

Authorship declaration

Mr. Kevin Harmon was the main author of this work, part of the requirements of an MA in Psychotherapy partially supervised by Dr. Gráinne Donohue, who also contributed to the editing and writing of this paper.