The Dilemma of Therapist Self-Disclosure in Transgender Group Therapy

ABSTRACT

Therapist self-disclosure can be a powerful yet highly personal tool in clinical work. Specifically for LGBTQ+ patients, the therapist’s self-disclosure of LGBTQ+ identity may foster empowerment and build the alliance. It may also risk misattunement and erasure. The therapist remaining silent may center the patient’s experience; it may also model the therapist’s internalized oppression. This is further complicated by the group setting and format, as well as the therapist’s own stage of identity development in both professional and personal spheres. This dilemma is considered through a case presentation of a trans student support group I led as a queer therapist during my doctoral training. The case and subsequent reflection question the need for a binary, fixed perspective on therapist-self disclosure, as identity and relationship are not static but ever-changing.

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge my co-leader (whose name I omit to protect her privacy and the confidentiality of group members); she gave me the space to be seen and the opportunity to first voice these thoughts. Thanks to Drs. Paul Gedo, Natalia Báez-Powell, and Samuel Salamon for their support in preparing some of these ideas for the 2020 Division 39 annual conference. Lastly, thanks to Lara Sheehi for her expansion of these ideas and encouragement toward publication.

Declaration of Interest

No potential competing interest was reported by the author.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ I choose to use the term “queer” to refer to myself and those who identify as non-heterosexual and non-cisgender; I do so to reclaim the term from its historically pejorative meanings.

² I am choosing to withhold details about the site as a means of safeguarding patient confidentiality.

³ This use of “queer” comes from Queer Theory, as the process of questioning what is systemically considered natural or typical, and centering what may otherwise be disregarded or denigrated (Dadlani, 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Celeste M. Kelly

Celeste M. Kelly, Psy.D. (they/she) works in private practice with Dougan & Walden Wellness, PLLC, in Richmond, VA. Their work focuses on gender and sexual identity development as it intersects with other multicultural identities and trauma, and the importance of the therapist’s own identity development in intersectional feminist practice. They earned their Psy.D. and completed their postdoctoral fellowship at the Professional Psychology Program of George Washington University.