Achieving Competency with Transgender Youth: School Counselors as Collaborative Advocates

Abstract

The article applies the American Counseling Association Competencies for Counseling with Transgender Clients to transgender and gender nonconforming students, thereby assisting school counselors in understanding how to apply the competencies to their school setting. Drawing upon their experience as educators, feminists, and safe schools activists, the authors provide collaboration-specific strategies school counselors can use to advocate with students, parents, school personnel, community members, and other stakeholders on behalf of transgender youth across grade levels. Guided by feminist and social justice perspectives, the school counselor strategies described in this article apply the ACA Transgender Competencies through the framework of the community collaboration and systems advocacy domains outlined in the American Counseling Association Advocacy Competencies.

KEYWORDS:

• transgender
• youth
• social justice
• feminism
• school counseling

Maru Gonzalez is now a doctorate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.