Workplace Aggression: Toward Social Justice and Advocacy in Counseling for Transgender Individuals

Abstract

Transgender individuals face various degrees of aggression, hostility, and discrimination in the workplace, including social isolations, physical threats, demotions, and terminations of employment. Professional counselors can serve as social change agents by developing specific sets of knowledge, attitudes, and skills to help this population. This article describes various forms of explicit and implicit workplace discrimination against transgender individuals. The roles of counselors in social justice and advocacy, adapted from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health Standards of Care and the Competencies for Counseling with Transgender Clients, are presented and discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• transgender
• workplace aggression
• discrimination
• advocacy