The Therapist’s Role in Gender Affirming Surgery for Transgender and Nonbinary Clients

May 2 and 3, 2025

10am-6:30pm PDT

with 2-15 minute breaks and 1-hour lunch

CE Hours: 14 hours

medical transition

Abstract

Gender-Affirming Surgery (GAS) is often desired by transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) people as part of their gender journeys. Medical transition offers psychotherapists a unique opportunity to support their TGNB clients. Outside of the letter writing process, therapists can be instrumental in helping clients with the 10 tasks (Cathers, 2017) needed to have a successful surgery. This course is designed to help psychotherapists assist TGNB clients seeking GAS with these 10 tasks to cover the entire process from determining medical needs to navigating insurance to post operative recovery.

Therapists will learn about masculinizing and feminizing surgeries/procedures, including details about the pre-operative care, surgery and recovery. Therapists will learn to help clients have realistic expectations of their surgeries, including impacts of GAS on sexuality, reproduction, and mental health. We will cover WPATH SOC 8 as it applies to assessment or evaluation for surgery, assessing for informed consent, and letter writing. Therapists will learn how the same symptoms that interfere with capacity for consent may also interfere with perioperative care, post operative instructions, and long term follow up medical recommendations. Additionally, therapists will learn how to address negative transference that may arise with letter writing and to limit the impact on the working alliance. Therapists will learn how to help clients advocate for insurance coverage and which laws protect TGNB patients’ healthcare rights. Therapists will learn how to help clients prepare psychologically for GAS, including managing medical anxiety, fears about motivation for GAS, navigating ambivalence, addressing dependency needs, and building resilience in order to minimize pain. The course will utilize case vignettes to address complex issues that may arise during medical transition, including common psychological reactions to preparation, surgery, complications, and post-operative care.

Content warning: This workshop includes graphic material related to surgery.

Learning objectives

Describe at least 4 gender confirming surgeries for transgender and non-binary people
Describe at least 3 psychological benefits for transgender and non-binary people who medically transition (when it is right for them)
Assist clients in determining and prioritizing surgery needs
Write a letter supporting gender affirming surgery utilizing World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, 8th Edition
Describe at least 2 transference dynamics that can occur during the letter writing process
Advocate for insurance coverage for gender affirming care
Explicitly assess for capacity for informed consent for GAMST
Describe the 10 tasks clients must complete in order to have a successful surgery
Describe at least 3 ways in which psychotherapists can help clients prepare mentally for surgery
Describe at least 2 ways in which psychotherapists can help clients prepare physically for surgery
Describe how dependence needs can manifest during surgical recovery
Describe how building emotional resilience can minimize pain during surgical recovery

Price

$279 for licensed

$249 for licensed in non-profit organization (use code GAMST2025NP)

$179 for pre-licensed (use code GAMST2025PL)

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About the Presenter

Cadyn Cathers, PsyD, MBA (he/him/his) has been teaching courses on human sexuality, psychotherapy with LGBTQIA+ communities, and psychodynamic theory for over 15 years. He is the founder and CEO of The Affirmative Couch, which provides online continuing education on clinical work with LGBTQIA+, CNM, and kink communities. He is a licensed psychologist in private practice at the Out Couch Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, P.C., where he focuses on psychoanalytic psychotherapy with transgender and nonbinary patients. Additionally, he is adjunct faculty at Reiss-Davis Graduate School.

Additional Information

Instruction Level
This course is meant for an intermediate to advanced audience.

Who should Attend
Psychologists, counselors, and marriage and family therapists and social workers.

Format

Live, virtual presentation with the opportunity for interaction with the presenter.

Zoom Link

You will need to get your zoom link to attend the live event. After purchase, go to "my account" then "my courses" and obtain your zoom link. If you do not receive a confirmation email from zoom within 24 hours, please contact us.

Completion Requirements

To get CE credit for the live event, you need to be present for all seven hours, both days
You will be asked to sign in and out in the chat box in order to track attendance during breaks.
We will email you your certificate of attendance within 48 hours of the course.

Financial Support

The Affirmative Couch pays course presenters for their teaching. There is no other financial support for this course.

Conflict of Interest

There is no reported conflict of interest or outside commercial support for this course.

Contact Information

For any inquiries related to subject matter, problem resolution, corrections, grievances, or anything else, please contact us.

Accommodations

The Affirmative Couch will work to accommodate reasonable accommodations requests. Requests can be emailed with “accommodation request” in the subject line. Requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Testimonials Regarding the Presenter in Other Courses

Identity Development around Sexuality, Gender and Relationships

"Cadyn's mastery of knowledge combined with his personable and approachable style made for a welcoming space for learning."

"Cadyn is amazing! He is a wealth of knowledge and provides such a rich tapestry of understanding, perspective taking, and case conceptualization. It was so informative and I am excited to share this information not only with clients but also with fellow clinicians."

Working Alliance with Transgender and Gender Nonbinary Clients

"Dr. Cadyn is clearly very knowledgeable."

"Thank you for all of the qualitative and quantitative data! That really kept my interest and I appreciate all of the effort Cadyn put into that, as well as in sharing it."

"I was so impressed by the presentation of quantitative details from his dissertation. So well done!"