The Gender Quest Workbook ─ A Guide for Teens & Young Adults Exploring Gender Identity

This one-of-a-kind, comprehensive workbook will help you navigate your gender identity and expression at home, in school, and with peers.

If you are a transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) teen, you may experience unique challenges with identity and interpersonal relationships. In addition to experiencing common teen challenges such as body changes and peer pressure, you may be wondering how to express your unique identity to others. The Gender Quest Workbook incorporates skills, exercises, and activities from evidence-based therapies—such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—to help you address the broad range of struggles you may encounter related to gender identity, such as anxiety, isolation, fear, and even depression.

Despite outdated beliefs, gender no longer implies being simply male or female, but rather a whole spectrum of possibilities. This fun, engaging workbook is designed specifically for teens like you who want to explore the concept of gender and gender identity and expression—whether you already identify as TGNC or are simply questioning your gender identity.

Rylan Jay Testa, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has been working to improve the mental and physical health of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people through research and development of clinical interventions. He is currently clinical faculty at Palo Alto University (PAU), where he contributes to the Center for LGBTQ Evidence-based Applied Research (CLEAR) as program manager of the Gender Identities Program. Testa is respected for his work in both the field of psychology and the transgender and gender nonconforming community.

Deborah Coolhart, PhD, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, and assistant professor at Syracuse University's Marriage and Family Therapy program. Her clinical and scholarly work focus on strengths and challenges of transgender people and their loved ones, and she has published several journal articles and book chapters on transgender-related topics. She created a clinical team of master's students who work specifically with transgender clients ,their partners, and families in a free university clinicproviding a valuable service to the transgender community in New York.

Jayme Peta, MA, MS, has been working with and for transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth since 1997. Peta holds a master's degree in counseling psychology from Naropa University, and is a doctoral candidate at Palo Alto University in clinical psychology.