Adult Transgender Care ─ An Interdisciplinary Approach for Training Mental Health Professionals

Adult Transgender Care offers a comprehensive approach to training emerging and established mental health professionals in transgender care and creating a warm, welcoming clinical environment. This guide takes an interdisciplinary approach to transgender care, emphasizing the unique and complementary contributions of psychiatry, psychology, social work, and counseling in providing transgender care within an integrated treatment team. In particular, there are medical aspects of transgender treatment (e.g., hormones, surgical interventions) that mental health providers must understand in order to provide quality care. The guide also emphasizes the necessity educating support staff and attending to the clinic environment to create a welcoming experience for transgender clients.

This book meets a unique need by providing detailed information, clinical interventions, case studies, and resources for mental health professionals on transgender care from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Michael R. Kauth, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Kauth is one of two directors of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Program within the Office of Patient Care Services in the Veterans Health Administration. The LGBT Program advises VHA leadership on best policy and practices and develops training for clinical staff. Dr. Kauth is also co-director of the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), a network level research and clinical education center focused on improving Veteran’s access to mental health services in rural settings, and professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Jillian C. Shipherd, PhD, is a clinical research psychologist at the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston Healthcare System and associate professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Shipherd is one of two directors of the LGBT Program within the Office of Patient Care Services in the Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Shipherd is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications, many of which are on transgender issues.