Letter writing, advocacy opportunities, and gatekeeping pitfalls: An Ethical Approach to Providing Affirmative Care to Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Clients
October 14, 2022 @ 5:00 am - 8:00 am
Letter writing, advocacy opportunities, and gatekeeping pitfalls: An Ethical Approach to Providing Affirmative Care to Transgender, Nonbinary, and Intersex Clients
Friday, October 14, 2022
Registration 8:30am Program 9am to 12pm
Presented By: Kayti Protos, DSW, LCSW and M Reim Ifrach, REAT, LPC, NCC
Location: Online Workshop
3 CE Credits
Act 48 available
How do we provide affirming, ethical care to transgender, nonbinary, and intersex clients (TNBI)? This workshop will provide a brief overview of key concepts associated TNBI identities, creating a common language for further exploration. We will discuss the current barriers to care that TNBI adult and adolescent clients face, including the impact of discrimination and gatekeeping associated with gender affirming interventions. Providers will review the ethical codes and current standards of care for practice, identifying potential opportunities to advocate on behalf of our TNBI clients and unpacking the repercussions of recent anti-trans legislation across the nation.
Objectives:
- Explain the current barriers to affirmative mental health care experienced by transgender, nonbinary, and intersex (TNBI) adolescents and adults.
- Identify and describe three common pitfalls associated with gatekeeping within the mental health community.
- Assess current practices to determine areas of improvement needed to provide gender affirming care with minimal gatekeeping.
- Develop a process for meeting with TNBI clients for advocacy-based letter writing to support access to gender affirming interventions.
- Recognize and describe the ethical dilemmas associated with state-specific legislation associated with caring for TNBI adolescents and adults.
Kayti Protos, DSW, LCSW is a queer, white, cisgender woman and ally to the transgender, nonbinary, and intersex community. She is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, with over 15 years of clinical experience working with and advocating on behalf of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community. Kayti is a doctor of social work (DSW), completing her degree at Rutgers School of Social Work with a focus on the intersectional experience of transgender and nonbinary clients navigating eating disorder(s), identity-based trauma, and gender dysphoria. She received her master of social work from Tennessee State University and her bachelor’s degree in women’s & gender studies and communication studies from Vanderbilt University.
Kayti is the founder of Rainbow Resiliency, a small private practice dedicated to helping queer and trans clients navigate a world that is all-too-frequently hostile to their communities, as well as helping 2SLGBTQQIA+ clients explore paths to recovery from eating disorder and trauma. Kayti is passionate about providing accessible and gender affirming care, anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice, and social justice advocacy. All providers associated with Rainbow Resiliency are part of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, and the practice serves as a training site for queer and trans graduate students to obtain community-specific experience.
Additionally, Kayti is the co-author of A clinician’s guide to gender identity and body image: Practical support for working with transgender and nonbinary clients. She is an adjunct faculty member within the Graduate Counseling Psychology program at Holy Family University and the School of Social Work at Rutgers.
Outside of the professional world, Kayti can be found engaging in the high fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons as both a player and a game master. She dabbles in creative writing, enjoys organizing board game nights with her friends, and enjoys hanging out with her incredible cats.
M Reim Ifrach, REAT, LPC, NCC is a trans/non-binary art therapist, fat activist and artist whose work focuses on body justice, intersectional social justice and eating disorder treatment equity access.
They are the Director for Walden Behavioral Care’s Rainbow Road, the country’s first virtual Eating Disorder 2slgbtqia+ IOP & PHP, which is proud to announce having over 90% Queer Staffing (as of February 2022). They also co-own and operate Rainbow Recovery where they support people through the gender affirmation process, complex trauma recovery, eating disorder recovery and body image issues.
M is committed to the mission that all bodies deserve recovery and that marginalized bodies need to be amplified in the eating disorder landscape to eradicate the stereotypes surrounding eating disorders and gender. To that end M had the honor to participate in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Artful Practices for Well-being, presented at national and international conferences on the use of HAES, Intuitive Eating and Intersectional Social Justice in mental health care and teaches multicultural and diversity practice in Master’s Level Art Therapy programs.
When M isn’t working they enjoy raising many animals including Pinball Wizard, their blind dog, watching all things Horror on repeat, obsessing over all things Elton John, and enjoying time with their partner.
PSCP: The Psychology Network is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. PSCP: The Psychology network maintains responsibility for this program and its content.