Trans issues and psychodrama

[Regina Sewell]

Jennifer,

I do a lot of work with the GLBT community and have worked a lot w/ 
transgendered clients.  Psychodrama is a great way to work w/ 
transgendered clients.  In my experience, it allows them to explore 
their inner realities and dialogue with the people who people their 
lives.  What I have learned with working with transgendered people is 
how much of gender is on one hand socially constructed and how on the 
other hand, perhaps because of this social construction, there is a 
continuum to which people feel drawn to roles.  These words on the page 
sound like trite bullshit but I don't know how to share the depth in 
brief.  In my experience, the core issues weren't so much about "who am 
I" but about "how do I deal with a world that is organized around binary 
gender/sex"  I also know that it is important to proceed with caution -- 
to help the client sort out who they are and where they are on the 
contiunuum (modern biology seems to render the xy chromosome distinction 
as bullshit...  because it's so much more complicated......  there's so 
much more going on...   and there is more variation among men and among 
women than between men and women....   so it's more helpful -- to me -- 
to view it on a continuum ) and help them decide how they want to live 
and what they are willing to give up (men who want to live as women must 
give up a great deal of privilige and often times income, women who even 
take testosterone give up emotions and the sorts of tender connections 
women have).  There are also guidlines about the surgury or even legel 
hormemone treatment process.  There are a couple of books written in the 
last few years that describe this.  Let me know if you'd like these 
resources and I'll see if I can find them.  (they are in the basement at 
the moment and not super easily accessible.)

also, if you have more questions or whatever -- not that i am the end 
all be all resource -- please feel free to contact me directly or even 
call me at 845-264-2287

peace,
regina
> From: Jen <jenniferwhitlocklpc at yahoo.com>
> To: list at grouptalkweb.org
> Subject: Gender Drama
> Message-ID: <936796.57457.qm at web54405.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
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>
> I'm an advanced psychodrama student of psychodrama at HVPI, and I am
> forming a male to female transgender group as part of my practicum.
>
> I think psychodrama would be an excellent method for people who were
> essentially born into the wrong role, and experience distress at 
> having
> to either pretend to be in a role that doesn't fit or suffer social 
> consequences for acting in a role others see as inappropriate.  I 
> imagine there will be call for role rehearsal.
>
> I welcome ideas from those who have worked with this population in 
> psychodrama, or those who have ideas for exploring gender identity. 
> Many of the individuals in this group are only newly allowing 
> themselves to act on their preferred roles as a woman, and this side 
> of them is isolated and yearning for contact.  It will be a rich 
> group.
>
>                      Jennifer Whitlock
>                   Licensed Professional Counselor
>                                          Budd Lake and Newton
>                                            973-222-3750
>                             www.JenWhitlock.com
>
>
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