Trans issues and psychodrama

Thu Feb 18 11:39:02 CST 2010

Dear Regina, Jen and Grouptalkers,

I am glad to see a discussion about psychodrama work with transgender 
persons.

Since 1998 I have been leading weekly psychodrama groups for the LGBT 
community, and transgender issue are emerging in a more visible way each 
year. I also wrote about some of my experiences in a chapter in my book 
"Psychodrama in the 21^st Century" although at the time of the 
publication I had only gay and lesbian clients in my groups. I happen to 
live and work in New York where there are many resources for this 
community. Last Sunday (Valentine Day) I lead a workshop at the LGBT 
Community Center in Manhattan and as usual used sociometry and psychodrama.

It is good to know that other colleagues are working with this 
population. It's always been an honor to note that Moreno never joined 
the bandwagon of psychiatrists and mental health professionals who, in 
spite of no or little knowledge about this community, did not hesitate 
to pathologize, ostracize and oppress so many people. I am still 
secretly waiting for a general announcement of apology form the once 
mighty psychoanalytic community for all the lives they ruined under the 
pretense of helping them.

Regina, from your area code I assume that you work in Upstate New York. 
Is that so?

One last comment on language: No need to add "ed" at the end of 
"transgender" just as you would not do it to other orientations ( 
LesbianED? HeterosexualED?).

Best regards,

Jacob Gershoni, LCSW, CGP, TEP

19 West 34^th Street, Ph floor

New York, NY 10001-3006

212.795.1192

212.947.7111

Email: JacobG12 at gmail.com <mailto:JacobG12 at gmail.com>

www.GrouPsychodrama.com <http://www.groupsychodrama.com/>

Regina Sewell wrote:

> 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>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>
>> 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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