Helping Transgender Children and Families Navigate Gender

In this episode, Shawn discusses his work with families with transgender/non-binary/gender diverse youth. In discussing his career, he talks about the process of coming out as a transgender man, and his personal experience in the professional community of clinicians. He explains how the bulk of his work in training clinicians and assisting families is helping them examine how they think about their own gender, and becoming aware of how one knows what his, her or their gender is. He also discusses his work with families and transgender youth, and the issues that lead him to create the Gender Health Institute in order to provide training to clinicians who were seeking more competency in working with trans clients. Shawn Giammattei, PhD is the founder and director of the Gender Health Training Institute and the TransFamily Alliance, and contributor to the edited book, The Gender Affirmative Model: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Transgender and Gender Expansive Children. Shawn also has a clinical practice specializing in trans young people and their families, and couples therapy. Shawn teaches at Alliant International University in California, School of Professional Psychology and helped develop the Rockway Institute's LGBTQ Human Services Certificate, as well as being the first to teach a semester long Transgender Mental Health course for Psychology graduate students. Shawn does ongoing research in collaboration with Kaiser Permanente and Emery University, doing consultation on issues in trans health.