Simmon’s College School of Social Work invited my thoughts about what are the needs of transgender people that their MSW students must be prepared to serve. We already know how important it is that transgender people, as any marginalized people, need great inner ego strength to deal with micro-aggressions, and that our social work values of social justice demand we all work toward a just world that no longer incurs these aggressions.
All I could add was my experience with my religious transgender clients, that even though religious institutions commit big aggressions against them, to transgender people of faith, these are the cultural powers they want to change. People of faith want equal access to “be” church, shul, and for all I know, mosque. (I am speaking her of the Abrahamic faiths only, for I am most schooled in these.)
If religion, spirituality and faith are important to our clients, we social workers need to honor these as being resources, not always just obstacles, to clients’ mental well-being. We should refer clients to clinical social workers with affirming pastoral counseling skill sets.
I have been one of several pastoral therapist/clinical social workers who has been working to integrate spiritual healthcare into entities of transgender care, like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, to support spiritual health as a legitimate aim of our research serving the real needs of religious transpeople. Gone are the days when therapy discounted religious feeling as an obstacle to good mental well being. New “Queer theology” provides insight into how the good things about faith and religion belong to all people of faith. After all, there are three legs to the stool called holistic health: physical, mental, and spiritual. If a client is also religious, they have a right to be served by professional who can integrate spiritual and mental health, social and medical needs.
Thanks for sounding the horn about faith and trans people. As a trans man, seminary graduate and LCSW, I often hear stories of how trans people confront religious bias within LGBT community and trans bias within LGB community and communities of faith. Living an authentic life, for many trans people, includes embracing a particular religious tradition/spiritual path. It is important that this part of our journey/life be equally lifted up.
Hello Zander, thanks for your comments. I really like your book and recommend it to clients often.
Gari Green says
Thank you for this post Laura. I have found the whole process of coming to terms with being a transwoman has been deeply spiritual. Obviously that is not the same as “religion”, but ideally, one’s religion could well be an asset to this journey. Too often that has not been the case, but I believe the antipathy that has existed in the past is gradually beginning to fade.
Paula Williams says
Barbara Brown Taylor suggests you go to a counselor when you want to be led out of the darkness, but you go to a spiritual director when you want to be led further in. And as with all paradoxical truths, the way out is so often by going deeper in. Spiritual direction is an important part of transgender treatment.