Transgenderism and Mental Health from a Non-pathologizing Perspective

Abstract

In this chapter we will address transgenderism and mental health from a non-pathologizing perspective. First of all we will explain the reasons why we under-stand transphobia as a gender-based violence. Later on we will expose some of the competences that we think that mental health professionals attending trans people should have in the process of change from a diagnosing perspective to providing a non-pathologizing support via acquiring cultural competence in transgenderism and developing an intersectional perspective on their work. On the third part of the chapter, we will address the gender-based violence that can affect trans women, including sexual violence, violence in the intimate partnership and transphobia in relation to minority stress. In the last part of the chapter, we will discuss the negative (and some positive) consequences that minority stress might have in the mental health of trans people exposed to it. Our goal with the chapter is to provide information that might help mental health professionals in more adequately supporting trans persons in their life journeys from a non-pathologizing viewpoint through understanding the conse-quences of transphobia in their experiences of the individual. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)