Clinician’s Digest

Abstract

In these two companion articles, Beischel, Schudson, and van Anders draw attention to gender and sex diversity, and the complexity of measuring and categorizing how individuals understand their gender and sex and the role they play in their lives. From clinical intake forms to the measurement of research demographics, simplistic and categorical gender/sex signifiers frequently force gender/sex minorities into false dichotomies that fail to describe their authentic self-understanding. Further, simplistic models permit gender/sex majorities to leave unexamined the complexities of their own gender/sex self-understanding. Using sexual configurations theory, these researchers have constructed an interactive tool to visually locate oneself along multiple dimensions of gender, sex, and the ways these constructs overlap. Most of their research participants found the complexity and nuance of the tool understandable and accessible. Gender/ sex minorities reported that the tool enabled them to describe themselves more accurately and authentically, and gender/sex majorities reported that completing the tool gave them deeper insight into their experiences, as well as an appreciation for the diversity of gender/sex for others. The authors encourage clinicians to consider completing the tool for themselves, particularly as a way for cisgender therapists to interrogate their own assumptions, and to sensitize them to work effectively with transgender and nonbinary clients. As both a potential assessment tool and intervention, it may also offer opportunities for clients to describe and examine the multidimensional ways that they inhabit gender/sex and explore the valence and salience of those experiences as they relate to therapeutic goals.