Things Got Bad Pretty Fast & We've Got Work To Do

Hello everyone. I hope this email finds you returning to your inbox intentionally after some sort of rejuvenating and/or grounding experience. I hope you noticed the birdsong this morning and I hope you had a mid-afternoon treat that hit all the tastebuds you wanted it to. I hope that as you are reading this you can feel the warmth of a recent hug and can call to mind the relief of a recent cry. I hope you have found spaces to not be alone in the feelings of lostness and overwhlem and fear and sadness that any of us paying adequate attention are often feeling. I hope there is music playing right now and that you are neither too hot nor too cold. There is nothing terribly urgent in this email, so feel free to come back to it when more of the above things are true.

Some housekeeping: If you’re new here because you took a webinar of mine and you’d rather not read this or receive future updates, I totally understand - you can jump to the bottom of this email and unsubscribe. Also if you’ve emailed me and are getting this newsletter update before I respond directly, my sincere apologies. Email has become pretty unwieldy over the past month and I’m still digging out.

I’m writing to tell you what I’ve been up to the past weeks, as well as what I am doing and offering in the coming months. But I can’t do that without acknowledging the drastic political changes that have been undertaken by the Trump administration since I last emailed - especially as they relate to trans people and our wellbeing, since that’s the focus of much my work.

[If you just want to get to the updates feel free to click here to jump past the rest.]

Even those who expected things to be bad were largely not prepared for what it would be like to live under a MAGA government. I have been deeply alarmed by the combination of the consolidation and aggrandizing of power in the executive branch; the clear disregard for impact on and opinion of the public; the willingness to spend excessive money on violent initiatives against immigrants; the capacity to disrupt critical funding without any constitutional guardrails; the eagerness to punish states, institutions, and individuals who don’t step in line; the aggressive language erasing the validity of trans people’s identities; and the policies and practices being taken against trans people. Real harm is being done and pathways are being built for further harm. The impact of all this (and more) is being felt by so many.

I have been buoyed by a number of things:

• Over 1500 people signed up for my webinar on supporting trans and nonbinary people with post-election distress, during the period I made it free. This tells me that people are ready to show up for trans folks, but it also tells me that many of us feel overwhelmed by or unsure of what is required of us to do so. The webinar is still available - now for a fee of $30, and I am working on an updated series of webinars now that we fully know what we’re dealing with.

• I attended a number of events in my local community and felt connected to other trans and queer people. I’ve taken the “if you build it, they will come” approach to community involvement and have myself hosted some coffee meetups and activities, while also taking part in others’ events.

• I’ve been to multiple virtual town halls and updates from organizations doing important work in resisting and defying the anti-trans efforts from our governments. Organizations and initiatives like the Trans Youth Emergency Project are doing incredible work helping young people get the care and support they need. There are people fighting back and saying that they won’t allow the government to force trans people to lead lives stripped of autonomy, and that’s very meaningful for me to witness. The resistance and defiance gives me hope that we have avenues of survival and thriving even as things get worse.

• I have rested.

• Others have cared for me, including a friend and colleague who sent a delivery of gluten-free chicken soup to our home as a surprise.

• I continue to have regular practices of rejuvenation - most intentional and some accidental. I fill the bird feeder outside my office window so I can watch the birds in the snow (although to be transparent, it’s empty and I need to get it refilled). I spend time with loved ones and talk and text with friends. I am training for an endurance cycling event (my first) and have been more physically active this winter than any other in the past. I partake in float tank sessions and saunas (a real privilege of having a studio I can afford nearby). I laugh a lot. I snuggle my cats.

• Trans art continues to be very valuable to me. My spouse, a dear friend and mentor, and I recently visited two-spirit artist Jeffrey Gibson’s incredible multiroom installation at Mass MoCA. It is titled POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT. (Learn about the installation here.) And the TRANSA album and many of the musical artists on it, like Beverly Glenn-Copeland, continue to be critical sources of strength and healing for me.

Still, February has been hard and it is clear that a lot of work is needed to secure the autonomy and sovereignty and wellbeing of the people in this country. As a trans person, I often feel scared and deeply saddened/grieving about all this. But I do not feel lost. We have ways forward and I feel fortunate that I am able to earn an income from work that is important to building those pathways forward and building better futures.

Professional Updates

Here’s what I’ve been up to in addition to gratifying and challenging clinical work:

• I’ve kept up with my Substack! Since my last update I’ve written a number of posts related to managing sociopolitical distress:

  • Mantras for Living under the Trump Administration

  • I Don't Know What to Title This, But I am Not Okay

  • What Is Our Overwhelm Trying to Tell Us?: Framing overwhelm as a signal to adjust rather than a sign we need to stop or look away

• I have been talking to editors and drafting a book proposal related to this topic.

• I also started a weekly series on Substack (on Fridays) where I share music that is relevant to the current moment and discuss it briefly. These have been my posts so far:

  • A Love Song that Honors the Gifts of Transness: Reflections on Always by Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, & Time Wharp

  • Highly Relevant Trans & Queer Cover of A 90's Indie Classic: Trans Migration & "Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying" by Julien Baker, Calvin Lauber, SOAK, & Quinn Christopherson

  • Music to Help Us Resist Internalized Invalidation of Our Truths: On Needing Songs like "Many Ways" by CLARITY and Clairo Now More than Ever

• A post I made on instagram about ways that cis people and cis-presenting people can access hormones legally and easily actually went viral - and no one harassed me! I made a follow-up / clarifying post about what’s going on with gender-affirming hormones and how to use more secure platforms like Signal to assess community needs regarding hormones and to intervene as willing.

• The research project I’m collaborating on with Joonwoo Lee is winding down as we move out of coding mode and through final analysis and writing stages. This study is about trans and nonbinary people’s experiences of relational trauma with their parents and how folks have found healing and growth in the aftermath. It’s been a beautiful project and right now one of Joonwoo’s and my main foci is the development of a community zine that will feature artistic renderings of our findings by an incredible QTBIPOC artist, as well as contributions from some of our study participants. Working with Joonwoo on this has been a really valuable part of the past few years and I am so excited to share his and our work with you all in the coming months!

• I’ve launched a new research project with colleagues Jae Puckett and Bekah Estevez, at Michigan State University and Southern Georgia University respectively. We’re engaging with skilled therapists and TNB clients to understand what is and isn’t working in therapy to address the impacts of sociopolitical distress. More on all that soon I’m sure! I’m excited to be working with some really fine folks to build more knowledge around best practices.

• Some other research and advocacy projects are in the pipeline, most of which I’m just taking a supporting role in. I continue to be in awe of some of my colleagues and friends. Queer and trans psychologists are awesome.

• I have been collaborating with my mother, who is a practicing psychotherapist and is living with stage 4 cancer, to record her insights into navigating a cancer diagnosis as a clinician, and how to work with clients alongside unpredictable chronic illness. We’re hoping that she will turn this into writing and/or presentations, and I will be eager to share any fruits of our/her labor with y’all.

Upcoming Offerings

• Join me in July for an in-depth opportunity to expand your capacity and comfort in working with trans and nonbinary teenagers and young adults. This 15 CEU course is offered across five mornings and can be taken in-person at Cape Cod Institute or in a live-online format, which allows for real-time participation and integration with the in-person course attendees. This will be similar to the course I taught last year but with considerable updates to speak to the dilemmas, challenges, needs, and opportunities presented by our new sociopolitical reality. Last year’s course was meaningful for both myself and for participants. You can read some of the positive feedback we received in 2024 in the screenshot below and register for the course at: https://www.cape.org/courses/trans-and-nonbinary-adolescents-and-young-adults-sebastian-barr-2025. You can use the discount code BARR2025 for 20% off.

  

• I am continuing to assess interest in group consultation offerings and work to build those. They have not launched yet and I anticipate they will not before May, but I’m excited to incorporate this into my work and meet the demand of folks wanting to talk through challenging and meaningful work with trans and nonbinary clients. You can read more about the offerings and reach out if you’re interested in enrolling here: https://transpsychologist.com/consultation-groups

• As I mentioned earlier, I am also developing multiple trainings right now, focused on how therapists can meet trans and nonbinary people’s current needs. I am also working on some community-facing work (i.e., not just for therapists). The best way to learn about all these is to keep up with this newsletter, which I only publish about once per month, and to follow my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drsebastianbarr/.

As I conclude this email, I return to my wishes for you, which are of course wishes for me, too. I hope that you are near time for a break from the computer or whatever screen on which you’re reading this. I hope you have plans in the coming days that you are looking forward to. I hope you are recognizing the will to be fully alive and free that is contained in your pain and fear. I hope you have ways of nourishing your body today and really offering it what it needs / you need. I hope you are angry and I hope you have lots of time where you don’t feel consumed by your anger. I hope you hear the birdsong tomorrow morning. I hope you will spend time in the next week recognizing all that you’ve already achieved. I hope you will call a friend and I really hope a friend reaches out to you. I hope you will see the connection between the struggles of all oppressed groups and let that lead you to practices of solidarity and connection rather than overwhelm. I hope you dance in your kitchen tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. I hope the bed you sleep in tonight is comfortable. I hope you hear one of your favorite songs on the radio soon. I hope someone tells you in the following weeks that they recognize the impacts you’ve made; and I hope that if no one does, you find a way to recognize them yourself.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

Sebastian