Free Resource for Therapists in Kansas, Discount for Upcoming CE Course, and More Updates

Hello Comrades in Care,

I write to you about ten days back from parental leave. And I am in awe of the work that we do. I told my own therapist that it felt like in the cocoon of leave/newborn-parenting, I lost my callouses. And now my hands were returning to hard work and rough surfaces all raw and vulnerable. I also feel as though I am trying to relearn a skill like walking which had largely been automatic but now takes intentional thought for each micro-component. The beauty of having this half-beginner mind in my therapy work is that I can more fully recognize the work and challenge of what we do each day, and appreciate and honor that. Being a good therapist take a lot, whether we are consciously aware of the enormity of what we are doing or not.

You’re tired at the end of the day for good reason. It’s totally understandable that you’re reaching for your phone or another dopamine hit between sessions. That your family doesn’t always get the best version of you after a bunch of clinical work. Your time off is precious for good reason. And that would all be true in the best of times. As you well know, we are not working in the best of times.

If you’re new to this newsletter because you took one of my courses or signed up for my substack, welcome. This is the best method I have for letting folks know what I’m doing besides my substack essays/pieces. You also don’t have to stay subscribed. I know we all get a lot of email. You can scroll to the bottom of this email to unsubscribe — I won’t be offended! And I won’t add you back!

The rest of this update includes a brief piece on resourcing ourselves (including two pieces of moving news / reason for hope), details about free access to my trainings for folks practicing in Kansas, a new discount code for everyone to my Cape Cod Institute course, and links to writing that I’ve done. Skip around as you see fit.

I don’t have time to write a full reflection in this newsletter nor have I gathered a lot of resources for you — I’d like to, but I’m recognizing and respecting my limits and my commitment and desire to protect time for my family. But I do want to encourage your own reflection on what can sustain you through challenging work. When clinicians consult with me, I am often asking them explicitly what are they doing broadly that helps build their internal and external resources and also what are they doing before and after sessions — especially challenging sessions, so they can withstand the drain of rewarding work. And also how do we do this work in ways that at least feel less existentially draining? Even if part of the toll is going to be the use of cognitive and emotional energy no matter what, that doesn’t have to mean spiritual depletion and compassion fatigue.

Ben Greene, of Good Queer News, wrote a really effective piece on his substack about re-resourcing ourselves, intended for a broad audience (i.e., not just clinicians). I highly recommend reading it:

As clinicians and activists whose jobs it is to confront and sit in the really painful and at times hope-robbing stuff, one critical way to resource ourselves that I return to again and again is to be intentional about looking for and also sitting with/in victories, joy, hope, beauty, awe. In that light, I am sharing with you a piece of news I woke up to this morning and one that broke yesterday.

First, Erin Reed reported the campaign to help folks around the country buy girl scout cookies from trans girl scouts has already resulted in 330,000 boxes sold!!! And this doesn’t include the trans scouts that weren’t a part of that campaign (for example, I bought and donated a bunch of boxes from a local trans scout). This honestly almost brought me to tears. Some days it can easily feel like the world is against trans youth or at least doesn’t understand and support them. But it’s hard to feel like that looking at a number like 333,000! It’s also the most successful year this campaign has ever had.

The other piece of news I want to highlight is that a Democrat Representative from North Carolina notorious for crossing party lines to vote for anti-trans legislation was defeated in his primary by Veleria Levy, a progressive and pro-LGBTQ+ challenger coming from the world of community health and HIV work. This was one of four primary races in North Carolina where Democrat incumbents with histories of anti-trans voting were unseated by more progressive challengers. Read more in them magazine’s reporting.

And one more resource I’ll share is a reminder about Yolanda Ramos’ online live yoga courses (including seated/chair adaptations) for stress and trauma release. Scroll down to see more details about that!

Okay moving on to updates from me:

Free Access to Online Trainings for Kansas Clinicians

What Republican state legislators and government in Kansas are doing to their trans constituents is disgusting and alarming — even these words are inadequate. Y’all might not know this, but my family goes back generations in Kansas. I was born there and grew up just over the state line in Kansas City, Missouri. Yep — I have a Kansas birth certificate. I also have a deep love of the landscapes of Kansas and many aspects of the culture and people there. Even before I was licensed in Massachusetts, I pursued a psychology license in Kansas and maintain it and work with trans Kansans as a regular part of my practice. This law and its cascading effects would be heartbreaking and terrifying even without personal connection to this state, but with that connection it’s been a really heavy blow. I’m trying to be of help as I can. So one thing I’m offering right away is that if you carry a Kansas license.

Email [email protected] to get special access. You can also spread the word by sending this email or flyer to your networks and/or sharing my instagram post.

Register Now for In-Person and/or Live Online Course This Summer at Cape Cod Institute

Join me this summer for an interactive course across two half-days at Cape Cod Institute. Registration is now open with both early bird and student pricing.

To receive a special discount code and help me in promoting the course beyond, comment on my post on instagram and share it to your stories. If you do not have instagram, you can email me for the code!

Course Description: When clients’ distress is so clearly linked to systemic stressors and societal bias, it can be hard for therapists to identify ways to be useful. As such, many therapists have expressed a sense of helplessness and/or overwhelm in working with members of the trans community, as trans and nonbinary people face increasingly apparent sociopolitical hostility. But therapists are not helpless during this era of anti-trans rhetoric and violence. As Dr. Barr will make clear in this two-day training, we have a vital role to play in mitigating sociopolitical distress. With adequate knowledge and skills, mental health clinicians are actually uniquely equipped to support trans and nonbinary clients in living meaningfully amidst sociopolitical hostility. This course was built from Dr. Barr’s careful study of the work of BIPOC psychologists and community leaders who have long facilitated healing and resilience in the face of societal oppression, as well as evidence-based principles of psychotherapy, and his own experience and research in best practices for working with trans and nonbinary people’s sociopolitical stress. With a mix of engaging didactics and interactive opportunities to apply learning, participants will leave this course feeling energized and capable, even in the context of honest reckoning with the severity of the challenges these communities face.

Yolanda Ramos’ Winter Yoga Series for Stress and Trauma Clearing

As a reminder, my colleague and friend is offering a great online yoga course specifically for stress reduction. There are two sessions left and you don’t need to have taken earlier classes to join!

Recent Writing

Additionally, the first academic article from Joonwoo Lee’s and my research and zine project (transnessishealing.net) was published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress and is available for free: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jts.70044

I’d love to promote work or stories that showcase radical hope. What worlds are you dreaming up and building? How are you fighting back? What is resourcing you? Email me ideas!