Career Counsellors Working With Transpeople

By Rupert Raj, M.A.

• Transpeople of colour, immigrants, refugees and “two-spirit” people (Aboriginal persons who identify as either or both a mixed gender and/or a same–sex sexual orientation),
• trans–identified youth – who have never worked before,
• transpeople over 40 or 50 – who are pursuing a career change,
• transmen/transwomen with a disability or on low income – who want to re–enter the workforce and/or work only part–time,
• trans sex trade workers – who might want to change their profession–

All of the above are all potential clients who face particular barriers over and above strictly career or employment–related issues, and who potentially look to you for help in overcoming these multiple barriers. The challenges are great but so are the rewards!

SOME KEY ISSUES AND POTENTIAL BARRIERS FACING TRANS-IDENTIFIED CLIENTS

1. BEING MISTAKEN FOR QUEER (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual). Transpeople (e.g., transsexuals, transgendered, “two-spirit” and intersexed people) can be ANY sexual orientation (i.e., straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, polysexual, asexual). Even some queer counsellors still make this mistake!
2. TRANSPHOBIA (i.e., discrimination, harassment, verbal, psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse). This form of bigotry is still being perpetrated by many members of our society, including family members, spouses/partners, children, friends, neighbours, school administrators and classmates, clergymen/women, employers and co–workers, landlords, physicians, psychiatrists, government officials, etc.
3. TRANSITIONING, in general, and in particular, TRANSITIONING AT WORK OR SCHOOL. Some employers/co-workers and school personnel/classmates are relatively transpositive, while others can be highly transphobic. A large number of transmen (female-to-male transsexuals) and transwomen (male-to-emale transsexuals) have been (and still are being) not hired, fired, “laid off”, demoted, denied promotions or paid less because of the fear, ignorance and/or hatred on the part of employers and/or human resource officers towards transsexual or transgendered people. Even if your transitioning client is not planning to transition on the job, just the fact of transitioning itself and what that involves – in terms of family, friends, relationships, schooling, medical, legal and administrative issues, etc. – means these issues might impact your career counselling work together.
4. CAREER CHANGE. This can be both a challenging (problematic) and yet an exciting experience for both you, the Career Counsellor, and your trans–identified client. The challenges are even greater if the person is planning to transition from one sex to the other, is the process of transitioning, or has just recently transitioned. One of the unique challenges in considering a change of career is around exploring both traditional and non–traditional professions – for both transmen and transwomen – that might transcend society’s view of what is “normal” or “appropriate” for men or women. Many queer people – and queer counsellors – will remember the “old days” when well-intentioned guidance counsellors would advise us to go into gender-normative professions – such as doctors for young men, and nurses for young women – to our utmost horror. (Some of us still have remnants of “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” to this day!). (See also #3 and #5 below).

SOME STRATEGIES HOW CAREER COUNSELLORS CAN BECOME (MORE) TRANSPOSITIVE IN THEIR EFFECTIVE SUPPORT OF TRANS-IDENTIFIED CLIENTS

1. Learn to distinguish between GENDER IDENTITY (masculine/male, feminine/female, neither or both) and SEXUAL ORIENTATION (straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, polysexual, asexual).
2. Respect the person enough to call them by their preferred name and pronouns. This is professional sensitivity.
3. Try to develop a sense of the rich diversity (cultural landscape) of the trans community, including the many subpopulations (e.g., transpeople who are youth, seniors, people with a disability and/or on low income, people of colour, etc.) with their attendant specified issues. Try further to get a handle on the popular jargon (as opposed to the clinical terminology). Your clients are real people, NOT psychiatric classifications in some medical compendium of mental disorders! These two together (appreciation for trans–diversity and familiarity with community descriptors) make up CULTURAL COMPETENCE.
4. THINK TRANS-POSITIVELY – FIGHT TRANSPHOBIA! As a Career Counsellor, you can be an ALLY OF, and ADVOCATE FOR, your trans–identified clients. There are many ways to do this: individually, collectively, informally, formally. Just ask your client what they would like you to do, and very often, they will tell you.One way to support your client is to MEDIATE on behalf of your client with a prospective or actual employer or university/college official(s) when your client is being barred from equal access to employment opportunities and/or educational programs. This could take the form of SENSITIVITY TRAINING (a subset of DIVERSITY TRAINING).
5. CAREER COUNSELLING transpeople who have never worked before, and counselling transmen and transwomen who are considering a CAREER CHANGE, whether due to discrimination/ harassment or other reasons. In addition to vocational assessments, occupational exploration, identification of training options, resume preparation, interview techniques, networking/job–search strategies and other (pre)employability skills-building, both types of clients might require additional assistance around issues related to transitioning-on-the-job, transphobia on the part of prospective or actual employers or co–workers, access to human rights legislation and legal counsel, and referrals to clinical, community and/or peer–based supports (see #6 below).
   • One of the unique challenges around vocational testing and occupational exploration for both you and your trans–identified client is to TRANSCEND the societally–sanctioned binary gender norms (i.e., male/masculine, female/feminine), given that many standardized vocational and personality inventories rank normative responses according to gender/sex.
   • A good precedent here might be that of the situation in the 1980s, when women were considering – and were being encouraged by progressive people – to pursue careers such as trades and professionals traditionally ascribed to men. In fact, some transpeople prefer ultra–traditional occupations, while others prefer the opposite! The point here is that not all transmen and transwomen are the same; each one is a unique individual with highly variable aptitudes, skills, preferences and values.
   • As an aside, many of the transmen I used to know in the 1970s and up to the present worked as academics, teachers, social workers, psychologists, or as automotive mechanics, construction workers, security guards, shippers/receivers, etc. In terms of their counterpart, a large number of the transwomen I (used to) know are employed as graphic designers, computer programmers, webmasters, accountants, or as hairstylists, assembly workers, sex trade workers (prostitutes), etc. Now, in the New Millennium, some transpeople are still pursuing these types of careers, while others (in particular, young adults) are blurring the genres right, left and centre, for example, some young transmen are choosing to keep their jobs in women’s shelters upon transitioning to the other sex (provided their employer is transpositive). It’s all about client choice – and creativity, courage and commitment! The same holds true for you, the Career Counsellor!

    

6. CASE MANAGEMENT. Whether your job description includes case management or not, often you will be called upon (by the pressing need of your trans–identified client) to assume this role, at least in part. This is especially true if the person has no other effective professional supports. Often, transpeople do not even have personal or community supports, especially if they are new to the community, city, province or country. So, a big part of your job might be to provide those relevant community and peer-based supports, as indicated. You might also be called upon to provide transpositive clinical supports if the person does not have a supportive physician or psychotherapist.

Note: The writer (Rupert Raj) provides transpositive training workshops for providers and can be reached at the e–mail address or phone number below.

Rupert Raj, M.A., Counselling
Transactivist, Therapist, Career Counsellor, Trainer, Consultant, Gender SpecialistRR CONSULTING
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tel: (416) 280-6414 (voice mail)
E–mail: rrconsulting@sympatico.ca