Training Offered for Mental-health Providers with Transgender Clients

MARLBOROUGH — The second annual First Event Professional Training, “Guiding Our Clients Towards Healthy Gender Affirmation and Actualization,” will take place on Thursday, Jan. 26 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough.

The specialized training will take place within the First Event Transgender Conference presented by the Tiffany Club of New England. First Event is in its 37th year and planned in the same location on Jan. 25-29. All professional and non-professional supporters of the transgender community are invited to attend the professional training, including therapists, family, partners, friends, and clergy.

First Event Professional Training offers attendees a way to bring a client-centered, clinically-based, and holistic approach to their work with transgender, transsexual, and gender-non-binary individuals. Attendees have the choice of 11 workshops within four separate learning tracks. Eight specialists will present and address relevant topics relating to gender identity and gender therapy from diverse professional backgrounds and perspectives. Attendees will learn how to guide individuals to develop a ‘gender team’ as a support system in the gender-affirmation process. Once established, a gender team will provide the medical, social, mental-health, and support services necessary for a healthy gender-affirmation process and positive impact on the individual.

Keynote Speaker, Julie Graham, director of Transgender Health Services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, will present on “The Impact of Minority Stress and Trauma on Transgender Clients and Its Implications for Informed Consent.”

Continuing-education units (CEUs) will be provided for social workers, licensed mental-health counselors, and marriage and family therapists. CEUs for American Assoc. of Sexuality educators, counselors, and therapists are pending.

The training costs $250 for individual attendees, $235 each for more than three attendees, and $75 for student attendees. For nonprofit agency registration of three or more clinicians, e-mail Grace at finance@firstevent.org. For more information or to register for the First Event Professional Training, click here.

For information on the separate registration and fees for the First Event Transgender Conference, visit www.firstevent.org. Special pricing upgrades are available for training attendees to attend the conference’s evening events, including networking.