Why do you work with trans people?

Recently, at the end of a session, a trans client asked me a question, one I’m still pondering:

“Why do you work with trans people?”

And then I started thinking.

I see and acknowledge trans people and non-binary people and LGBTQIA+ people.

I have skills, training and lived experience to hold space for others for which society at large has vastly different thoughts.

In my over ten years of working with people in medically complex situations I have learned how to be present to the person I’m working with and that life is strange, beautiful and complicated. I also learned that sometimes you need an extra pillow under your neck to elevate the session from ‘fine’ to ‘fabulous’. 

My work with breast cancer patients has taught me skills to work with persons going through top surgery to support successful surgical outcomes. 

My entire evolution into massage therapy and Rosen Method bodywork started because a friend had cancer and NO ONE would give her a massage. Ten years ago there was a misnomer that massage spreads cancer. (Massage does not spread cancer.)

My training continued to evolve into holding space for those at the end of life with hospice. As a society we are SO death adverse. Hospice work is also not a topic of conversation at a happy hour with friends, yet working with hospice patients reiterated what a gift life is.

I work with trans people because I see you and I believe you deserve great care. I believe in asking and supporting what makes you comfortable. I use your preferred pronouns. I believe in explaining what a session will look like. I believe in celebrating your top surgery, or understanding how you bind or what you’re nervous about.

I love supporting people to be authentic in their bodies.