luin joy
misc.
SPECIALIZED TRANS SUPPORT
For many of us, trans existence can sometimes feel like running a marathon with no water breaks. There are so many dimensions of trans identity that require support and guidance and not enough high-quality resources available to meet our needs. That is why I began offering coaching specifically for our community. To me, this work is mutually healing, sacred, and powerful.
My heart sings when talking about:
- coming out to ourselves, radical honesty, and self-embrace
- finding belonging and safety within ourselves
- locating gender euphoria
- transness as a divine path of expansion and contagious freedom
- owning our desires and trusting trans intuition
- spiritual dimensions of transition
- coping with dysphoria using low-cost, DIY DAT (Do-It-Yourself Dysphoria Alleviation Technology) eg. hand-sewn packers and packing underwear, retro-fitted prosthetics, safe alternatives for binding, and other tools for reducing daily discomfort
If you’re currently seeking guidance specific to medical transition, or may desire that in the future, I am well-equipped to support you.
This may include:
- making complex, personal decisions about the process
- growing into alignment while on HRT
- adapting to changes that carry both euphoria and grief
- integrating mind and body before/during/after surgery
- finding supportive providers
- letting go of relationships that aren’t willing to grow with you
- strategically navigating insurance
- managing dysphoria before or between surgeries
- and many other things specifically related to medical transition
Because the greatest depth of my lived experience comes from 10 years of medical transition as a trans man, I specialize in providing coaching care specific to medical transition. This past decade has delivered many valuable insights, hardships, and lessons.
I began HRT in 2016 while living in Georgia. Since then, I’ve navigated 6 surgeries in 4 different states. My resilience, self-compassion, and sense of alignment / intuition have been honed through Spartan-level conditions. Through it all, I have grown into a version of myself that previously felt like a distant dream and I’ve learned how to relax into my life and my body like a beloved, loose-fitting shirt. Part of serving my purpose on this earth involves alchemizing my experiences into love, perspective, and wisdom that can support others through the overwhelming messiness of trans existence. It is an honor to do this work.
many therapists and medical providers may have some training in this arena, but seldom do they have personal lived experience with it.
There are many benefits to receiving professional coaching from a fellow trans person with personal, lived experience navigating the multi-dimensions of social, internal, and medical transition. As you’re well aware, this process is emotional, highly personal, and easily overwhelming.
The internet is full of forums, trans influencers, testimonials, and google search results that can be helpful in our search for transition-related support, but they can also muddy the waters of our unique experience and may not always be trustworthy sources of information. When trying to navigate this process alone, you may feel like you’re drowing and don’t know who to trust or where to turn. I intimately understand this feeling. Because finding trustworthy care is uniquely challenging for trans people, I have a thorough, trauma-informed approach to building and maintaining trust within our coaching relationship.
Our trust will be built at a gentle and patient pace, starting with my commitments to you, clear communication about coaching boundaries, and recognition of both my skills and my limitations in this work.
I am commited to:
- Being forthcoming and honest about what I don’t know and am not qualified to do
- Making every effort to find resources for needs beyond my scope of experience
- Making every effort to refer you out to providers who can assist with things I’m not able to help with
- Guiding our work in ways that support your needs
- Sharing my experiences and perspectives when appropriate and without judgement or friction about the ways that our transness, transition desires, and lived experiences are inherently different
- Sharing my experiences without distracting from the focus of our work together - you!
- Communicating clear and consistent boundaries and checking in about yours
- Always
asking for consent before sharing more personal aspects of my experiences, especially when talking about surgeries or medical processes
I have no desire to determine or direct your personal experience with transition - I firmly believe that no two transition pathways are the same and my deepest desire is to support you in finding your way through this overwhelming and frequently isolating marathon.
Some of the ways I can support you:
- how to make decisions and trust your intuition
- how to find safe, trustworthy providers and identify red flags for unsafe providers
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- how to advocate for yourself
- developing personal rituals to reduce anxiety around doctor’s appointments, self-administering HRT, wound care, etc.
- how to prepare yourself and your caregivers for surgery
- how to develop personal resources before, during, and after surgery
- knowledge of resources
- strategies for coping with dysphoria outside of medical intervetion, either while waiting for surgery or to help decide if surgery is right for you
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are frequently . If you’re trans and interested in working with me, check out this page