Effects of therapists affirming and non-affirming reactions to transgender identity exploration on the therapeutic relationship : an analogue study
- Degree Grantor:
- University of California, Santa Barbara. Counseling, Clinical & School Psychology
- Degree Supervisor:
- Tania Israel
- Place of Publication:
- [Santa Barbara, Calif.]
- Publisher:
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Creation Date:
- 2016
- Issued Date:
- 2016
- Topics:
- LGBTQ studies, Counseling Psychology, and Gender studies
- Keywords:
- Counseling,
Non-binary,
Transgender,
Analogue research, and
Therapy - Genres:
- Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
- Dissertation:
- Ph.D.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016
- Description:
Transgender individuals seek mental health counseling for a variety of reasons (Bockting, Knudson, & Goldberg, 2006). However, their experiences in therapy are not always positive, and some experiences are quite negative (Rachlin, 2002). The present study utilizes an analogue research design and video vignettes to investigate how a therapist's response to transgender identity exploration affects participants' perceptions of the therapist and the therapeutic relationship. The study utilized a series of mock therapy video vignettes that vary the way that a therapist responds to the client including transition affirming, non-binary affirming, and non-affirming responses. Transgender participants were asked about their plan to transition or not transition and were then randomly assigned to watch one of three mock therapy clips. Participants then completed a series of questions about their perception of the therapist's expertness, likability, trustworthiness, the session smoothness and depth, and their own feelings of positivity, and arousal. Results indicate that the non-affirming video condition had a significant negative effect on the participant's perceptions of the therapist and the quality of the therapeutic relationship. No significant differences were found between the transition affirming and non-binary affirming conditions. However, there was a trend for those who were not interested in transitioning to rate the non-binary affirming video more positively than the transition affirming video and those who were interested in transitioning to rate the non-binary affirming video slightly less positively than the transition affirming video. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which transgender individuals experience various affirming and non-affirming therapeutic approaches and how these perceptions may be different based on the participants plan to transition or not transition.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (97 pages)
- Format:
- Text
- Collection(s):
- UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
- Other Versions:
- http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10194239
- ARK:
- ark:/48907/f3n016n2
- ISBN:
- 9781369341300
- Catalog System Number:
- 990047189100203776
- Copyright:
- Jay Bettergarcia, 2016
- Rights:
- In Copyright
- Copyright Holder:
- Jay Bettergarcia
File | Description |
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Access: Public access | |
Bettergarcia_ucsb_0035D_13233.pdf | pdf (Portable Document Format) |