Most therapists were never trained to work with chronic illness, medical trauma, or the impact of systemic oppression in healthcare.

So in session, it can feel like:

• “Is this anxiety—or something being missed?”
• “I don’t know how to support this without overstepping”
• “I feel like I’m not fully understanding what my client is going through”

This work is more complex than most trainings prepare you for

You’re not just working with chronic illness.

You’re working with clients whose pain has been dismissed, minimized, or not believed—

And for many clients, that experience is compounded by systemic oppression.

Black clients. LGBTQ clients. Fat clients. Clients with fewer financial resources.

These clients are often navigating multiple layers of dismissal at once.

Their symptoms are questioned. Their experiences are minimized. Their voices are talked over.

And then they come back to therapy carrying all of that.

Not just the symptoms— but the exhaustion, the frustration, and the mistrust.

If we’re going to truly support our clients, we need to understand what they are facing

This training is designed to help you:

• Understand how medical trauma shows up in therapy

• Recognize when clients are being dismissed or misunderstood

• Support clients without minimizing their experience

• Navigate advocacy, pacing, and real-life limitations

• Work more effectively with clients who feel unheard, exhausted, or invalidated

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health released the SOC8 in September of 2022, yet many clinicians are not yet aware of the changes needed to allow their practice to be more affirming and working in line with the new standards. This is a 3-hour in depth chapter by chapter CEU deep dive into these new standards. SOC8 made changes to multiple chapters as well as created new chapters that were not in SOC7. This CEU will make clinicians aware of the relevant changes to SOC8 and how to implement gender affirming care into their clinical practices and client work. Clinicians will be up to date on the WPATH standards of care after taking this CEU and be able to help their clients advocate for themselves using best practices. Clinicians will also understand if these changes have been implemented by insurance companies, doctors and surgeons yet and what to do if insurance companies and medical practitioners are still working with the stricter SOC 7 standards. Katie will also review gender support letter writing based on the new SOC8 standards.

Across the nation, anti-trans laws have been passed this year which in many cases prohibit gender affirming care and medical and/or surgical treatment to the transgender community, particularly youth under age 18. In GA SB140 was effective on July 1st, which stopped life saving care for our transgender clients that were not already receiving treatment of hormones or had already had surgery. Clinicians are now tasked with walking with our clients through this new climate of anti-trans laws towards the transgender community. What is your role as a clinician for your client and their family? How will these laws affect you and your license or ability to treat? How can you continue to affirm your transgender youth clients? All of these questions will be answered by Katie Leikam, LCSW, LISW-CP, WPATH GEI certified clinician, and taught during this informative CEU that every transgender affirming clinician needs to take.

This 5-hour core CEU covers a brief overview of terms and definitions for the transgender community and explains the differences between sex, gender identity, and gender expression. Clinicians will understand the structure of WPATH gender support letters for surgery and what informed consent means. Katie Leikam will teach participants how gender dysphoria interacts with co-occurring concerns and conditions including generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, self-harm and more, including time for Q & A with Katie including conceptual case discussions. Katie will spend time teaching how to recognize the difference between body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria. Clinicians will learn three clinical modalities to work with clients exploring their gender identity and those with gender dysphoria, including solution focused therapy, mindful self-compassion, and existential therapy.

LGBTQ and transgender clients have often experienced religious trauma in their youth and throughout their life. Clinicians should be able to recognize religious trauma syndrome in clients and how to ethically respond to that trauma. At the end of this presentation, clinicians will understand what religious trauma syndrome is and how it affects LGBTQ and transgender clients. They will examine various scriptures and how they respond to LGBTQ and transgender people as well. This CEU will also address clinician’s own spirituality bias when working with LGBTQ clients who have experienced religious trauma. After taking this class clinicians will have ethically examined their own bias and learn how to ethically provide secular therapy if indicated as a desire by the client so as to not further harm LGBTQ clients. This CEU allows a clinician to look inward and understand how to ethically treat religious trauma from a non-judgmental, without bias, perspective.

In this 3 hour CEU course you will come to understand the continuum of gender identity in children. You will understand gender identity and the stages of child development, You will learn to  to talk to and include parents, youth groups, friends and schools in supporting transgender children including practicing. We will cover a multitude of  clinical interventions for supporting transgender children.

As a therapist, most of the clients I see are neurodivergent and I want to bring my clinical skills and knowledge to you and your practice. A clinician should certainly be trans affirming and affirming of neurodivergent clients, but there’s much more than just being affirming when working with autistic clients. How do you allow a client to feel safe and able to be open to you? How do you navigate a family session that is going downhill with an autistic client and their parents? What if a parent tells you they don’t believe their autistic child is trans because of their autism? Clinicians will also learn how to work with autistic transgender adults who are also experiencing the exhaustion of masking and navigating social situations, and they could have more disconnection with their body. Because there is a correlation of autism and transgender and gender expansive clients, this CEU is a must take for clinicians that work with transgender clients. This presentation will also cover the exhaustion that autistic adults encounter with masking through life as well as how they show up as autistic transgender employees and the stress of those roles.