Ethical Curiosity with Trans and Non-Binary Clients: Practices to Dismantle the Entitlement to Know

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Lucie Fielding, PhD, MA, LMHC Related seminars and products

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Lucie Fielding, PhD, MA, LMHC, (she/they) is a white, neurodivergent queer, trans misogyny affected (TMA) femme, and a therapist practicing in Virginia and Washington (on Monacan lands and unceded Duwamish territory, respectively). They specialize in sex therapy, kink-knowledgeable therapy, 2SLGBTQIA-knowledgeable therapy, sex work-affirming therapy; and they work from the narrative, imaginal, and somatic frameworks that honor the (intergenerational) wisdom of the body, promote community-care, and support empowered embodied eroticism. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute (2018) and a PhD in French from Northwestern University (2008), specializing in erotic literature. Their background in literature attunes them to the ways that cultural scripts inscribe themselves on our bodies and inform our embodied erotic lives. In addition to being a therapist, Lucie is a sex educator who has facilitated workshops for a range of groups, organizations, universities, and agencies. They are the author of Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments (2021), which was awarded an AASECT BookAward (Lammy) in the Transgender-Nonfiction category. You can find out more about Lucie at luciefielding.com or follow them on Instagram (@sexbeyondbinaries).  

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Lucie Fielding has employment relationships with Trans Care BC, Antioch University, and Creating Change, PLLC. She receives royalties as a published author. Lucie Fielding receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Lucie Fielding is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists and the Transgender Health Alliance of Central Virginia.

Objectives

1. Appraise ways a curiosity steeped in an “entitlement to know” can impact both trans and non-binary clients’ lives as well as the client-therapist relationship.
2. Practice ethical curiosity in clinical practice, particularly with trans, non-binary, and/or gender expansive clients.
3. Apply 2-3 somatic, trauma-informed, pleasure-attuned techniques and interventions for addressing sexual health concerns with trans, non-binary, and gender expansive folx from an ethically curious stance.

Outline

• Introductions, Intentions, Group Agreements
• What is Curiosity?
• Unethical Curiosity and the “Entitlement to Know”
• “Genital Curiosity” and Making Genitals Speak
• Practices to Dismantle the “Entitlement to Know”
  • Examining “Who is this For?”
  • Re-Visioning Informed Consent
  • Location of Self
  • Expanding Scope of Competence and Avoiding the Client as Educator
  • Treating the Client in Front of You
• Case Conceptualization and Vignette (Breakout Room Activity)
• Limitations of Research and Potential Risks

Target Audience

• Addiction Counselors
• Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Psychologists
• Therapists
• Social Workers
• Other Mental Health Professionals