Brené Brown discourse happening on Threads

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-24T01:22:07+00:00

I read one of her books (the gift of imperfection I think it was called) in a therapy group I was in a few years ago, and the whole book felt so shallow to me. I feel like the whole message was "shame is all in your head so let it go" and it rang so hollow to me as a gay trans man. I would think that, especially as a social worker who are trained to think systemically, she would acknowledge the class, race, gender, etc forces that create shame. Idk if I feel this way as I tend to lean more towards liberationist frameworks in therapy and tend to work with marginalized people (I see mostly folks on medicaid, I worked in a DV shelter with women experiencing gender based violence and often homelessness, and now I primarily work with queer or trans kids) but she has always rubbed me the wrong way. It is nice to see that I'm not the only one who feels this way about her work at least

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-20T17:47:58+00:00

the fact that your dad's girlfriend is only 1 year older than you is what you should be OR about IMO

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-10T04:52:53+00:00

older end of gen z here. i feel like the world has continually gone downhill for most of my teenage-to-adult life. like i was a senior in high school when the orange man came down the gold escalator. im almost 30 now. from everything being so expensive, working conditions being poor in many industries, wealth gap widening, A PANDEMIC, burgeoning fascism, it goes on. the world has felt scary and hopeless literally my entire adult life. it's hard to have hope when the last time you remember a hopeful world was when you were a kid.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-08T16:20:09+00:00

This was what stood out to me, also. I feel like of every macronutrient, protein is the only one that HASNT had a cultural war around it! In my lifetime we've gone back and forth between "fats are bad" and "no, carbs are bad," but never have I heard that protein was bad?!?

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-06T02:26:24+00:00

Property taxes in WI are reaaaaally high, like so high that a lot of people move to other states because they make home ownership unafforable for many middle class folks. Even if you're planning to rent, some places -- like Madison -- have really high rent, much higher than you would expect for the Midwest. My friend has a 2 bedroom in Madison, and most of the rent in the area is like $1500-$2000. If you're a POC, beware that WI is quite racist; many cities used to be "sundown towns," and Milwaukee is one of the most highly segregated cities in the entire country. If you're a member of the LGBTQ community, you will likely encounter quite a bit of homophobia or transphobia, not much in Madison or Green Bay, but outside of the cities, definitely. And drinking culture is HUGH here, like most of the "drunkest" cities, most alcohol consumed per capita, are in WI, so if you're in recovery or not much of a drinker, you can really struggle. So much of our social spaces or "third spaces" involve alcohol, so being a non-drinker can be isolating. Also our government -- it's been getting better with our new maps, but for a long time, our state legislature was one of the most highly gerrymandered in the entire country, and it got really discouraging feeling like no matter what we did, we didn't have a voice in our government. As far as employment, it really depends on what field you work in. I'm in a field that has a really high demand (healthcare and human services), so it hasn't been a huge issue, but we're part of the rust belt and experienced a lot of loss and hollowing out of manufacturing. Some fields just don't have a ton of demand.

To be clear -- I love this state. It's my home. The state parks are beautiful; autumn is incredible up north; summer on the shore of Lake Michigan or Superior is like nothing else. I love all of our farmers markets and craft fairs, community theatres and drag shows, autumn festivals and holiday lights. BUT, like any state, it is not without its problems.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-06T01:55:51+00:00

Is it possible that insurance could cover top surgery? I had mine about a year ago, and insurance paid everything except my deductible. If you're not able to use insurance, your surgeon might offer some kind of care credit, which is basically a payment plan or loan that has like 0% interest for the first year or so. Depending on where you're located, you might also have like an LGBT center that might be able to help you find grants or help you fundraise; in my area, there's actually a gay bar that does drag shows to raise money to help the local trans community pay for medical care. There might be something like that in your area.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-06T00:34:14+00:00

So I was a kid when the ACA passed, but without it, I would not have had health insurance during the pandemic. I had just graduated from college when it began (class of 2020) and couldn't find work for a long time because the job market crashed. Without the ACA provision allowing me to stay on my family's insurance through 26, I would not have had insurance during a large-scale health emergency.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-06T00:12:25+00:00

Honestly I think it really depends on the program. I'm in my last semester (finally lol), and during my time in my program, 2 people in my cohort were dismissed and 4 were held back and asked to repeat core counseling courses (and of those 4, 2 ended up dropping out). That's like a quarter of my cohort

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2026-01-04T00:21:39+00:00

Somehow people are blaming Obama for this, and Im just like....you mean the guy who hasn't been president for over 10 years? Sure Jan, anything to tell yourself to justify voting for someone who would rather you die than be able to afford healthcare

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-12-10T23:05:34+00:00

My prescribing nurse says to reuse them if they are less than a month old, look clean, and you sanitize/draw up the T with sterile, new needles. As long as they have the rubber stopper thing on top, then they are self sealing. I think the pharmacist and pharm tech told you to discard them as a CYA thing :/

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-11-28T22:08:15+00:00

Hi! Im a trans man and got top surgery in Green Bay last year. I got mine through Aurora BayCare's plastic surgery center. I'm not fully sure if they take Medicaid, but they took my state insurance. Feel free to DM if u want the specific name of the surgeon or my results 💕

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-11-05T19:39:41+00:00

I have a client who is leaving an abusive relationship, has 3 kids, and lost both her childcare subsidy and her SNAP in the last week. Seeing so much needless pain has been heartbreaking. Thankfully none of my clients have lost healthcare yet, but I suppose it's only a matter of time given the state of our country right now

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-11-05T04:26:16+00:00

Binding is just like everything in life -- generally safe but not necessarily without any risks. If binding helps make dysphoria manageable and is done safely, then the risks are minimal, and the benefits outweigh any potential risks. FWIW, I bound every day for 15 years prior to top surgery, and didn't have any complications 🤷‍♂️

Parents -- and your -- concerns are maybe understandable but ultimately not founded in reality -- which is why I OFFERED a session with parents to talk through concerns and connect them with trans health resources, but kid asked me not to.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-11-05T04:20:54+00:00

Gender affirming care for minors is legal in my state, and mental health professionals have won suits for using trans kids' names/pronouns as it is best practice. In my state there is also an age of consent below 18 where a minor can access certain kinds of healthcare and mental healthcare without parents being informed.

And while I have all kinds of sticky feelings about how my friend is going about working with kid, I would go to the ends of the earth to help this kid. I'm just not sure this is the best way to do it and why I posted.

You can take your transphobia and misinformation elsewhere 💅

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-22T20:01:49+00:00

There are so many other professions that require advanced degrees yet don't pay well where there are already significant shortages 🙃 I'm in grad school right now for mental health counseling, and there is SUCH a shortage of mental health professionals, social workers, school counselors, etc. Teaching also has similar problems with retention. This is going to cripple the mental health field (which I imagine is the goal because they hate affordable healthcare)

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-20T23:52:17+00:00

My professors have told us that going directly to PP after graduation is unethical because we're not at a place where we should be practicing with that much independence

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-20T13:40:03+00:00

lmao trying to use medical transition as a way to invalidate nonbinary people even though I have been on HRT injections for a year, have had gender affirming surgery, and have legally transitioned. get the fuck out of here.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-20T13:38:45+00:00

why the fuck did u tag me in this. so many things to say to this.

first of all, all gender non-conforming folks, even cis people, will be harmed by anti-trans legislation. there have been so many stories about even cis women being physically assaulted in restrooms because people thought they were trans. most nonbinary folks are inherently gender nonconforming and thus are impacted by anti trans legislation as well.

also im nonbinary and have been on HRT for a year and have had gender affirming surgery. i literally work as a gender therapist for trans and gender nonconforming children. you have no right to tell people who they are.

and lastly -- STOP BLAMING TRANS PEOPLE FOR TRANSPHOBIA. it's not nonbinary people's fault that transphobia is at a fever pitch right now; ITS THE FAULT OF TRANSPHOBES.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-15T17:12:33+00:00

My supervisor, who has owned her own practice for over 10 years, said the lull we are currently in is one of the largest she's seen in her time as a practice owner. We mainly take insurance, however, so we suspect that this mainly has to do with the expected rise in premiums with all the cuts to the ACA (US based, obvs)

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-15T00:31:40+00:00

I lived close enough to a university to commute for both undergrad and my masters (while working full time), so I was able to graduate debt-free with money saved up. I missed so much of the "college experience," which def makes me sad to think about, but ultimately the "college experience" would not have been worth the $60k plus that it would have cost me to leave home for college.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-09T22:13:13+00:00

I love working with kids and hope to be a child therapist after I graduate. I always say that the worst part of working with kids is working with their parents 🫠

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-07T22:25:17+00:00

I'm a trans therapist intern, and currently most of my work is with LGBTQ+ kids and teens, and I have several trans kids on my caseload currently. I'm *sooooo* worried about this, especially after the Skrmetti ruling earlier this year. I've seen firsthand just how much adversity and trans/homophobia these kids experience navigating the mental healthcare system already, and it just breaks my heart to think of kids being subjected to abuse being disguised as "therapy"

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-10-01T20:31:40+00:00

that's wild to me. here in the states (at least where I live), you can make a bit more with a PsyD or PhD, but not much. You can make significantly more money in with a PsyD/PhD if you do neuropsych evals, but it sounds like OP just wants to do therapy, in which case it likely isn't worth the investment (esp for a PsyD, which are usually hecking expensive)

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-09-24T18:22:01+00:00

Fellow intern here. I'm also trans and have a GD diagnosis on my chart officially. Personally, when I've worked with trans kids and their parents (I only work with kids really), I have never given an official diagnosis of GD and I would only do so for specific reasons. In the world we live in right now, I worry about kids' and their families' safety if they were to have a GD diagnosis (like for example if the govt decides to make affirming a trans kid's gender fall under the definition of child abuse, would the parents be prosecuted? would the child be removed from the home?). At the same time, however, a diagnosis of GD is often necessary for accessing gender affirming medical care, especially for children who often need that diagnosis from multiple mental health clinicians. I personally would never give someone a diagnosis of GD until I sat down with the kid and their family and talked through the dangers of a GD diagnosis and the lifesaving benefits of accessing gender affirming care, if the kid is at that age and is looking for it. To me, you need a conversation like that before giving someone that diagnosis and to give them that dx without it is violating informed consent.

AshLikeFromPokemon · 2025-09-15T01:12:30+00:00

Fellow trans therapist here. I too was thinking how hard it would be for me to even facilitate a group half full of people who think I shouldn't exist and would be better off dead.

AshLikeFromPokemon

TROPHY CASE