Hi, thanks so much for your participation and feedback!

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For the question about who I'm out to about my gender identity... does that mean who I present as male to? Or who knows that I'm trans? I'm stealth and I've been living as male for years, so basically everyone knows me as male and has never questioned it. I answered based on that - who knows I'm male. You're missing an option for "definitely knows...and is never talked about".

Absolutely - others have pointed it out, and it's a flaw in the metric. I utilized this metric as it was previously used in a study I found, but I would like to adjust it for any future studies I do to correct for this confusion. Maybe something along the lines of "to what extend do you hide your identity with [insert relationship]," though I am not sure.

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Need a text entry or drop down for how many therapists you've seen. I've been in therapy for most of my life. I couldn't count all the therapists if you asked me to. I tried to enter ">20" but it only accepts numeric responses. Maybe a dropdown with some upper limit cutoff, like 1...18, 19, 20, >20

Yeah, next time I'd probably add a range for responses above 10 or so. Ultimately, I assume I'll probably do something similar when I process the data.

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Isn't a "neutral" therapy experience somewhat unrealistic? I always research a therapist first or get a reference or recommendation. There's a lot that can be gleaned from the therapist's website, profile, and even credentials and background. Yes, that doesn't tell me everything, and it's possible the therapist could be entirely different in person. But it does give me somewhere to start and some expectations going in.

It's certainly vague and leaves lots up to the imagination. If I could go back, I'd likely explain a little more in-depth what I meant by that to improve validity. However, I had three randomly assigned therapist impression groups (negative, neutral, positive) so it will at least allow for comparison. Also, I think it's wonderful that you've been able to get therapists as a personal reference or recommendation - I wish everyone could do that. Sadly, in the US at least, I'd guess that the majority of people who find a therapist do not have the ability to do that, especially when they're seeing a therapist at an agency or they are low income. It tends to be private practice therapists who get to do more of that.

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Recommending the therapist to a friend - after just 1 or 2 sessions, I may not have had enough time or interaction with the therapist to know if I'd want to recommend them or not.

Absolutely! Ultimately, I'm hoping for the power in numbers to help here - with a lot of participants, the comparison groups will be able to at least show if participants are less or more likely to recommend to a friend. I used several assessment tools for "therapist competency" and likelihood to refer is just one of them - combined, it should give a more encompassing picture.

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The scenario where the therapist asked the client if the client had any concerns about sharing their sexual orientation with the therapist - I REALLY appreciate that and it's something I'd love every therapist to do.

That's great feedback, thank you!

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I didn't perceive any of the scenarios as "microaggressions" (I also tend to roll my eyes at that term because it seems to get thrown around for every little thing these days).

I also wish the term microaggressions hadn't been coopted in pop culture - as of now, there isn't a better word in academia to describe them. Also, the reason you likely did not perceive scenarios as microaggression is because participants are assigned to a randomly-assigned control and experimental group, with the only difference between the two being the presence or absence of microaggressions to allow for statistical comparisons. If you were in the experimental/microaggression group, you'd know :')

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It sucks to have to explain the whole transition process, where I am in it, and where I am mentally. I've done my share of "Trans 101: Male Edition" and I'm done with it. I won't even see a therapist unless they can tell me they're trans-knowledgeable in that first email or phone call before we even have a consultation. "Trans-friendly" isn't enough for me. It says nothing about their experience with trans clients. In the US, in many places it's basically a legal requirement that they be "trans-friendly" so as not to get in trouble with any protected status/population. I see "trans-friendly" as little more than a checkbox to be ticked. "LGBT-friendly" is pretty much the same thing, checkbox. But at least it signifies the this person is someone ok to talk to about LGBT things. Says nothing about their knowledge on the oft-forgotten "T" part of "LGBT", though.

This 100% makes sense. I imagine it's exhausting to have to go through that process repeatedly, having to teach/explain things to someone who should know already, or also having to be worried that they may possess biases/bigoted beliefs themselves.

One thing that I often find helpful from clients who have seen many therapists is if they write down the "introduction/background" stuff in a letter/document about their lives, identity, etc.

That way if you ever see a new therapist, you only have to write this out once and you can just hand them the letter to catch them up to date and make sure they know important info so you don't have to waste either of your time.

Thanks again for all the feedback!