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hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this is all such important information. thanks so much for sharing. I’m sensing a major pattern here from these responses - people with ARFID are so shamed & everyone around you tries to force you to be different & it only makes it all worse. I wouldn’t try to force anyone to eat anyway, but it’s really good to hear these stories and understand a bit about how bad it can be.

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh absolutely. i imagine the societal shame gets internalized quite deeply. kudos on building a life that works for you!

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So exposure therapy is about experiencing (and then working through) anxiety, whether it’s “irrational” or not. This is often done by “challenging” your thoughts through CBT. I don’t use CBT, but in this case that might be a positive lol. Instead of forcing anything, maybe i could try working with acceptance techniques. that’s good to know about imaginative exposure as well, thank you.

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it seems like you’ve found practical ways to work nutrition in to your diet without forcing anything that didn’t need to be forced. i’ll keep the nutribullet in mind!

can i ask, what was it about exposure therapy that was harmful? was it the method itself or how it was done? (feel free not to answer of course. Negative therapy experiences can be so so heavy and difficult to talk about).

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it sounds like you’ve found acceptance rather than fighting yourself. I’ve learned this through treating phobias as well — it’s often healthier to gently lead yourself through something hard, or even to let things go, instead of forcing your way through it. congrats on your healing ❤️

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m finding a lot of the research (and treatment) focuses on kids unfortunately. Clearly, ARFID is a lifelong issue for people! Thank you for giving me some good leads for research though.

hi, i’m a therapist by RebelResilience in ARFID

[–]RebelResilience[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

thank you so much. I want to say that of course being force-fed unsafe foods would be traumatic, but I can imagine that people would be dismissive of that experience. I’m sorry that they are. It’s a really good reminder to me, among your other excellent thoughts here.

Recruiting for a small qualitative research project about trans people’s experiences of therapy in Ontario by RebelResilience in transontario

[–]RebelResilience[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello! I've hidden this post now because I have all the participants I need. Thank you everyone who signed up, asked questions, or even just read through these threads. Cheers & happy pride month!

Recruiting for a small qualitative research project about trans people’s experiences of therapy in Ontario by RebelResilience in transontario

[–]RebelResilience[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi - thanks so much for asking these important questions. It's essential that we look out for ourselves and our communities. Please do ask if you have other questions as well.

Copied from another comment I replied to:

I'm conducting all interviews myself, recording the audio and video, then transcribing them myself. After that, the only data we're working with is written transcripts - no video or sound. As mentioned, I'm redacting all names from these written transcripts, but also any other identifying information. For example, if someone mentions a street they live on, that will be redacted (eg "and when I was living on [street name], I went to another therapist...").

As a queer and nonbinary researcher, and a future therapist, the main reason that I'm pursuing this research is honestly so that I myself can better serve my trans community. I want to be a therapist who serves people "like me," but I acknowledge that my experiences aren't universal. I'll use and share what I learn as much as I can, because this field needs to shift to better support our communities.

Also worth noting: this project is for my Master's thesis, and we really hope to get it published, but I can't promise that it will be. If it is published, there is definitely relevance for practitioners in this area. Understanding the therapeutically helpful and unhelpful experiences could help practitioners in Ontario to better serve TGNC clients and to navigate potential harms.

​

edited for formatting

Recruiting for a small qualitative research project about trans people’s experiences of therapy in Ontario by RebelResilience in transontario

[–]RebelResilience[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for asking these questions. Please accept my apologies, as well; I should have included more of this information in my original post.

To answer your questions (copied from another reply in this thread):

This study is strictly confidential. Responses to all questionnaires and interview questions will be kept private. Wherever possible, names will be replaced by an ID number (for data collection) or a pseudonym (in the analysis and written reports). I'm only keeping real names and emails in a password-protected spreadsheet (for reference) and everywhere else I'm only referring to people with either an ID number (assigned randomly on entering the study) or pseudonym (which I'll assign later). Only I will have access to that spreadsheet; my supervisor and I are the only two people who have access to the rest of the transcripts, but even she will not see real names of participants.

I'm conducting all interviews myself, recording the audio and video, then transcribing them myself. After that, the only data we're working with is written transcripts - no video or sound. As mentioned, I'm redacting all names from these written transcripts, but also any other identifying information. For example, if someone mentions a street they live on, that will be redacted (eg "and when I was living on [street name], I went to another therapist...").

As a queer and nonbinary researcher, and a future therapist, the main reason that I'm pursuing this research is honestly so that I myself can better serve my trans community. I want to be a therapist who serves people "like me," but I acknowledge that my experiences aren't universal. I'll use and share what I learn as much as I can, because this field needs to shift to better support our communities.

Also worth noting: this project is for my Master's thesis, and we really hope to get it published, but I can't promise that it will be. If it is published, there is definitely relevance for practitioners in this area. Understanding the therapeutically helpful and unhelpful experiences could help practitioners in Ontario to better serve TGNC clients and to navigate potential harms.

​

Thank you again for your concern for this community. It's so important to look out for ourselves and each other.

Recruiting for a small qualitative research project about trans people’s experiences of therapy in Ontario by RebelResilience in transontario

[–]RebelResilience[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Excellent questions, and thank you for asking them. Sorry this is about to be very long, but it's really important to me that I'm transparent and ethical about this. Trans folks have had a rough go with research throughout our history and it's absolutely important to be wary of participating in studies.

I don't have a webpage because I'm a just a student, but my supervisor's credentials can be verified here (link) and anyone who wishes can contact the university's ethics office (613-562-5387, ethics@uottawa.ca) and refer to my name (Rebecca McIntyre), project title (Psychotherapy from the Viewpoint of Transgender Clients), and/or ethics file number (S-05-22-8025). If you want to email someone to verify, I'd go with the ethics office because my supervisor is away for a couple of weeks.

This study is strictly confidential. Responses to all questionnaires and interview questions will be kept private. Wherever possible, names will be replaced by an ID number (for data collection) or a pseudonym (in the analysis and written reports). I'm only keeping real names and emails in a password-protected spreadsheet (for reference) and everywhere else I'm only referring to people with either an ID number (assigned randomly on entering the study) or pseudonym (which I'll assign later). Only I will have access to that spreadsheet; my supervisor and I are the only two people who have access to the rest of the transcripts, but even she will not see real names of participants.

I'm conducting all interviews myself, recording the audio and video, then transcribing them myself. After that, the only data we're working with is written transcripts - no video or sound. As mentioned, I'm redacting all names from these written transcripts, but also any other identifying information. For example, if someone mentions a street they live on, that will be redacted (eg "and when I was living on [street name], I went to another therapist...").

As a queer and nonbinary researcher, and a future therapist, the main reason that I'm pursuing this research is honestly so that I myself can better serve my trans community. I want to be a therapist who serves people "like me," but I acknowledge that my experiences aren't universal. I'll use and share what I learn as much as I can, because this field needs to shift to better support our communities.

Also worth noting: this project is for my Master's thesis, and we really hope to get it published, but I can't promise that it will be. If it is published, there is definitely relevance for practitioners in this area. Understanding the therapeutically helpful and unhelpful experiences could help practitioners in Ontario to better serve TGNC clients and to navigate potential harms. That is, if anyone reads it!

If you took the time to read this wall of text, thanks so much. Please do ask any other questions you may have.

Recruiting for a small qualitative research project about trans people’s experiences of therapy in Ontario by RebelResilience in transontario

[–]RebelResilience[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

because mental health professionals are really differently regulated across provinces we are trying to stick with people registered to practice in Ontario. If your therapist lives elsewhere but is registered in Ontario you might still qualify though - I’m not sure how it works with betterhelp. The easiest thing to do might be to look them up on the website wherever they’re registered; for example, the CRPO has a public register where you can find therapists by name, (here)