Supporting Trans & Nonbinary Clients w/ Sociopolitical Distress (Expanded)
In this training, trans psychologist Dr. Sebastian Barr will discuss strategies for working with sociopolitical distress in therapy.
Date and time
Location
Online
Refund Policy
About this event
- Event lasts 2 hours
Recording will be available to all registrants! You don't need to attend live!
Join us for the expansion of May's successful webinar:
Supporting Trans & Nonbinary Clients with Sociopolitical Distress (Part 2)
Date: Fri, July 11, 2025
Time: 3:00 PM-5:00 PM EDT
Are you a mental health professional looking to better support your trans and nonbinary clients during times of sociopolitical distress? This training is for you. Learn practical strategies and tools to provide the effective care that is desperately needed right now. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of your clients.
Note that while this webinar builds upon Part 1 (available here), it may be beneficial as a standalone, as well.
What to Expect:
In this webinar, Dr. Sebastian Barr will draw from research, clinical experience, and community knowledge to help clinicians build their capacity to step into this work with confidence and comfort.
This training will build off of the webinar presented in May 2025, which covered foundations for affirming and effective work in this climate, assessing and conceptualizing sociopolitical distress in clients, and core in-session interventions and approaches. A recording of that webinar can be purchased at Dr. Barr's website: https://transpsychologist.com/trainings/#may-2025
Between that webinar and one offered shortly after the elections in November 2024, Dr. Barr has helped thousands of clinicians find their footing and received many pieces of positive feedack.
The content in this upcoming training has been updated to speak specifically to the concerns and realities we are now facing, and what this asks of us as mental health professionals. There will be a specific section on helping clients cope with reduced access to gender affirming medical care and/or threats of reduced access. This training will also include practical discussion of complex scenarios, such as working with clients' heightened responsiveness/reactivity, clients who are considering detransition, clients with increased suicidality, trans people needing to relocate for safety, and activist burnout, as well as how to therapeutically address misinformation from clients. Using vignettes, Dr. Barr will discuss with specificty how he incorporates some of the previously taught core in-session approaches and uses other evidence-grounded interventions to manage these contexts.
Additionally, there will be more time spent on the therapist's experience of doing this work. Dr. Barr will discuss how therapists can best navigate challenging reactions we are having to the sociopolitical climate, therapy material, and clients. And there will be review of advocacy actions therapists can take for their clients and for the community at large.
Q&A will be available for live attendees, though Dr. Barr may need to answer the questions asynchronously if there is not enough time.
Why This Matters:
While the sociopolitical climate in the U.S. (and globally) has been growing increasingly hostile to trans communities in recent years, this has intensified under the current federal government. Since January 2025 especially, trans and nonbinary people have struggled with worsened mental health as communities navigate hateful rhetoric, risk of violence, restrictions to care and other rights, and fear of what's to come.
Many clinicians feel limited in their ability to support trans and nonbinary clients facing this harsh reality and still unpredictable future, with some likening their provision of therapy these days to "offering sunscreen to a person on fire." But therapy can be much more than sunscreen - and it needs to be. Trans and nonbinary communities need access to helpful ways to make sense of and respond to or manage the understandable distress they are experiencing so that they live meaningfully in the present and future. Mental healthcare providers are positioned to be an invaluable resource to trans and nonbinary clients right now - we just need to be grounded in best practices.
About The Presenter:
Dr. Sebastian Barr (he/him) is a psychotherapist, researcher, consultant, and educator with a PhD in Counseling Psychology. His work focuses on traumatic stress recovery, trans mental health, and the wellbeing of people with trans loved ones. He provides psychotherapy to teens and adults in Massachusetts and Kansas through his independent practice, and has trained thousands of clinicians, educators, and healthcare professionals on effective and affirming care for trans communities.
Dr. Barr completed advanced clinical training at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, including two years in the Program for Psychotherapy and work in the Victims of Violence clinic founded by Judith Herman. His research—published in peer-reviewed journals and cited hundreds of times—focuses on the intersections of trauma and trans mental health. He is currently engaged in multiple grant-supported research projects and serves as an advisor on affirming and ethical trans health research.
Dr. Barr has received numerous awards for his contributions, including the Trans Research Award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, recognition from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the 2023 Early Career Clinical Award from the Society for Counseling Psychology. He was also a past scholar-in-residence at the Faber-Llull Institute in Olot, Catalonia. He has served on the editorial boards of Psychotherapy and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, and has contributed to several clinical texts and books related to trans mental health and psychotherapy.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, everyone who registers for the live webinar will receive an email within a week of the webinar with the opportunity to register for 3 months of viewing for free.
This webinar uses a sliding scale to increase access & honor different financial capacities. Paying at the higher end supports Dr. Barr & helps make spots available for others at the lower end, but choose the option that is manageable for you. Read the descriptions if you need help selecting.
There are not CEs available at this time. Getting approved for CEs is time-intensive and has not been doable at this juncture. If you would like to support Dr. Barr in offering CEs for his webinars, please email him at drsebastianbarr@gmail.com.
In recognition of the material impacts of anti-trans politics on our communities, as well as the additional emotional burden of doing this work while trans, trans therapists may use the code transjustice for 50% off any ticket level and transliberation for 100% off (aka no cost).
Feel free to register using a pricing tier that works for you, but if you are trans, you are encouraged to sign up for free.
Thank you for this! You have the option of purchasing up to 20 at-cost or higher-end tickets at a time. Please select the number of folks you anticipate attending. This ensures everyone can access the recording. You can email drsebastianbarr@gmail.com for a 40% discount code for groups of 5 or more.
These simply provide an easy opportunity to support trans-led and trans-centered initiatives and are optional. Of course, you can also donate to the organizations directly or to another group or cause that you want to support.
This is designed for professionals who engage in clinical work with trans and nonbinary community members, but some (if not most) of the information will likely be helpful to anyone supporting trans and nonbinary people experiencing distress about the state of things.
Chat will be disabled and your attendance will not be visible to others. The Q&A function allows for anonymous submissions. Only Dr. Barr will see all questions and will screen them before making them public to ensure a respectful and safe space.
Yes, some of this webinar will be helpful for those supporting any client to live meaningfully under oppressive and scary sociopolitical contexts and to navigate complex clinical situations that come up under such conditions. Some of the content will be trans/nonbinary-specific, of course.
The webinar will be approximately 90 minutes with 20-30 minutes set aside for live Q&A. It is possible the training will last the majority of the two hour period and Q&A will need to be done asynchronously.
Organized by
Dr. Sebastian Barr (he/him) is a psychotherapist, researcher, and educator with a PhD in Counseling Psychology. He specializes in traumatic stress, trans mental health, and the wellbeing of people with trans loved ones. Dr. Barr has trained thousands of professionals in affirming, effective care, and his work has been recognized by the American Psychological Association, WPATH, and USPATH. He provides therapy in Massachusetts and Kansas and is currently leading multiple grant-supported research projects related to trauma and trans mental health.