Supporting Trans & Nonbinary Clients with Sociopolitical Distress
In this webinar, 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
Join us for a timely webinar:
Supporting Trans & Nonbinary Clients with Sociopolitical Distress
Date: Fri, May 16, 2025
Time: 3:00 PM EDT
Are you a mental health professional looking to better support your trans and nonbinary clients during times of sociopolitical distress? This webinar 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. Register now!
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.
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. The webinar will include discussion of general steps and practice considerations, general psychotherapeutic approaches, recommendations for responding to common scenarios, and reflections on caring for ourselves while doing this work.
A similar webinar offered in November 2024 helped thousands of clinicians find their footing and received many pieces of positive feedack. This content has been updated to speak specifically to the concerns and realities we are now facing in Spring of 2025, and what this asks of us as mental health professionals.
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. , and has contributed to several clinical texts and books related to trans mental health and psychotherapy. 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.
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.
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.
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.
The webinar will be approximately 90 minutes with 20-30 minutes set aside for live Q&A.
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.
Yes and no. Some of the material will be similar, but Dr. Barr has updated everything to be relevant to life under the current political realities trans and nonbinary people are facing. Unfortunately this has changed considerably since the last webinar.
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.
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.