What is Trans Care?

Below every video, you’ll discover a handy summary. We even throw in some extra images and tips to make your learning experience better! After watching each video, take a peek at this text to lock in what you’ve learned.

This program is divided into 8 sections to teach you how to cope with your gender dysphoria.

1: What is gender dysphoria? – we will explain what gender dysphoria is and discuss common events that can make it feel stronger. You will be encouraged to identify triggers that affect your gender dysphoria by writing them down.

2: Externalizing gender dysphoria – we will explore the concept of viewing gender dysphoria as an external force trying to control you. By visualizing what it looks like, you can lessen its impact on your mental well-being. Part of this module will involve noticing your gender dysphoria symptoms as they show up throughout the week. During this section, you will be asked to draw your own representation of your gender dysphoria.

3: What is coping? – we will introduce different coping techniques and provide instructions on how to start practicing them. These skills can help you manage and reduce the effects of gender dysphoria.

4: Mindful awareness coping – we will discuss how mindful awareness can be a valuable tool in managing gender dysphoria by helping you to focus on the present moment. We will guide you through mindful awareness exercises to help you stay present and calm during difficult moments.

5 & 6. Action and Avoidant Coping sections – we will discuss specific coping strategies used by other trans and nonbinary individuals to alleviate gender dysphoria. You will be encouraged to think about the strategies you already use and create a list ranking them from most likely to least likely to be helpful for you.

7: Coping combos – we will help you identify which coping skills are most suitable for specific triggers of gender dysphoria. This will allow you to be prepared and use the most effective strategies when facing different experiences of gender dysphoria.

8: Review and coping cheat sheet – we will provide a recap of what you have learned and present your personalized coping cheat sheet. You will also receive a downloadable coping cheat sheet personalized to your responses, which will serve as a helpful reference.

Each section is guided by a trans and nonbinary person.

It will take you about 4-5 hours to finish the Trans Care program. Throughout the sections you will do interactive activities such as fill in the blanks, writing reflections, coping matching, drawing pictures, and others. You can write as little or as much as you’d like. However, if you do not write anything for the free response questions your coping cheat sheet could be blank making it less helpful to you. We encourage you to complete all the activities.

For folks who are doing this on your phone and prefer not to type, the activities can be done with speech to text. All you need to do is click the microphone icon on your keyboard, just like you would for texting. If you are unsure of how to do this with your specific phone, we recommend googling your phone type, for example iPhone 11, and the words “speech to text.”

You can go at your own pace and take breaks if you need to. It’s best if you complete the program within one month to optimize your learning of the coping skills.

To make sure you finish the program in one month, we’ve made a plan to help you. It’s important to choose the days that work best for you to do the program so be sure to look over your schedule or calendar to determine your personal best days. You can use your phone to set reminders for when you want to work on the sections each day. Take some time now to create your schedule and set your phone reminders.

We will also send you automatic reminders when it’s time to work on a section. Make sure your email is set up to get notifications so you don’t miss any reminders!

Recommended Schedule

Week 1
Day 1	Introduction	13 Minutes
	Identifying Gender Dysphoria Triggers	30 Minutes
Day 2	Externalizing Gender Dysphoria	30 Minutes
Day 3 & 4	Notice The Gender Dysphoria Showing Up
Day 5	What Is Coping?	10 Minutes
	Mindful Awareness Coping	50 Minutes
Week 2
Days 6-11	Practice your new skills for one week!
Week 3
Day 12	Active Coping	60 Minutes
Day 13-18	Practice your new skills for one week!
Week 4
Day 19	Avoidant Coping	50 minutes
Day 20-25	Practice your new skills for one week!
Week 5
Day 26	Coping Combos	30 Minutes
	Review And Coping Cheat Sheet	10 Minutes

Some of the sections of the program are shorter and some of them are longer. Using self-care between sections will help you to get the most out of this program. Self-care is anything you do to take care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally. Some common self-care actions include:

Or anything else that helps you relax and not feel too tired or overwhelmed by the program.

Focusing and processing your experience of gender dysphoria can be challenging. That’s why we’ll remind you to take self-care breaks. It’s important to be kind to yourself during this process.

People who completed Trans Care before said that while it was tough, really understanding their gender dysphoria helped them learn to cope with it better. Here’s what some of them shared:

Sometimes reflecting on your gender dysphoria can make you want to give up and quit Trans Care. But working through these feelings and learning the coping strategies in the program has been shown to reduce gender dysphoria over time and improve your overall well-being.

If you ever feel like quitting, take a break and come back when you’re ready. We promise it’s worth it!