luin joy
substack
SPECIALIZED TRANS SUPPORT
For many of us, trans existence can sometimes feel like running a marathon with no end in sight and no water breaks along the way. There are so many dimensions of transness that require support and guidance and not enough high-quality resources available to meet our needs. That is why I began offering coaching specifically for our community. To me, this work is mutually healing, sacred, and powerful.
Why coaching?
Coaching is non-clinical, present-future oriented, and highly customizable. It’s different than therapy in many ways and can serve as an incredibly supportive addition to your mental health toolbox. It’s transformative work with a distinctly different feeling than therapy, a different scope, and a different set of boundaries. We’ll explore present-day challenges, and how they may be informed by past experiences, but with a focus on how to create tangible changes using practical strategies to carry us forward.
I love being a coach because I’m able to help people generate powerful shifts in their lives that support all other areas of healing and personal development. I often feel like a personal trainer for people’s emotional and spiritual bodies and it’s deeply rewarding.
Why trans coaching?
There are many benefits to receiving professional coaching from a fellow trans person while navigating the multi-dimensions of social, internal, and/or medical trans experience. As you’re well aware, this process is emotional, highly personal, and easily overwhelming. Many therapists and medical providers may have some training to support trans clients, but in actuality, most receive very few training hours specifically dedicted to gender and sexuality.
The internet is full of forums, trans influencers, testimonials, and google search results that can sometimes be helpful in our search for transition-related support, but they can also muddy the waters of our unique experience and may not be trustworthy sources of information. When trying to navigate this process alone, it can feel like you’re drowing and don’t know who to trust or where to turn. I intimately understand this feeling. Because finding trustworthy care is uniquely challenging for trans people, I have developed a thorough, trauma-informed approach to building and maintaining trust within our coaching relationship to help you receive the support you’ve been searching for.
My heart sings when talking about:
- coming out to ourselves, radical honesty, and self-embrace
- finding belonging and safety within ourselves and in aligned community
- locating gender euphoria
- transness as a divine path of expansion and contagious freedom
- owning our desires and trusting trans intuition
- spiritual dimensions of transition
- coping with dysphoria using low-cost, DIY DAT (Do-It-Yourself Dysphoria Alleviation Technology) eg. hand-sewn packers and packing underwear, retro-fitted prosthetics, safe alternatives for binding, and other tools for reducing daily discomfort
If you’re currently seeking guidance specific to medical transition, or may desire that in the future, I am well equipped to support you.
Our together work may include:
- supporting you with complex, personal decisions about the process
- talking about growing into alignment while on HRT
- processing changes that carry both euphoria and grief
- integrating mind and body before/during/after surgery
- finding supportive providers
- letting go of relationships that aren’t willing to grow with you
- developing personal rituals to reduce anxiety around doctor’s appointments, self-administering HRT, wound care, etc.
- preparing yourself and your caregivers for surgery
- strategically navigating insurance
- managing dysphoria before, between, or without surgeries
- and many other things specifically related to medical transition!
Why work with me?
The past decade of my life has delivered many valuable insights, blessings, hardships, and lessons. I began HRT in 2016 in my early 20’s, while living in Georgia. Since then, I’ve had 6 surgeries in 4 different states. I grew up in a rural area and have navigated trans life and gender-affirming care in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Southeast. My resilience, self-compassion, and sense of alignment / intuition have been honed across many different environments, chronic health challenges, and unpredictable circumstances.
Through it all, I have grown into a version of myself that previously felt like a distant dream. I’ve learned how to soften into my life and my body like a beloved, loose-fitting shirt.
Part of serving my purpose on this earth involves alchemizing my experiences into love, perspective, and wisdom to support others through both the blessings and overwhelming messiness of trans existence.
Because the greatest depth of my lived experience comes from 10 years of medical transition as a trans man, I specialize in supporting those walking a similar path. However, I am enthusiastic and honored to work with anyone who resonates with my message and approach, regardless of identity or relationship to medical transition.
Listen to my interview with Blue Dot Podcast to hear more about my story, my relationship to transness, and my art practice
Check out my Substack post about bottom surgery
BUILDING TRUST:
Our trust will be built at a gentle and natural pace, starting with me expressing my commitments to you, establishing clear coaching boundaries, and listening to your needs. I will also offer direct recognition of both my skills and my limitations within this work.
I am commited to:
- Guiding our work in ways that support your expressed needs
- Sharing my experiences and perspectives when appropriate and without judgement or friction about the ways that our transness, transition desires, and lived experiences are inherently different
- Communicating clear and consistent boundaries and checking in about yours
Always asking for consent before sharing more personal aspects of my experiences, especially when talking about surgeries or medical processes - Sharing my experiences without distracting from the focus of our work together - you!
- Being forthcoming and honest about what I don’t know and am not qualified to do
- Making every effort to find resources for needs beyond my scope of experience
- Making every effort to refer you out to providers who can assist with things I’m not able to help with
I have no desire to determine or direct your personal experience of transness or transition - I firmly believe that no two trans pathways are the same and my deepest desire is to support you in finding your way in this overwhelming and frequently isolating identity experience. You know yourself better than anyone else and I’m here to support you in learning more about who you are.
RATES:
My rate for trans people receiving Gender Literacy Coaching is $100 / 1 hour
All sessions are virtual, paid in advance, and can be scheduled at any frequency that feels right for you! I also offer packages, which allows for greater consistency, the ability to schedule in advance, and savings on the cost per session, compared to scheduling multiple single sessions.
Package rates:
$450 / 5 pack
($90 per session / $50 savings)
$900 / 10 pack
($90 per session / $100 savings)
I reserve a number of sliding scale spots for trans clients who would benefit from this work, but have limited financial resources. If this applies to you, please do not hesitate to let me know in the comments section when you schedule our consult and I will reserve time to explore some options together.
I want my clients to determine what realistically works for them without pressure. I will never ask you to provide proof of your financial situation and am intimately familiar with the financial barriers that often come with trans existence. If you’re trans and able to pay my full rate, that makes it much easier for me to offer sliding scale sessions to others.
If you’re in need of advice and support that would not include formal coaching, please reach out to me - I will always try to offer support and connect you to resources however I am able to.