The fact that psychologists may not realize how much their own diagnosable emotional problems can impact their practices led to the undertaking of an exploratory survey of practicing psychologists in order to assess that notion. The results of a random sample of 1,000 psychologists indicate that women were more frequent respondents than men by a ratio of 3 to 2 and that depression (dysthymia) was the most frequently acknowledged diagnosis. Respondents felt that their emotional issues gave them more empathy for their clients; however, they also experienced an increased sense of isolation from their colleagues and lessened energy and ability to concentrate in their relationships with their clients. Recommendations are offered for self-care practices for psychologists.

The emergent consciousness and political activism within the transgender community has important implications for the field of counseling. In the current paradigm, the focus has shifted from using surgical and hormonal interventions and thereby enabling transgendered persons to “pass” within the traditional gender binary of society to affirming the unique identities of transgendered persons. To prepare counselors, counselor educators, and counseling supervisors for this important challenge, the authors describe the evolving nature of the transgender community, discuss mental health issues and counseling interventions for use with transgendered clients, and present a case study detailing the progression of counseling with 1 transgendered client.

The emergent consciousness and political activism emanating from the transgender community have important implications for counselor education. Treatment issues are no longer exclusively centered on aiding “gender dysphoric” individuals to assume either a “male” or “female” gender but rather on exploring alternative gender identifications and options. Counselor educators and supervisors need to model for their students a “trans‐positive” approach to counseling that affirms and celebrates individuals with nontraditional gender identities.