Psychotherapy Interventions to Support Transgender, Two-Spirit, and Nonbinary People of Color

Incorporating Radical Healing and Addressing Internalized Transnegativity in Psychotherapy for Transgender, Two-Spirit, and Nonbinary People of Color: An Open Clinical Trial

The proposed research will use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to engage with community organizations to design and implement a project that trains therapists to provide effective, supportive, and engaged therapy to two-spirit, transgender, and nonbinary (2STNB) clients most impacted by barriers in accessing mental health care. 10 2STNB licensed mental health therapists will be identified and 50 2STNB of their clients will be enrolled and can expect to be on study for 10-20 months.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Mental Health
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Radical Healing and Internalized Stigma (RHIS) Training

Detailed Description

The long-term aim of this research is to ensure that therapists have access to training and engage in effective psychotherapy that ultimately reaches Two-spirit, transgender, and nonbinary (2STNB) clients who are the most impacted by unequal systems that create mental health concerns. To make real improvement in reaching TNB populations who lack the most access to mental health care, therapists must be properly trained and data from clients about their mental health experiences must be obtained. The proposed research will use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to engage with community organizations to design and implement a project that trains therapists to provide effective, supportive, and engaged therapy to TNB clients most impacted by barriers in accessing mental health care.

Intervention:

• Therapist Training: The Radical Healing and Internalized Stigma (RHIS) training provides education to therapists on radical healing and internalized stress. The ten therapists employed by the study will engage in an 8 hour intensive training by consultants hired to be on this study.

• Participants:

  • T0 - baseline surveys
  • T1a to T1p - psychotherapy sessions (session complete within 11 months)
  • T2 - end intervention surveys
  • T3 - post intervention follow up (up to 6 months post intervention)

Aim 1: Determine best methods for recruiting 2STNB clients (e.g., increasing access to care), with attention to specific populations and barriers (BIPOC, lack of trust, finances, identity match, etc.)

Aim 2: Examine the feasibility/acceptability of a specialized training for therapists that focuses on healing and internalized stigma

Aim 3: Longitudinally investigate the impact of access to mental health care (e-therapy) on 2STNB people's well-being/mental health.

Endpoints:

The primary endpoint of the study is to determine if the study actually improved access to mental health care for study participants--this will be determined through qualitative interviewing. An additional endpoint is determining feasibility/acceptability of the study, which will also be assessed via qualitative methods.

A secondary endpoint for this study will be to determine if clients experienced psychological improvement in their mental health over the course of the study.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 51
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53706
      • University of Wisconsin

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• fluent in written and spoken English and/or Spanish
• willingness to participate in pre/ post/ session-by session assessments and 15 individual psychotherapy treatment sessions
• individual identifies as transgender, Two-Spirit, or nonbinary (or somewhere along the gender minority spectrum)
• individual identifies as Black, Indigenous/Native, or otherwise as a person of color
• not currently in individual therapy with another therapist

Exclusion Criteria:

• reports current, unmanaged serious/persistent mental health symptoms requiring inpatient treatment (e.g., hallucinations, delusions)
• individual does not identify as transgender, Two-Spirit, or nonbinary (or somewhere along the gender minority spectrum)
• currently in therapy with an individual therapist

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: RHIS Informed Psychotherapy; Therapists will be trained in Radical Healing and Internalized Stigma (RHIS) and meet with their clients as part of their usual care for 15 tele-psychotherapy sessions

Other: Radical Healing and Internalized Stigma (RHIS) Training; 8-hour RHIS training includes, readings that discuss radical healing and internalized stigma, access to didactic information regarding radical healing and internalized stigma. Therapists will role play certain scenarios that may involve minority stress experiences and discuss with the trainers different types of responses that could be therapeutic. The training will focus on the most up to date research regarding transgender mental health, minority stress, radical healing, and role-plays that focus on these processes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants who Find the Intervention Acceptable	Acceptability of the Intervention will be assessed qualitatively via semi-structured interviews post intervention.	up to 20 months
Number of Participants Who Find Intervention Feasible	Feasibility of the Intervention will be assessed qualitatively via semi-structured interviews post intervention.	up to 20 months
Number of Participants Who Indicate Barriers to Therapy Were Decreased	Participant Satisfaction with RHIS Intervention will be assessed qualitatively by semi-structured interview with researcher where access to mental health will be queried.	up to 20 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Percent "Yes" on Yes/No subscales on Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Measure (GMSR)	Designed for use with transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people, the GMSR measure is one of the few that assesses gender identity-related constructs. It was designed to take into account unique gender minority stressors, such as internalized transphobia, and concealment of identity, and resilience factors including community connectedness and pride. The first 3 sub-scales for gender-related discrimination, gender-related rejection, and gender-related victimization are yes/no responses, where 'yes' responses indicated gender-related discrimination, rejection, and victimization.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Measure (GMSR) Scores	Designed for use with transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people, the GMSR measure is one of the few that assesses gender identity-related constructs. It was designed to take into account unique gender minority stressors, such as internalized transphobia, and concealment of identity, and resilience factors including community connectedness and pride. The last sub-scales are given on a 5-point Likert response scale (Strongly Disagree = 0 to Strongly Agree = 4) and responses are summed. Higher scores are indicative of greater phenomena. Sub-scales are as follows: Non-Affirmation: 6-items (0-24); Internalized Transphobia: 8-items (0-32); Pride: 8-items (0-32); Negative Expectations for Future Events: 9-items (0-36); Non-Disclosure: 5-items (0-20); Community Connectedness: 5-items (0-20)	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) Score	The OQ-45 is a measure of how a person has felt in the past week. Total possible range of scores from 0-180, where the higher the score, the more disturbed the participant.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) Scores	The DASS is a measure of how perceived depression, anxiety, and stress in the past week. Total possible range of scores for each domain is 0-21, where higher scores indicate more severe depression, anxiety, and stress.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Coping with Discrimination Scale (CDS) Score	CDS is a 25-item scale measuring five specific strategies (i.e., education/advocacy, internalization, drug and alcohol use, resistance, and detachment) that minority individuals may use when coping with experiences of prejudice and discrimination. Items are responded to on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = never like me to 6 = always like me, for a range of 25 - 150. The investigators will analyze a longitudinal change through time, where better coping is evidenced by higher scores.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Schwartz Outcome Scale Score	This is a 10-item measure of how someone feels over the previous 7 days. Total possible range of scores is 0-100 where higher scores indicate improved outcome.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)
Change in Client Task Specific Change Measure	This is a 16-item measure of how someone feels they've changed. Total possible range of scores is 16-112, where higher scores indicate improved outcome.	baseline, post-intervention (up to 14 months), follow-up (up to 20 months)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Stephanie Budge, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 14, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 10, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): August 10, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 17, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 17, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): December 1, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 31, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 30, 2023
• Last Verified: August 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: transgender; training; mental health care; access; nonbinary; two spirit
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021-1133; A171600 (Other Identifier: UW Madison); Protocol Version 12/1/2021 (Other Identifier: UW Madison)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No