Gender-affirming support
I have a passion for providing gender-affirming care for clients identifying at any point on the gender spectrum. I have helped numerous clients from teens to older adults explore their gender identity. I am not only a therapist, but an advocate for my clients.
I am a member of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) and donate time writing letters to medical providers/insurance companies for gender-affirming procedures through The Gender Affirming Letter Access Project (GALAP). I fully believe in GALAP’s mission to resist the harmful practices of gatekeeping and use an informed consent model where clients can affirm their gender identity without a psychiatric evaluation.
In addition, I worked as a staff therapist at Alliance Health Project in San Francisco, where I co-facilitated the transgender support group.
I am engaged in continuing education as a gender-care provider and have most recently attended the following programming for gender-affirming care specialists:
2023: Bridging the Gap–A Gathering of Gender Care Professionals, Gender Confirmation Center, San Francisco
2024: 2nd Annual Gen I Medical Symposium–Gender Health, The Gender Institute, San Francisco
Gender Support Group for California Residents
✨ An inclusive group for anybody whose gender identity exists under the trans umbrella. This includes but is not limited to folks who identify as transgender, gender-expansive, nonbinary, gender fluid, gender non-conforming, gender questioning, or any other point along the gender-expansive spectrum.
✨ Please fill out this Google form to join a future cohort and I will follow up with you when a new group round is ready to begin. New members can apply to join anytime, and will be admitted at every new cycle beginning.
For more information about this group, click here!
Feel free to contact me with any questions about the group or to request group facilitation:
julia@juliapsychotherapy.com
BEWARE of any therapy advertised as Therapy First, the new name for the "Gender Exploratory Therapy." Gender Exploratory Therapy may attempt to present itself as a harmless exploration of one's gender identity, but in reality, it is nothing more than a repackaging of conversion therapy. Conversion therapy refers to any emotional or physical treatment that aims to "cure" or "repair" a person's sexual attraction, gender identity, or expression. The abusive nature of conversion therapies has been widely recognized and condemned by reputable mental health organizations across the board.
By disguising itself as Gender Exploratory Therapy (and now Therapy First), this harmful practice seeks to deceive those who may be seeking support and understanding in their gender journey. Their goal is to withhold any gender-affirming treatment and instead find an explanation that is convincing enough to persuade a trans person to delay their transition. They especially pray on youth and their families.
"Much like how a crisis pregnancy center steers pregnant people away from abortion, GETA’s (Gender Exploratory Therapy Association) strategy is to sound cautious and helpful while promoting a very specific view of how people should live their lives, which is as the gender they were assigned at birth." –Slate article, 2023 (Hey, therapists! Feel free to paste this on your website as well to get the word out!)
Resource List for California Residents
Legally Changing Name/Gender:
GENDER CHANGE ONLY: You do not need a court ordered recognition of gender change to change your California driver's license, social security card, or U.S. passport. You also do not need a court order to have a new birth certificate issued reflecting a change of gender (for California birth records); you can go directly to the State Registrar office and follow the process there. More info here.
NAME CHANGE: You DO need a court order for a change of name. If you need to change your name AND gender, you can follow the instructions below, or you can instead change your gender with the State Registrar (without a court order) and separately get a court order for a name change only. To do that, visit our name change section.
Otherwise, for both name and gender change click here.
Hormone Replacement Therapy:
See the Medical Care list, or check out the websites Folx and Plume. Planned Parenthood also provides trans health services, including HRT!
Voice Coaching:
Jordan Ross Jakomi
SF Voice
Voice apps:
- voice tools (free)
- pitch perfect (free)
- tiny piano ( free)
- voice analyst ($10)
Medical Care Serving the Trans Community:
✨TransVision through Bay Area Community Mental Health, Fremont
Services include:
Access to clinical services such as primary care, hormones and surgery referral
Name and Gender change assistance
Free hormone needle exchange/disposal
Safer Sex Supplies: condoms, lube
Informed Consent Model
STD screening
Confidential HIV testing, care and treatment
Non-Alameda County Residents have access
Takes MediCal, most private insurances + sliding scale
(510) 252-5818 or email: TransgenderServices@bach.health
✨Lyon Martin Community Health, San Francisco
Services include:
Primary care
Cancer screenings
Lab Appointments
Gender affirming care (hormones, voice, surgery, etc.)
Sexual & reproductive health
Gynecological care
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Mental health services
Care coordination
Takes MediCal or sliding scale
(415) 565-7667 or email: info@lyon-martin.org
Therapy Covered by Medi-Cal + Support Groups:
UCSF Alliance Health Project
Click Here for Website
415-476-3902
Accepts Medi-Cal
Support groups: Trans and Gender Support
Pacific Center for Human Growth
Click Here for Website
510-548-8283
Accepts Medi-Cal
Many support groups: click here
Queer Life Space
Click Here for Website
415-358-2000
Does not take insurance, sliding scale
Therapy starts at $30
Mental Health Letters of Support for Gender-Affirming Care
The following lists of mental health professionals provide letters after the first appointment at no fee. They include providers in every state. I am on both of these lists:
Gender Affirming Letter Access Project (GALAP)
Religious + Spiritual Healing
Faithful and Fabulous, San Francisco Night Ministry “engages LGBT2SQIA+ communities through direct spiritual and emotional accompaniment and through the creation of community programs where we explore questions of religious and spiritual healing and meaning-making at their intersection with queer experience.”