Pronouns in the Therapy Room

As a non-passing trans person, I know the gut-wrenching feeling of being misgendered regularly.

I don't want to ever be the reason my clients experience that, which is one of the reasons I am careful not to use pronouns until after a client has shared theirs with me in some way. I also know the feeling of being worried I am going to be misgendered and trying to figure out the best way to handle that when it happens. It can make the most simple of interactions stressful.

One of the nice things about seeing clients through teletherapy, is that some teletherapy programs have ways for clients and therapists both to share our pronouns right on screen. While I'm excited to be seeing clients in person again, I was thinking about how nice it would be if therapy rooms had a built in way to signal pronouns as well. Then I laughed at myself, because they absolutely can. That's what are pronoun stickers are for, right? I wanted something more sturdy and that can be reused.

These pins were $10 for 20 of them. They come with safety pin backings, which can cause people to poke themselves, so I also ordered a 24 pack of name tag magnets for $10. Then $8 for 1/2 inch vinyl letters and a couple dollars for dry erase markers. I left some of them blank for people to write in custom pronouns and I some of them with safety pin backings, for people with pacemakers.

$30 to provide clients with a way to signal pronouns and not have to worry as much about being misgendered.