From 2003 to 2018 I was frequently employed to design and lead capacity-building trainings for staff in a broad range of social service, medical, governmental and educational organizations finally retiring (at age 74) from most of this branch of my work, though I continue to counsel clients. I was the “Lead Mental Health Trainer for “Trans Health Connection, Rainbow Health Ontario” http://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/trans-health-connection a Province-wide training organisation funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health. I continue to offer support to the full range of clinicians through the “Trans Health Connection Mentorship Call”. I have also served on the Education Committee of the Canadian Professional Association of Transgender Health (CPATH) http://www.cpath.ca/ and on the Global Education Committee of WPATH www.wpath.org

I have contributed to international debates in writing and at conference presentations in the often controversial and rapidly changing field of trans health care My article “Attachment and Shame in Gender-Nonconforming Children and Their Families: Towards a Theoretical Framework for Evaluating Clinical Interventions” co-written with Robert Wallace was published in Sept 2013 in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Transgenderism. I have also been actively involved for many years in program and policy development with health care providers and government decision-makers.

My Adult Education training confirmed for me that effective learning is always an active process, that respect for everyone’s dignity is key, and that utilizing a wide range of learning modalities works best. I weave together short, lively, well-illustrated lecturettes with thought-provoking experiential exercises, structured discussions and carefully selected video clips. Participants often comment that it feels easy to raise difficult or embarrassing questions in my workshops and to discuss them with complexity. Shared, well-timed laughter can also accomplish much!

I specialised in trainings addressing the needs of the general LGBTQ population, in particular, transgender, transsexual and gender-diverse populations, and the rapidly growing group of gender-diverse and gender non-binary children, young adults and their families. Many service providers and HR staff still feel uncertain or under-informed about how to work with these emerging demographics.

I presented transgender and gender non-conforming experience as an ordinary, if unusual, aspect of human diversity, not merely a diagnosis. In my workshops participants gained an appreciation of the historical and cross-cultural contexts of trans people’s lives as well as current international efforts by trans communities as we reached for visibility, human rights, and access to health care on our own terms. I had a series of polished, effective workshops including “Affirmative Counselling for trans clients and their families”, “Supporting Gender Independent Children and their families” and more basic ones “The Joy of Gender: understanding trans lives in context” — very necessary even a few years ago but perhaps no longer!
I appeared in a number of documentaries including this one

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episodes/transforming-gender