The complexity of gender is something that has only recently become better understood and has historically been a struggle for mental health practitioners to understand. In his article "Transgender - a challenge for psychoanalysis?" Gullestad writes about how early psychoanalysts saw deviation from gender and sexuality norms as being indicative of pathological disorder. Conversion to match these norms was considered to be the only successful outcome. While understanding and acceptance of the vastness of human identity has changed heavily since then, most people in the field still struggle to realize the great deal of potential differences and nuances between gender non-conforming clients. This is why I found it necessary to create a resource to help counselors learn more about the specifics of their client's background and disposition.
Even the most well-meaning of counselors can accidentally treat their client based on stereotypes and normative understandings of gender non-conforming identities. Experiences and attitudes towards gender differ massively from person to person, especially for those who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. This resource exists to provide clients a structured outlet to talk about their unique background, and for their counselors to gain a stronger connection to their client from it.
This worksheet is very free-form, I see it as a sort of "assisted journaling" in which the client is able to write about their experienced based on several open ended questions. It can be used early on or later in a clients counseling, depending on how comfortable the client is with having what they wrote shared with the counselor.
References
Gullestad, S. E. (2024). Transgender – a challenge for psychoanalysis? The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review, 47(2), 129–136.