Our Research

Trans and nonbinary healing from parental relational trauma
We study how transgender and nonbinary people heal from relational trauma involving parental figures. Our work moves beyond documenting harm to understand how trans people make meaning, reclaim themselves, build sustaining relationships, and draw on transness itself as a source of healing.

Selected publication

Lee, J., Barr, S. M., Gloria, A., Roberts, T., & Budge, S. L. (2026). Transness is our salve: How trans identity facilitates healing from relational trauma with parental figures. Journal of Traumatic Stress. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.70044

Lee, J., & Barr, S. M. (in review). Research as a site of healing: Healing-centered research praxis for community-centered trauma research with transgender and nonbinary communities. Invited manuscript submitted to The Counseling Psychologist.

Community-responsive trauma-focused psychotherapy
We develop trauma-focused approaches grounded in transgender and nonbinary people’s knowledge of what healing requires. This work examines how existing interventions can be transformed to address relational and systemic harm while building on the strengths, survival knowledge, and relational practices already present within trans communities.

Radical healing psychotherapy for trans people of color
We examine how psychotherapy can support healing from the intertwined effects of racism, cisgenderism, and other systems of oppression. Drawing on Psychological Framework of Radical Healing (French et al., 2020), we study what trans people of color seek from psychotherapy, how meaningful change occurs, and how radical healing processes become visible within therapy. We explore forms of care that cultivate critical consciousness, cultural and embodied knowledge, collective connection, resistance, hope, and possibilities for liberation.

Selected publications

Lee, J., Gao, S., Norton, M., Domínguez, S., Tebbe, E. A., & Budge, S. L. (2025). Understanding psychotherapy goals of Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people of color in a culturally responsive psychotherapy. Journal of Counseling Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000838

Lee, J., Mize, G., Pili, A., Budge, S. L., & Tebbe, E. (in press). “I felt seen in ways I never had before”: What and how psychotherapy change occurs for Two Spirit, transgender, and nonbinary people of color in Psychology of Radical Healing-informed psychotherapy. The Counseling Psychologist.

Lee, J., Norton, M., Adames, H. Y., & Budge, S. L. (in review). Beyond the individual: Radical healing in critical psychotherapy practice for transgender and nonbinary people of color. Invited manuscript submitted to Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Lee, J., Norton, M., Adames, H. Y., & Budge, S. L. (in review). Making radical healing observable: Development of a qualitative observational coding book for radical healing processes in psychotherapy.

Transforming gender-affirming assessment and access to care
We study how assessment, referral letters, and institutional requirements shape transgender and nonbinary people’s access to gender-affirming care across cultural contexts. Our work challenges practices that position clinicians as authorities over trans people’s identities and care decisions. 

In the United States, the Companionship Model reimagines assessment and referral encounters as opportunities for collaborative decision-making, transparent documentation, resource navigation, and clinical support. 

Building on this foundation, our work in South Korea examines how psychiatric gatekeeping operates within local medical, legal, and institutional systems and develops community-defined, culturally grounded, and rights-affirming alternatives.

Selected publications

Lee, J., Kim, H., & Budge, S. L. (2024). Psychological assessment for gender-affirming care in transgender and nonbinary youth: The Companionship Model. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000404

Budge, S. L., Lee, J., Domínguez, S., Jr., & Tebbe, E. A. (2023). Using the Companionship Model when writing referral letters for transgender and nonbinary adults. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 12(3), 365–378. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000684

Current work in the United States

Lee, J., AhnAllen, C., Budge, S. L., & Kim, H. (manuscript in preparation). From gatekeeping to companionship: Reimagining gender-affirming surgery referral letter writing as clinical support.

Current work in South Korea

Lee, J., Eom, Y., Shin, H., Rider, N., & Lee, H. (in review). Reimagining gender-affirming assessments: Transgender and nonbinary people’s desires for accessible, inclusive, and just practices in Korea.

Lee, J., Eom, Y., Shin, H., & Lee, H. (in review). “A test to pass”: Korean transgender and nonbinary experiences of psychiatric gatekeeping. Manuscript submitted to Journal of Counseling Psychology.

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