Weathering the Storm Together: Therapeutic Approaches to Sociopolitical Stress in Trans and Nonbinary Clients

Sebastian Barr, PhD (he/him), is a counseling psychologist who works as a psychotherapist, researcher, consultant, and educator. He has contributed to multiple academic and clinical texts on affirming and trauma-informed psychotherapy with members of the trans community, including chapters in the American Psychiatric Association textbook Gender-Affirming Psychiatry. In 2025, he partnered with Joonwoo Lee to co-author Transness is Our Salve, a research-based zine exploring trans people’s experiences of healing from relational trauma (available for free at transnessishealing.net). Motivated by clear needs emerging in his clinical work, Dr. Barr has increasingly focused his scholarly work on best practices for working with trans people in hostile sociopolitical climates. He has trained thousands of clinicians in approaches to address sociopolitical stress since the 2024 election, is currently co-leading a grant-based research project in this area, and maintains a substack largely focused on transness, psychotherapy, and navigating sociopolitical distress (sebastianmbarr.substack.com). Dr. Barr’s professional accolades include the 2014 Trans Research Award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity and the 2023 Early Career Clinical Practice Award from the Society for Counseling Psychology. Additionally, he is a past scholar-in-residence at Faberllull in Olot, Catalonia/Spain. Dr. Barr is a proud trans man and incorporates personal and community perspectives in his work as appropriate.