This year we debuted an award to recognize student research that helps Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) populations. Winners are chosen by the Sexual and Gender Minority Special Interest Group (SGM SIG) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and are invited to present their research to the SIG. They also receive a $500 honorarium.

Winner:

Sage A. Volk

Year and School:

Second year clinical psychology PhD student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Winning Poster:

“Cultural Competency and Credibility of Gender-affirming Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Seen as Synonymous by Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) Adults”

The Spark:

“In the work that my lab (UNL’s Hope Lab) has done and that I’ve done since coming to grad school, we always had this notion that therapists have to be culturally competent as well as credible,” says Volk. “This project was trying to help the research catch up and provide data for something that we have thought or known to be helpful from anecdotal evidence from working with trans and gender diverse people—that to be productive as a therapist and to have positive outcomes for your clients, you have to be culturally competent and affirming, instead of just marginalizing or neutral.”

The Method:

Sixty-four TGD-identified adult research participants watched videos of role-played simulated therapy sessions in which an actor-therapist was marginalizing, neutral or affirming of an actor-client’s transgender identity. Participants then completed questionnaires. The research hypothesized that:  

i. Affirming CBT protocols would have higher ratings of cultural competency and treatment credibility; 

ii. Higher ratings of cultural competency would be related to higher ratings of treatment credibility.  

The Findings:

Research participants rated therapists that followed TGD-affirming CBT protocols as more culturally competent and credible than those who were neutral or marginalizing. For TGD people, the level of a therapist’s cultural competency directly relates to their credibility. 

The Takeaway:

“Probably the most surprising finding is that affirming was seen as significantly better than neutral and that neutral isn’t good enough,” says Volk. “You can’t just ignore someone’s gender identity when they bring it up or just avoid marginalizing comments, you have to go that extra step to be affirming and be culturally competent.”

The Award:

“The ABCT conference, because of COVID, was virtual, so the posters were uploaded ahead of time and winners recorded themselves doing a little presentation, so people were able to view it at their own convenience,” says Volk. “I also presented at the SIG meeting live—or live through Zoom. There were about 50 to 60 people there. It was nice to be able to build those connections with people who were reaching out and saying this is really important work. We are all doing similar research and can hopefully collaborate in the future or support each other.”

The Next Project:

“Right now I’m working on my master’s project, which has to be wrapped up by the Spring. I’m looking at resilience factors such as community connectedness, gender pride, and social support, and whether the resilience factors mitigate the harmful effects of watching a video of a [actor-]therapist who is marginalizing.”

The Motivation:

“A lot of it comes from a personal aspect of myself, I identify as trans and so going through the world and having these experiences and hearing from the people in my community and my friends about their experiences, I think that is one thing that motivates me. Then when I started taking classes, looking at the research and reading my textbooks, I was kind of shocked. I thought because psychologists deal with mental health concerns, they should be really accepting, and the research should be really progressive. I figured that because I’m at the intersection of these two things, I guess it will be me and I will do the work. Doing clinical work and research and just being able to interact with people in the community and see the impact, is what continues to sustain me and push me forward.”