I am honored every day to support and work alongside transgender and gender-diverse individuals in their mental health journeys. Your resilience, authenticity, and courage continue to inspire me. 🏳️⚧️
Trans people deserve more than visibility. 🏳️⚧️ They deserve life. On this Transgender Day of Visibility, we are reminded that visibility was never meant to be the finish line in the work toward trans liberation. Every day, trans people are told to be seen, but are not always protected. They are celebrated, but often lack meaningful support. They are highlighted in conversations, yet still navigating systems that can make survival harder than it should be.
@trevorproject - The truth is: everyone deserves to live fully, safely, and without fear of violence, shame, erasure, or abandonment.
I will continue to support this community and be an ally for them.
🏳️⚧️ Transgender Resources
Crisis & Immediate Support
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
https://translifeline.org
The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386 | Text START to 678678
https://lnkd.in/gP_aviwx
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
https://988lifeline.org
LGBT National Help Center: 1-888-843-4564
https://lnkd.in/gY6Wkm8V
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
https://lnkd.in/gJBKhEdv
Mental Health & Community
PFLAG (support groups for individuals & families)
https://pflag.org
Q Chat Space (online LGBTQ+ teen support)
https://www.qchatspace.org
TransFamilies (support for families of trans youth)
https://transfamilies.org
Legal & Advocacy
National Center for Transgender Equality
https://transequality.org
Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund
https://lnkd.in/grVDJqQn
Financial & Transition Support
Point of Pride (grants for transition-related care)
https://lnkd.in/gMTvZriJ
Trans Lifeline Microgrants
https://lnkd.in/g5JY24BS
Directories & Finding Care
OutCare Health OutList (affirming providers)
https://lnkd.in/gwGXiJJd
Out.us (state-by-state LGBTQ+ resources)
https://www.out.us
#TransDayOfVisibility #TDOV #TransLivesMatter #GenderAffirmingCare #MentalHealthMatters #LGBTQIA #TransRightsAreHumanRights #AffirmingCare #InclusiveMentalHealth #PsychologyMatters #Psychologist #therapist
Presenting With Learn Sex Therapy
When sexuality and OCD intersect, the clinical picture can become complex quickly.
That’s why I’m pleased to offer a two-part training where I’ll walk clinicians through how obsessive-compulsive disorder and sexual functioning can overlap in ways that are often misunderstood.
Across two sessions, I’ll explore the different ways OCD can influence sexual thoughts, behaviors, and functioning, and I’ll share practical strategies to help clinicians approach these concerns with greater clarity, confidence, and clinical sensitivity.
Day 1 – April 10
Sex & OCD: Exploring the Relationship Between Sexual Functioning, Sexual Themes, and OCD in Adults
Topics include:
• Introduction to ERP theory and treatment
• Intersectionality between sexual themes in OCD and sexual functioning
• Body-focused obsessions and sexual health and responses
Day 2 – April 24
Sexual OCD: Diagnostic Features and Treatment Implications for Adults with S-OCD
Topics include:
• Safety assessment with harm-based themes
• Perinatal and postpartum OCD
• Clinical examples and development of sexually-based exposure hierarchies
These are nuanced clinical issues that many providers encounter but rarely receive training on.
https://www.learnsextherapy.com/course/sex-and-ocd for registration
Updates galore!
I recognize it’s been quite some time since I have updated the Blog portion of my website. When I pause and reflect on why that it is, I am taken aback by the many changes that have transpired since the last post in November 2017. To summarize the past 3 years fully would take far more time and energy than I think most people have to read right now, so I will try to provide highlights rather than a full summary. Let’s begin shall we!
· Continued working on my AASECT Sex Therapist Certification since August 2017 with the amazing help of Drs. Stephanie Buehler and Shirley Baron
· Obtained the certification in December 2020 with extreme delight (I am the only Licensed Psychologist in Nevada with this certification)
· Private practice adventures continued in both individual practice and within a group practice
· I had the privilege to train two students in anxiety and trauma treatments that will make amazing providers for the community
· Began the process of board certification which will continue over the coming 1.5 years
· COVID-19 happened and there are both too few and too many words to describe that experience
· Worries about patients, their families, my own family and friends, colleagues, the world…is everyone an option for that worry?
· Started some new hobbies in an effort to create a better work/life balance
· Reflection has happened more and more with uncertainty about exact goals, but as the year 2020 has taught, have ideas not exact plans
While I recognize there is still so much more to address, I wanted to take the brief opportunity to reflect on an area that keeps popping into my head. When I think about the role of psychologists in the world and especially my role in my chosen specialty, I can’t help but focus on the overarching desire to inform the world of the science. Why do we have the concerns we have? Why is sex so difficult for so many people? Why is anxiety such a pain in so many aspects of our lives? Without having an exact goal in mind, I have a good idea of what I want to do in both my practice and within this Blog space. Let’s just focus on really cool information! Let’s learn together and survive the coming uncertainties and discovers! Stay safe everyone and Happy New Year!
-Dr. Jordan Soper
Generalized anxiety: the Energizer Bunny of the brain
What is generalized anxiety? Generalized anxiety is a little bit different than most other anxiety experiences. Typically, anxiety is linked to particular items such as a traumatic event, panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, or even particular critters (I’m snake phobic). Generalized anxiety is anxiety about EVERYTHING! Hopefully the name it away, but generalized anxiety is the experience of constant, excessive, uncontrollable worry about pretty much everything in your life. These worries can range from worried about being on time to a meeting, saying the right thing on a first date, the health and safety of your loved ones, or even something as small as taking the right road to work. Now, we live in a society that tells us that worry is normal and that everyone has it….this is both true and untrue. Worry is a natural experience as is the subsequent anxiety we experience. However, for many individuals their level of worry is above and beyond the average level. When you can’t stop the worry, when your brain doesn’t let you sleep at night because it is consumed with worry thoughts, when you can’t concentrate, when you believe you will get fired because you made a small slip up during your presentation, when you call your partner 15 times in 4.5 minutes because you think they died on the way to the grocery store; this is the worry that is likely eating your life.
I’m noticing this level of worry come into my office more lately, which has me thinking about what various factors might increase someone’s worry from average to clinical levels. Increased demands at work might be the cause. Increased stress from our current political climate might play a role. Constant comparison between yourself and others might make you reflect on your life and believe things that ordinarily you might not. Generalized worry is constant and often feels very out of your control. It’s as if your mind is on a hamster wheel that is being run by the Energizer Bunny, it never stops. This type of worry can really take a toll on your body, mind, and life. You might notice yourself feeling more agitated throughout the day, irritable at your kids or partner, your shoulders and jaw may feel tense all the time, you might even feel like you’re going crazy.
Generalized worry is a really common experience, but it is one of those experiences that people often don’t talk about. Nearly 15 million people in the United States alone experience clinical levels of generalized worry and that is a low estimate! Generalized anxiety can start at any time in your life and can continue throughout your life. But it doesn’t always decrease your ability to live into your life. For some people who experience generalized anxiety, it’s actually motivating because if you’re anxious about getting tasks done you might actually finish them weeks in advance (I am one of these people). Orrrrrr you might notice yourself procrastinating assignments or tasks because the anxiety makes you believe that if you can’t do it perfect there’s no point to do it. General anxiety is chronic, but often untreated for many people. Worry is totally normal for many of us, but there comes a point when the worry doesn’t stop, where you can’t focus, where you feel exhausted, where you don’t enjoy your life anymore because of how much you worry. Fear not though! There is hope imbedded deep within that worry. Cognitive Behavioral treatments for generalized anxiety have been shown to be highly effective for reducing the frequency, intensity, and duration of worry-based thoughts (and this is without medications too!). There is life without all consuming anxiety and worry. There is a way to overcome that Energizer Bunny in your mind. For more information about generalized anxiety and treatments, please contact my office via phone or email. You can get your life back, let’s find your spark as we extinguish the flame of worry!
Psychological Recovery Following Mass Shootings
On October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV we saw the largest mass shooting in modern US history. On June 12, 2016 in Orlando, FL we saw the largest mass shooting in modern US history. On December 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT we saw the second largest mass shooting in modern US history. On April 16, 2007 in Blacksburg, VA we saw the largest mass shooting in modern US history. The list goes on and on and on. In recent years, we have seen a surge of mass shootings and violence in the US and at the center of every shooting is one question, “why?” Today, I don’t care about the why. Why’s that you may ask? Well, as a Las Vegas resident my primary question at this point is “now what?”
Mass shootings and violence are not natural disasters. They don’t exist naturally in our world; they are created, molded, groomed, and lashed out into the world. Some of the worst types of violence are those perpetrated onto others from our fellow human being. This is what leads me to ask “now what?” Las Vegas, like many other cities and towns after such violence, is still in the early recovery phase. Like any other break, the wound needs to be covered before it can heal. Our first responders, police officers, emergency services personnel, nurses, doctors, and Red Cross volunteers are taking care of those open wounds even as they hemorrhage themselves. The psychology of mass murders is an interesting topic, but not my speciality. No, instead, I’m more interested in the psychology of mass murder survivors.
What does it mean to recover from mass violence? How do you know when you are “better?” How do you live with the new scars in your mind? The best way to start answering these questions starts with the responses. Trauma and stress responses are normal. Your body is reacting to danger, whether you were there at the shooting, know someone who was there, watch it on the news, or work with those who both survived and died. Our hearts race, our minds race, our breathing can change, we start looking up at windows of tall buildings, we don’t go where there are crowds, we begin to fear. There is no right or wrong way to respond to threat especially the surprise threat of mass shootings. In war, you are deployed. You know you are going into a war zone. You don’t know what is going to happen, but you prepare for the “what ifs” that come with that situation. Mass shootings are the unplanned warzone. You are not prepared to face them. You are not trained to control your breathing. You are not armed. You are not expecting them. This is what makes them so devastating to so many people; the unknown.
Now, here we are. After the sounds have stopped, the blood donated, the wounds packed and wrapped, we exist in a world unsure of what to do next. Some people may think “I need therapy now” or “I have to talk to someone.” As a psychologist, I am here to tell you that these instincts are natural, but slightly premature. Crisis counseling is not trauma processing. What that means is that the immediate needs after a mass shooting are specifically designed at ensuring stability. Making sure someone has proper medical care, housing, food, finances, and is alive. Crisis counseling allows you to have a safe, supported space to get these basic needs met; this is your survival mode. You may talk with someone, cry with them, shake in their arms, as you think about what happened. All of this is normal. Whatever needs you have right now are our priority. Survival mode is temporary, but temporary is subjective. Some people will feel somewhat better days after an event, for others it may take months. There is no right way to process trauma. You may notice changes in your eating patterns, you may be more cautious on your way to work, your sleep might be interrupted, you may notice yourself feeling jumpy or on edge; all of these are normal responses and, for most, they go away. Having trauma responses immediately after trauma is not pathological, it’s entirely normal.
Experiencing a trauma does not mean you are guaranteed to have residual effects. Nearly 80% of individuals experience at least one trauma in their lives, but the rate of chronic trauma responses is less than 15%. Why is that? What makes someone able to survive trauma and still be ok? Resiliency. Human beings are amazingly resilient. We have go through hell and come out kicking on the other end. We are resilient with support; knowing that how you feel is normal, that is it likely temporary, and that while this experience may change you, it does not define you. There is the old cliché that “time heals all wounds,” which I think is accurate to some degree, but I’ll extend it to “time heals all wounds, but they leave a scar.” Your scars are your battle wounds, they are your reminder that you are strong, that you are able, that you can make it through trauma, and be ok in the end. You are not alone, you are not broken, you are not crazy, and you can get better.