A Conversation with 4 Therapists By Diane S. Frank On Thursday, October 5th, 2000 four therapists made brief comments and answered questions about their practices at the monthly Trans-Family meeting. The therapists were Antone Feo Ph.D., his associate Diane Mueller LPCC, Brooke Kroto, LISW and Merâl Crane, M.A., LPCC. While the group was primarily focused on the needs of trans-sexuals, there was a substantial amount of discussion about crossdressing issues. One question that came up immediately was why was it so hard to find therapists. Merâl Crane pointed out that she had rough sailing in the early years of her practice and has been selective about where and how she publicizes it since. The lay public expects that gender issues are a curable disease, and tends to focus anger and blame on therapists who don’t endorse that uninformed position. Several questions pursued the area of the person who isn’t certain what they are dealing with and what tools therapists might use helping these people. Ms. Kroto explained that part of the job was to facilitate the process of self discovery, to help people tease apart the issues and explore possibilities. Dr. Feo remarked that a key function is to help the client deal with inappropriate shame and guilt. While there are some formal guidelines for classification, Merâl Crane felt that these tools had the potential for misuse and preferred to discuss them only in the context of a therapist-client relationship. Dr. Feo made an interesting response to a question that proposed that unlike transsexuality, cross dressing itself was an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Dr. Feo asserted that crossdresser’s desire to cross dress is unaffected by treatment with Luvox™, a medication known to help control obsessive compulsive behavior. Connected to this discussion was the assertion, apparently agreed to by all the therapists, that there was no means of dealing with the desire to crossdress except dressing, no matter how much the person wished to eliminate the behavior.