“There’s No Real Roadmap That I Know of”: Experiences of Transgender and Nonbinary Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology Programs

Minimal research has examined the experiences of transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people in graduate school with no studies to date examining the experiences of TNB students in psychology graduate programs. The purpose of this study was to utilize a critical-ideological paradigm to identify recruitment, retention, and attrition factors for TNB people in counseling psychology (CP) programs with the aim of providing specific recommendations to CP programs. Individual interviews (between 35 and 70 min) were conducted with a sample of 16 TNB graduate students, aged 23–37-years old (M = 26.9, SD = 3.84), in masters (n = 6) and doctoral (n = 10) CP programs. Participants were nonbinary (n = 13) and trans men (n = 3), the majority were White (n = 10), and all were sexual minorities. Participants were recruited online through email listservs and on social media posts on Facebook and Twitter. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed themes related to challenges experienced in CP programs (systemic/structural challenges, interpersonal challenges, individual/ internal challenges) and strengths of or recommendations for CP programs (transaffirming resources/policies, supporting TNB competence and expertise, being a TNB accomplice). Several unique subthemes emerged across the seven themes. Findings may be applied by CP programs to more effectively recruit and retain TNB people, and collectively contribute to an increasing number of TNB people within this field.