The second person I described, the one in the DBT group, they would talk about their experience quite a bit. I learned the term “dead name” from them. I remember them describing being dead named as “a trauma none of us would ever understand”, which is true, I suppose. They talked quite a bit about their online sex relationships with people. They also talked a lot about the trauma of being misgendered. It probably is shitty to be misgendered, but they were over 6 ft with a masculine build, and they had just started IDing as trans recently. Not sure if they were on hormones or anything, but if they were it was recent. They definitely equated/invalidated many “women’s problems” brought up in the group to their own personal experience. This was the TIM I had more of an issue with in my therapy space, I often felt personally targeted by them. I feel like they were trying to stand out, among the group, trying to make it about them.

I was only in the program for one day with the person who barricaded themselves in the room. I don’t remember anything that they said during groups, they were very quiet. I think they were pretty severely ill. That was a short term program. I suppose it would not have been outside the realm of possibility for a woman to behave in the manner that they did, we were all mentally ill and fresh out of the inpatient ward. What bothered me more about that situation was the fact that there was a group specifically for members of the LGBT community happening in the same place at the same times, and this person made the choice to be in the women’s trauma group instead.