Beck Gee-Cohen, MA LADC
Bio
Beck is an addiction counselor originally from Los Angeles California, and is currently on the Board of Directors for NALGAP (The Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies).
Beck is the Assistant Director of Clinical Services at Pride Institute in Minneapolis, MN. as well as a National Speaker on topics of the LGBTQ community and substance abuse.
Beck has a special focus on the Transgender community, trauma, addiction, and helping treatment facilities and clinicians better serve the Trans community.
The Quote
Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught.
Leslie Feinberg
What Led to the Specialization of Trauma?
From the age of 5 Beck knew that the female body they were born into didn’t feel right. This knowledge and realization became more pronounced as the years progressed, leading to addiction, to healing and then to helping others in the transgender community.
Beck’s advice
- Do your due diligence in getting informed about the trans community: go to lectures, read, attend seminars. And then be conscious not to use that information to label your clients because your clients are individuals.
- Realize that the only thing that the transgender community has in common is the fact that they are trans.
- When using pronouns with someone who is trans, ask, What pronoun do you use? Rather than, Which do you prefer? Because it’s not a preference, it simply is who they are.
Beck’ go-to books
- Second Son: Transitioning Toward My Destiny, Love and Life, Ryan Sallans
- TransMontana: A Memoir of Transformation in Body, Mind & Spirit, Roberta Zenker
- My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity, Kate Bornstein