A dialogue on therapeutic peer-to-peer models for trans and nonbinary surgical support

Transgender peer-to-peer support groups can provide an invaluable space for healing by fostering collective knowledge, resource sharing, and supportive self-determination. Historically, transgender people have facilitated these grassroots mental health and gender transition supports within their communities, pick-ing up the slack where providers and healthcare systems have either fallen short, or worse, have actively sought to bar access. Peer models emerge from these community-based movements but have also started to become more formally inte-grated into some state-funded models of healthcare. The following article investi-gates the impacts of clinical work conducted in institutionally funded, peer-to-peer transgender mental health support groups through a narrative-driven conversation between the authors: a transgender service provider and a transgender service user. Drawing on our shared experience, we discuss the benefits and shortcomings of this innovative, yet delegitimized form of healthcare provision for transgender people.