Counsellor's Column

by Gaye Stubbs

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

Dear Reader,

Change is in the air. Perhaps it's the giving up of Winter to the coming of Spring; but whatever it is, there is a detectable difference.

We are moving. It takes preparation and, after the flurry of activity has passed, adjustment.

No more turning into Morgan Street, walking up the steps, sometimes picking up the paper, looking to see if the door is open, checking if the security grill is locked, peering in while waiting for it to be opened, hearing the sound of talking coming from within. Walking along the small hall and greeting others, seeing Paula sitting at her desk of seventeen years, making a tea or coffee in the kitchen, sometimes sitting outside in the sunlight and having a chat - at 75 Morgan Street. Mor-gan - two syllables, soft and hard sounds echoing the word's etymology ( www.behindthename.com ) "From the old Welsh masculine name Moreant, which was possibly derived from Welsh mor "sea" and cant "circle". As a (possibly unrelated) feminine name it was used by Geoffrey of Monmouth for the Arthurian sorceress Morgan Le Fay."

By the time you read these words, the Centre will be housed in Bent Street. The street bends; it's near a park; the house has two storeys. Now there will be steeper steps to climb - to the rooms above with the counselling room on the right, Katherine's room on the left, and the administration and manager's office further along. The layout downstairs is similar to that of Morgan Street, from the case managers' and client service room at the front, to the reception area (now in front of you as you enter through the side door), to the sitting / lounge area and kitchen - and by the time this edition of Polare is printed and distributed, the first Wednesday night Drop-In at Bent Street will have happened.

The process of Change brings us to new places, new meanings and ways of living. Our actions, interactions, and the language we use may reflect, or bring about, shifts in societal attitudes and values. TV programs and movies, articles and books also reflect and effect change. New terms come into use and new models for managing change are proposed. A new resource (acquired by the Polare editor / resource person), Sexual Orientation & Gender Expression in Social Work Practice (Morrow & Messinger Eds.,2006), encourages people working in the social work field with "G.L.B.T." people to advocate for change by developing an awareness of the needs of "G.L.B.T." people and observing guidelines which will engender "knowledge based affirmative practice" (page l0). That there is sometimes a gap in understanding between clients (people accessing service providers) and practitioners (doctors, nurses, social workers, case managers, therapists) is alluded to by writers James I. Martin and D.R. Yonkin (see contribution 5, Transgender Identity) when commenting on the lack of "standardisation of the language around trans experiences" and the likelihood that "transpeople" may have "their own understandings of terms and phrases that differ from those used by academics and other professionals" (page l06).

Is it possible, however, that this lack of a common language, paradoxically, allows for debate, discussion, individual expression, and change?

I wonder, for although standardisation creates useful categories which may assist people to make sense of their personal experience and find a niche in the world, these same categories can be used to contain and label people, limiting opportunities for self expression and realisation of individual potential.

As practitioners can choose to advocate for their clients and make a difference for the people they are working with, so too can clients make a difference.

By questioning assumptions and challenging stereotypes, clients can influence practitioners in the way they view both clients and themselves. Every client and every interaction has an impact on practitioners and their work practices and as the terminology within the "trans community" changes, with the "umbrella" term "transgender"; quickly giving way to the simpler and more impartial trans, by itself and in conjunction with other terms" (pages 105-106, "ibid"), so too do these new terms find their way into the vocabulary of service providers and the language of the wider community.

Our common language can be enriched to reflect the range of human experience, and attitudes to and perceptions of identity and self-expression can be transformed. In the words of Harriet Lerner (Dance of Intimacy, 1989): "Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change." and, I would add, vice versa. Change, any change, may be welcome and sought after, but sometimes it is thrust upon individuals and communities. While some people may create or embrace new words, new trends and models for helping themselves or others to move forward, other people may feel threatened, overwhelmed or it may just feel wrong. Whereas at one stage in time a small group is working hard to be heard and change the status quo, at another time the wider community may have adapted to and even adopted new ideas and behaviours, leaving smaller communities clinging to the known, the familiar, for fear of being lost in the current, of losing position and a well-earned group identity. And whereas at one stage both the individual and the group may stand out, with the movement of time both may blend in, be overlooked, become obsolete, or find an acceptance of a new situation; for whether individually or as a member of a small or larger community, ... "You can get accustomed to anything." (Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Spring Song," The Harp Weaver, 1925, page 43 in The Beacon Book of Quotations for Women, compiled by Rosalie Maggio, 1992).

By the time this reaches you, the location of the Centre will have changed, the outside may or may not have become familiar, the inside will be somewhat different and in the process of settling in; and, with time, with vivid or fading memories, there will be reflections and reminiscing ("Remember when.. ?") about the days spent at Morgan Street and each person will have individual thoughts and feelings about the journey from one place to the other, from the past until the present.

And for the future? Forgotten and unspoken words find expression, and in the midst of life's chatter may your voice be heard.

Bent - one syllable, numerous meanings (including the colloquial and technical); as a name, the meaning's more obscure: - Danish form of Benedictine. From the Late Latin name which meant "blessed" ( www.behindthename.com ).

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.