Teaching Note-Considering Competencies for Social Work Practice and Research With Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals

This article presents current research on clinical practice with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) persons and introduces clinical social work educators and researchers with TGD-specific counseling competencies from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC). The article will align these practice competencies with existing social work education competencies and policies to advance clinical social work education and research on best practice with TGD individuals. To demonstrate how the WPATH and ALGBTIC competencies can be used to create teaching modules, there are four class activities offered for possible use. Finally, a critical review of the limitations of the WPATH and ALGBTIC competencies is presented, suggesting a need to adapt or develop "social work-specific" competencies for use in clinical practice education and research with TGD individuals.