Background: Gender diverse people may experience discomfort with the sound of their voice. Additionally, their psychological wellbeing, closely connected to a person’s identity, or perspective of themselves, is often reduced. A primary goal of gender affirming healthcare is to support clients’ psychological wellbeing. Speech pathology practices assist clients to alter their voice to develop authentic self-presentation. These practices have been shown to have positive outcomes related to clients’ voices but have not yet been shown to improve overall client psychological wellbeing. Assisting gender diverse people to transform a negative identity perspective into a positive one could have a beneficial impact on their psychological wellbeing. Therefore, to support clients’ psychological wellbeing, gender affirming speech pathology care could benefit from focusing on gender diverse clients’ identity more broadly, i.e., beyond gender. For this type of care, speech pathologists would need to see themselves as responsible for supporting client psychological wellbeing and identity. However, some clinicians may be hesitant to incorporate more holistic approaches to provide such care. This study aims to explore gender diverse speech pathology clients’ views on psychological wellbeing and identity and speech pathologists’ perspectives and actions in supporting clients in that regard. Methods: This qualitative study approaches the research topic through insights from gender diverse people’s and speech pathologists’ subjective perspectives and experiences on psychological wellbeing and identity. Gender diverse people will participate in one-on-one episodic interviews, whereas speech pathologists providing gender affirming care will participate in focus group discussions. Data will be analysed with reflexive thematic analysis. The study is supported by collaborators from the gender diverse community. Study findings will be disseminated in an accessible manner to healthcare professionals providing gender affirming care, mainly speech pathologists, and to the gender diverse community. Implications: Study findings are anticipated to contribute to further understanding gender diverse people’s psychological wellbeing and identity in a gender affirming speech pathology context to tailor practices to the unique needs of gender diverse clients.

To explore how speech-language pathologists perceive their professional identity and practices in gender affirming care and to explore how these perceptions are related to supporting gender diverse clients' psychological wellbeing and their experience of identity. In this exploratory, qualitative study, we facilitated three focus group discussions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to construct themes in a data-driven, iterative manner. Fourteen speech-language pathologists shared their perspectives on their professional identity and practices in gender affirming care. We constructed five themes: Identifying as a voice modification expert, the client's confidante, an equal collaborator, a self-compassionate clinician, and a unique clinician. Speech-language pathologists felt most comfortable assisting clients with their voice but were somewhat uncertain about supporting client psychological wellbeing directly and systematically. They experienced gender affirming care as rewarding, demanding, and appreciably different to other areas of speech-language pathology. Speech-language pathologists who provide gender affirming care need support to expand their professional identity to feel comfortable and responsible addressing clients' various needs, including client psychological wellbeing and their experience of identity. Speech-language pathologists need further support to manage the demanding aspects of their work, maintain their own psychological wellbeing, and provide continuous care for gender diverse people.

Background: Due to communication problems, people with primary progressive aphasia (PwPPA) are often affected in their self-image and experience a reduced quality of life (QoL). Biographic-narrative therapy is an effective approach to improve QoL in post-stroke aphasia. This study describes how PwPPA experienced their participation in the biographic-narrative intervention called Cope PPA. Methods: The intervention comprised a combination of five individual and seven group therapy sessions as well as the use of music and art therapy elements. Inclusion criteria were a capacity to give consent and sufficient visual/auditory abilities of PwPPA. Exclusion criteria were the presence of severe depression (MADRS > 35) or severe cognitive deficits (MMST < 10). After the therapy, PwPPA and their family members took part in half-hour semi-structured interviews. Interviews were analysed according to the reflexive thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. Results: The qualitative analysis was based on a data set of 34 interviews. A total of six themes were identified: (1) Participation required adherence; (2) Materials were considered remarkable; (3) Storytelling was conducted in an aphasia-free area; (4) Group participation created a sense of belonging; (5) Experiences encouraged self-reflection and (6) Coping is lengthy and ongoing. Conclusions: The findings of our reflexive thematic analysis suggest that PwPPA experienced the intervention as meaningful. Some PwPPA described the effects of our intervention on their self-image. Others emphasised that coping with their condition was an ongoing process requiring continuous support.

Many trans and gender diverse people feel that they cannot express their authentic selves through the sound of their voice and they may also experience distress about how others react to their voic...