Unfortunately, many of SAC Brant’s counselling streams are defined by gender, including individual counselling through the Adult Women’s Program, Male Survivors’ Program, and the Young Women’s Program. Trans folks are welcome in all of our programs and we encourage you choose the program you think will be most conducive to your healing, but we recognize the gendered nature of the programs is not ideal for many trans and non-binary survivors. While SAC still has much work left to do around trans inclusion and addressing transphobia, we are committed to making your experience with us as safe and healing as possible.

Your Identity, Your Choice

During our intake process, we’ll ask you to choose an area that feels most comfortable for you. When accessing services, you get to decide if you feel comfortable sharing your gender identity with your counsellor. You are NOT obligated to come out as trans or non-binary in order to access services, however conversations about gender might be relevant to your experiences of gendered/sexual violence.

Unfortunately, your counsellor may not have extensive experience with conversations around gender, transphobia, or the ways violence can look for trans folks. You are allowed and encouraged to state your needs and to tell your counsellor if you feel like your experiences are being misunderstood or invalidated.

Guide for Trans and Non-Binary Folks

The following Guide For Trans and Non-Binary Folks was created for SAC Brant by Trans and Non-Binary folks as part of a months-long paid project. The images below show the front and back pages of the document, which is mostly black text on a white background.

Click here to view the full document in pdf format.