In this paper, we present the findings of a qualitative research project that examines how psychotherapists reflect on their own gender identity. In doing so, we depict reasons for a research focus on cis genderism. We propose an understanding of studying cis identities as a paradigm comparable to Men’s Studies and Critical Whiteness Studies: focusing and analyzing the dominant norm, its conditions, and psychosocial functions. This perspective is not only productive in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy but is also apt in the study of current social formations in which trans-hostility, homophobia, and anti-feminism are relevant.

The study focuses on how the biographical development of therapists’ gender identities and sexualities affect their work with queer and trans* patients in Germany. Psychotherapists’ biographical narratives and professional relationship experiences were collected through narrative interviews, which we analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis and the psychoanalytic method of in-depth hermeneutics. This enabled us to reconstruct not only manifest attitudes, but also latent meanings, embodied relational experiences, fantasies, and defense mechanisms in the context of gender identity.