Gender Euphoria
Gender euphoria is a feeling of joy or satisfaction related to your gender. It is a term that’s particularly important to the LGBTQI community, and may come up in gender-affirming or LGBTQI-affirmative therapy.
On This Page
What is gender euphoria?
To feel gender euphoria is to feel a sense of happiness or alignment in relation to your gender presentation or expression.
It could be that you feel really happy about the way someone else sees you – for example, the contented feeling of hearing someone address you with the correct pronouns.
Or it could be a feeling of comfort or ease that you find in a particular item of clothing or way of moving.
Anyone can experience gender euphoria, but transgender and non-binary people most often use the term to describe an experience of their gender being affirmed or validated.
It is understood to be the opposite of gender dysphoria.
Making space for gender euphoria in therapy
Just as it’s important to explore gender dysphoria in therapy, it can also be affirming and validating to make space for experiences of gender euphoria.
Your therapist might support you to understand:
- What does gender euphoria feel like for you?
- When do you feel most at peace or aligned with your gender identity?
- Which people in your life give you a feeling of contentment and acceptance of your gender
Therapeutic approaches
- Gender-affirming therapy: A gender-affirming therapist can support you to feel more comfortable and accepting of your gender identity.
- LGBTQ-affirmative therapy: An LGBTQ-affirmative therapist is a therapist who is experienced and knowledgeable about LGBTQ identities. Find out more about LGBTQ-affirmative counselling.
FAQs
What does gender euphoria feel like?
How can therapy support me to find gender euphoria?
What is gender-affirming therapy?
What is gender dysphoria?
This glossary provides definitions of various counselling terms and approaches for informational purposes only, without implying endorsement or service provision