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Kate is a queer, biracial (Chinese and white), cisgender therapist. Her work is informed by her experiences in culturally liminal spaces, and her holding of identities both visible and invisible, dominant and marginalized.
Kate practices from anti-oppressive framework that incorporates transfeminist, queer, anti-white-supremacist, and other liberatory perspectives. Kate is committed to forming transformative therapy relationships with clients seeking healing, deeper connection, and increased self-awareness. Kate’s integrative approach to therapy incorporates relational, psychodynamic, attachment-based, and narrative therapies. She is currently enrolled in EMDR Basic Training with Deany Laliotis of the Center for Excellence in EMDR Therapy.
Kate works with children, adolescents, couples/partners, and individual adults, and is dedicated to providing effective therapy to gender-expansive, trans, queer, nonbinary, and otherwise LGBTQIA2S+ adolescents and adults. She believes that therapy can be an important space to explore identity across the lifespan.
Kate works with gender-expansive, transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming individuals from a gender-affirming perspective that centers the client’s self-determination and values them as the expert on their own identities. Kate is a World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) GEI SOC8 Certified Member, meaning that she has undergone a rigorous course of training and mentorship and has passed a certification exam evaluating competence in the treatment of T/NB/GNC people.
Kate especially enjoys working with gender-diverse young people and their families, helping to support families in affirming their loved ones, improve communication, and deepen family connections. Kate founded, and for many years facilitated, TransFamily, a free support group for adult family members of gender-expansive young people. Kate offers one- to two-session private consultation meetings with adult family members of gender-expansive people seeking to better understand and affirm their loved ones. Please note that these consultations are not considered mental health treatment and cannot be billed to insurance.
Kate also provides sex therapy. She enjoys supporting individuals and partners to feel more sexually confident and connected with themselves and in their relationships. She works from a kink- and sex-positive perspective, welcoming and affirming people with traditional (i.e., monogamous) and nontraditional (i.e., open, polyamorous, consensually nonmonogamous) relationship structures. Kate is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT).
As a former public school teacher, Kate continues to enjoy opportunities to train and educate others, especially adult learners. Kate specializes in providing support to other cisgender therapists in incorporating gender-affirming perspectives into their practices and welcomes opportunities to provide referrals to trans-identified experts in the field for trainings and organizational development.
SERVICE LOCATION:
- Frederick office
- Telehealth
SERVICES PROVIDED:
- Individual therapy for children, adolescents, and adults
- Relationship therapy
- One- to two-session consultations for parents, guardians, and other family members of gender-expansive people
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION:
- Gender Identity and Transition
- Sexual Orientation
- Challenges with Sexual Desire, Sexual Function, Arousal, and Orgasm
- Trauma & Abuse
- Race & Racism
- Adolescent/Teen Identity Development
- Relationship Challenges
- Family of Origin Issues
CLINICAL & TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Solo private therapy practice (Kate MacShane Psychotherapy) 2016-2019
- Adjunct professor in the Hood College Graduate Department of Counseling & Psychology (Spring and Fall 2018)
- Public elementary and middle school special education (including master’s degree in special education)
- Therapeutic preschool
- Addiction and substance abuse recovery
- Child and family outpatient mental health
- Sexual assault survivor counseling and advocacy
POST-GRADUATE EDUCATION & TRAINING IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY TOPICS FROM:
- World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH)
- American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT)
- Institute for Relational Intimacy
- Gender Spectrum
- National LGBT Health Education Center
- Fenway Health
- The Mazzoni Center
- Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work
SELECTED TRAININGS & CONFERENCES KATE HAS RECENTLY ATTENDED:
- Advanced Clinical Supervision Certificate Program at the Smith College School for Social Work 2021/2022 (a year-long program in advanced psychodynamic, relational clinical supervision)
- AASECT Annual Conference 2021 (including: Sex Therapy Beyond the Binary: Trans Erotic Embodiments; Supporting Sexual Functioning through the Lifespan; and, What’s Driving the Desire for Kink?)
- Institute for Relational Intimacy: Assessing and Treating Sex Issues in Psychotherapy 2020 (a sixteen-week course with Martha Kauppi, MFT, CST-S)
- USPATH Conference 2019: Advanced Mental Health; Ethics
- Institute for Sexuality Education & Enlightenment 2019 & 2020 (including: Sexological Anatomy; Child & Adolescent Sexual Development; Sexual Attitudes Reassessment; Common Sexual Dysfunction; SexAbility; and BDSM 101)
- Philadelphia Transgender Wellness Conference 2019 (including: Body Image and Gender Expansive Adolescents and Young Adults; Intersectional Eating Disorder Treatment for the T/NB/GNC Community; Transfeminine Spectrum Gender Affirming Surgeries; Considerations of Relational Therapy with Trans/Non-Binary Clients; Sex, Sexuality, and Trans Identities; Medical Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth; and Medical Considerations for the Gender Non-Binary Patient)
- AASECT Annual Conference 2019 (including: Beyond Jealousy and Communication: Therapy for Polyamory's Biggest Challenges; Reclaiming the Sexuality of Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum; Somatic Sexual Healing; Applied Affirmative Therapy for LGBT Sex and Relationship Therapy Clients; and Kink Aware Practice: What Your Clients Wish you Knew)
ONGOING TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES:
Kate’s recorded webinars for the American Psychological Association (APA) are now available online:
Fundamentals of Gender-Affirming Therapy for Cisgender Clinicians
Each webinar offers 3.0 CEUs for most clinicians.
Kate can be reached directly at kate@marylandcenterforgenderandintimacy.com.
Please be aware that Kate is not accepting new psychotherapy clients.