Katherine Spencer, PhD, LP

Katie Spencer, PhD, LP is an assistant professor, licensed psychologist, and clinical training director at the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (ISGH). She is also the co-director of M Health Fairview Comprehensive Gender Care, Behavioral Health. Her primary clinical practice is working with transgender and gender non-conforming, adolescents, and adults, women's sexuality and sexual health, and LGBT sexuality and well-being. Dr. Spencer has written, presented and published scholarship on transgender sexuality, queer femininities, and gender affirmative approaches to transgender healthcare. She provides training and education of therapists and medical providers in sexual health and transgender health care competency. She is developing a curriculum of pleasure based sexuality for people on the transfeminine spectrum and working, with her colleagues, to revise existing measures of gendered experience to improve congruence with transaffirmative philosophies. She is the founder and chair of the Minnesota Transgender Health Insurance Taskforce and often provides consultation and advocacy on insurance and policy issues in transgender health. Dr. Spencer and her colleague, Dr. Dianne Berg are the authors of the Gender Affirmative Lifespan Approach (GALA™) of Psychotherapy and Education that is the theoretical framework for the clinical-research program of the Gender Health Services at ISGH. Dr. Spencer received her PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and she was a postdoctoral fellow in human sexuality at ISGH. She is passionate about social justice and feminist approaches to academic scholarship and clinical practice. 

Pronouns: she/her/hers.

Memberships

World Professional Association for Transgender Health

American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists

American Psychological Association