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The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys: Skills to Cope and Thrive as Your Authentic Self
An inclusive, evidence-based guide to healing and thriving as a cis or trans queer man.
As a cis or trans man who loves men, you face unique and challenging circumstances, including homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia, struggles with body image, and rejection from family. In addition, the lingering effects of bigotry, discrimination, microaggressions, and hate crimes can have a traumatizing and devastating impact on your mental health and well-being. This compassionate guide offers powerful skills to help you heal the pain of trauma and thrive authentically in a world that often misunderstands or marginalizes your identity and experiences.
The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys offers you a safe, inclusive space to examine, understand, and heal from systemic and interpersonal threats to your mental well-being. Based on proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this book provides proven-effective tools and exercises to help you reflect on, confront, and manage difficult emotions; improve self-image and self-esteem; and develop healthy coping skills.
This guidebook will help
Cultivate greater self-awareness Move past negative thinking habits Heal emotional wounds and build resilience Challenge heteronormativity and gender role rigidity Care for your sexual health Also included is a #DiggingDeeper community wellness campaign to help you reflect on the deeper questions of the book and share your own challenges and triumphs with others on social media.
If you’re struggling with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, or trauma—or feel oppressed or misunderstood by the world around you—this book can help you overcome the negative internalized messages that are causing you emotional pain, and build the self-awareness, confidence, and courage needed to embrace your unique identity and thrive.
As a cis or trans man who loves men, you face unique and challenging circumstances, including homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia, struggles with body image, and rejection from family. In addition, the lingering effects of bigotry, discrimination, microaggressions, and hate crimes can have a traumatizing and devastating impact on your mental health and well-being. This compassionate guide offers powerful skills to help you heal the pain of trauma and thrive authentically in a world that often misunderstands or marginalizes your identity and experiences.
The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys offers you a safe, inclusive space to examine, understand, and heal from systemic and interpersonal threats to your mental well-being. Based on proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this book provides proven-effective tools and exercises to help you reflect on, confront, and manage difficult emotions; improve self-image and self-esteem; and develop healthy coping skills.
This guidebook will help
Cultivate greater self-awareness Move past negative thinking habits Heal emotional wounds and build resilience Challenge heteronormativity and gender role rigidity Care for your sexual health Also included is a #DiggingDeeper community wellness campaign to help you reflect on the deeper questions of the book and share your own challenges and triumphs with others on social media.
If you’re struggling with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, or trauma—or feel oppressed or misunderstood by the world around you—this book can help you overcome the negative internalized messages that are causing you emotional pain, and build the self-awareness, confidence, and courage needed to embrace your unique identity and thrive.
- GenresSelf HelpPsychology
267 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 21, 2025
As a trans guy who just started medically transitioning I was very excited to read this book. I wish there would have been more content geared towards trans men, I feel like especially the body positivity segment was kind of lackluster. Furthermore I wish the mental health approaches would have been more varied instead of just being the chair experiment over and over again.
Also thanks to NetGalley for the ARC xx
Also thanks to NetGalley for the ARC xx
September 16, 2025
A wonderfully expansive overview and guide to start building a better connection to your authentic self, building towards more self-acceptance, and increasing self-exploration through understanding sociocultural experiences, grief, and paths towards self-acceptance.
I felt it was well balanced- providing psychoeducational materials and modalities for working through various topics, giving examples of others experiences in order to best connect our own, and creating plenty of space for self reflection and kindness. I think this was an excellent introduction and I look forward to reading any other works by Rahim Thawer in the future.
Seeing some of the less positive feedback didn’t really make sense to me… I personally didn’t expect this book to provide perfect solutions for every single experience out there- that would be silly looking at the size of the book alone, but I thought it was a lovely, inclusive, comprehensive, and useful introduction of this topic and ways to better support our selves and each other in building mental health care tools.
If you were hoping for more, I would assume you already have these skills and have a basic introduction to this topic, this doesn’t mean that this isn’t an excellent start for other people with less experience around these topics. It felt very approachable and accessible to me, even as a person with much of these skills already being in my repertoire.
I am thankful to have access to this book as both a queer/trans person but also as a clinician who primarily works with queer and trans people.
I felt it was well balanced- providing psychoeducational materials and modalities for working through various topics, giving examples of others experiences in order to best connect our own, and creating plenty of space for self reflection and kindness. I think this was an excellent introduction and I look forward to reading any other works by Rahim Thawer in the future.
Seeing some of the less positive feedback didn’t really make sense to me… I personally didn’t expect this book to provide perfect solutions for every single experience out there- that would be silly looking at the size of the book alone, but I thought it was a lovely, inclusive, comprehensive, and useful introduction of this topic and ways to better support our selves and each other in building mental health care tools.
If you were hoping for more, I would assume you already have these skills and have a basic introduction to this topic, this doesn’t mean that this isn’t an excellent start for other people with less experience around these topics. It felt very approachable and accessible to me, even as a person with much of these skills already being in my repertoire.
I am thankful to have access to this book as both a queer/trans person but also as a clinician who primarily works with queer and trans people.
June 3, 2025
The book starts with a good dose of understanding where we're from and acceptance for who we are, and that acceptance and understanding flows through the book, making it a safe, inclusive and comfortable space for learning.
It is informed by a framework developed by the World Health Organisation and well-established interventions such as CBT, so you know it has good grounding. The writing may be a little clinical at times, but it is accessible and there are lots of narratives and case studies to flesh the process out. These help it be more understandable and relatable, and can highlight some things you may not have thought of. They also give a process for how you might approach and think about things, which is useful.
There are helpful sets of questions that guide you to understand yourself, your situation, what you want to do, and where you can get support.
Some interesting new approaches are suggested that can empower and give control, such as 'Inviting In' rather than 'Coming Out', helping give more balanced thinking in these difficult situations which helps reduce the stress they can cause.
This book has content across a broad spectrum of possible queer experiences, meaning whether you're newly discovering yourself, young or old, or even someone who's been out and proud for a long time, may still learn something new and valuable. And if you’re supporting someone in one of those spaces, you’ll learn as well.
Overall, it addresses a comprehensive collection of experiences and concerns that may impact the life of GBT men and offers ways of thinking and tools to help overcome challenges and help build resilience. I think this is a great addition to the toolbox for supporting the gay, bisexual, transgender and diverse men in our lives and in our communities.
It is informed by a framework developed by the World Health Organisation and well-established interventions such as CBT, so you know it has good grounding. The writing may be a little clinical at times, but it is accessible and there are lots of narratives and case studies to flesh the process out. These help it be more understandable and relatable, and can highlight some things you may not have thought of. They also give a process for how you might approach and think about things, which is useful.
There are helpful sets of questions that guide you to understand yourself, your situation, what you want to do, and where you can get support.
Some interesting new approaches are suggested that can empower and give control, such as 'Inviting In' rather than 'Coming Out', helping give more balanced thinking in these difficult situations which helps reduce the stress they can cause.
This book has content across a broad spectrum of possible queer experiences, meaning whether you're newly discovering yourself, young or old, or even someone who's been out and proud for a long time, may still learn something new and valuable. And if you’re supporting someone in one of those spaces, you’ll learn as well.
Overall, it addresses a comprehensive collection of experiences and concerns that may impact the life of GBT men and offers ways of thinking and tools to help overcome challenges and help build resilience. I think this is a great addition to the toolbox for supporting the gay, bisexual, transgender and diverse men in our lives and in our communities.
July 31, 2025
I really appreciated how this book acknowledges the complexity of our identities and the many layers that shape our mental health. It explores the bigger picture—social, cultural, and historical factors that have influenced our communities—while breaking it down in a way that’s clear, approachable, and easy to follow.
It’s direct and pragmatic without feeling heavy, and I especially liked the practical tools you can put into practice right away. There’s bound to be something here that resonates, whether you’re reflecting on your own experiences or looking to better understand the forces that impact our mental health.
One of my favourite quotes (from chapter about disenfranchised grief): "In many ways, the queer immigrant and the queer elder are both custodians of grief for a community and cultural lineage, displaced by the development and progress that often does not acknowledge the cost of its advance."
It’s direct and pragmatic without feeling heavy, and I especially liked the practical tools you can put into practice right away. There’s bound to be something here that resonates, whether you’re reflecting on your own experiences or looking to better understand the forces that impact our mental health.
One of my favourite quotes (from chapter about disenfranchised grief): "In many ways, the queer immigrant and the queer elder are both custodians of grief for a community and cultural lineage, displaced by the development and progress that often does not acknowledge the cost of its advance."
August 1, 2025
It's a basic overview of a variety of mental health topics geared toward men who are GBTQ, but it's not really that satisfying of a read.
Probably will resonate more with South Asian and MENA readers. Most examples and some of the culture comes from those regions/cultures. Like not coming out or being proud of your identity and considering that too Western.
There's also not very much trans information in the book, even in places that it would have been a light lift for the author - stigma in dating, healthcare, aging issues.
It is important that resources like this exist. The more that there are, the more likely that the next one will be better and more inclusive. And at least it has citations.
Overall, may be worth it to deal with a specific issue, but not impressive as a general read.
Probably will resonate more with South Asian and MENA readers. Most examples and some of the culture comes from those regions/cultures. Like not coming out or being proud of your identity and considering that too Western.
There's also not very much trans information in the book, even in places that it would have been a light lift for the author - stigma in dating, healthcare, aging issues.
It is important that resources like this exist. The more that there are, the more likely that the next one will be better and more inclusive. And at least it has citations.
Overall, may be worth it to deal with a specific issue, but not impressive as a general read.
August 13, 2025
A good general book that likely fills a need for a niche group. I found it was at times a bit too surface level and didn’t dig enough. I wish it had dig deeper into unique bisexual issues for example. However it’s a good primer on the mental health issues facing gay bi and trans men.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews