Exploring Trans Wellness, Trans Brilliance on the HPP Podcast
Health Practice Promotion Podcast: S05, E011
The Pilot Intervention
We sought to develop an eight-week wellness program for transgender and gender diverse Michiganders that was virtually available and peer-led. The program aimed to support participants in honing skills for well-being, emotional wellness, resilience, and thriving while increasing connections with the community.
“If you look socio-politically, there’s a lot of structural stigmas that we have to face and resist, if you will; and then there’s also, through that, creating space to find joy and thriving. So, it’s not just focused on being a marginalized group and being minoritized but also cultivating those strengths, and that’s what Trans Wellness, Trans Brilliance really aspires to do.”
Brayden A. Misiolek
The HPP Podcast Celebrates Pride! In this episode of The HPP Podcast, C. M. McGhee, Brayden A. Misiolek, and Shanna KatzKatarri share their passion for inclusive spaces fortrans/gender diverse communities in their development on the intervention, Trans Wellness, Trans Brilliance! They share the inspiration for the intervention, key findings, and benefits and barriers to implementing the intervention in Michigan. They also offer words of encouragement to the trans/gender diverse communities and their allies.
Referenced in the podcast:
- Michigan Trans Health Research Advisory Board recommendations and best practices for researchers
- Michigan Trans Health Survey (2025) which is currently recruiting!
- [ Sexuality | Relationships | Gender ] Research Collective
Recommended citation:
McGhee, C., Misiolek, B.A., Katttari, S.K., Gardner, A. (Hosts). (2025, June 25). Exploring Trans Wellness, Trans Brilliance. In The HPP Podcast. Health Promotion Practice.https://pod.link/1547503833/episode/400ba09d4def7c3039ef5bfa65c2af29
Brayden A. Misiolek
(they/he)
Co-founder of Transcend the Binary (TTB) and leader of the Transcend Research Collective, a circle within TTB. Interests include minority stress, socio-structural stigma, coping, and digital interventions.
C. McGhee, PhD
(they/he)
Researcher with a background in Gender and Feminist Psychology (University of Michigan) and interests in joy, mindfulness, embodiment.
Shanna K. Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE
(they/them)
Associate professor at the School of Social Work, in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, and director of the [Sexuality|Relationships|Gender] Research Collective. Interests include disability, ableism, sexuality and sexual health, queer and trans affirming practice.
Thank you to the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and Transcend the Binary for sponsoring this research. Thank you to all of the peer support specialists, and community participants who got involved to progress this pilot.