In this episode, Savannah reveals to Julie a mind-blowing revelation. During a counseling session, the therapist comments that much of Savannah's current proclivities, life coping skills, and non-confrontational demeanor may have stemmed from a childhood chock full of continued attempts to keep herself safe from emotional harm and invalidation by her parents. Self-preservation is a critical and often-overlooked reason why we continue to exist as a species. Throw in gender diversity in a world that hasn't fully embraced our authenticity and the chance that our parents may withhold their unconditional love from us because we are not fitting into the right 'normal' boxes and you have a ripe recipe full of adulthood triggers and traumas. While those coping mechanisms were internally created to practically protect our younger selves way back then, those tools' relevancy and requirement in our adult lives continuing to shield and protect our inner princess child may have become outdated, dull, and may be hurting as much as it is helping.
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SAVANNAH HAUK is the author of “Living with Crossdressing: Defining a New Normal” and “Living with Crossdressing: Discovering your True Identity“. While both focus on the male-to-female (mtf) crossdresser, “Defining a New Normal” delves into crossdressing and relationships and “Discovering Your True Identity” looks at the individual crossdressing journey. Her latest achievements are two TEDx Talks, one entitled "Demystifying the Crossdressing Experience" and the other "13 Milliseconds: First Impressions of Gender Expression". Savannah is a male-to-female dual-gender crossdresser who is visible in the Upstate of South Carolina, active in local groups and advocating as a public speaker at LGBTQ+ conferences and workshops across the United States. At the moment, Savannah is working on more books, blogs, and projects focused on letting every crossdresser–young and mature–find their own confidence, expression, identity and voice.
IG @savannahhauk | FB @savannahhauk | FB @livingwithcrossdressing | web @livingwithcrossdressing.com
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JULIE RUBENSTEIN is a dedicated ally to transgender community and the certified image consultant and co-owner of Fox and Hanger. F&H is a unique service for transgender women and male-to-female crossdressers that creates customized virtual fashion and style “lookbooks”. Julie intuitively connects with each client to find them appropriate clothes, makeup, hair, and shape wear all in alignment with their budget, body type, authentic style and unique personality. Julie also provides enfemme coaching and wardrobe support. Julie has made it her life’s work to help MTF individuals feel safe and confident when it comes to their female persona, expression and identity.
IG @Juliemtfstyle | FB @foxandhanger | web @FoxandHanger.com