The Trans Narrative Podcast · Trans Narrative Pod

Grace O' Connor : VP, Gender Wellness of L.A | Trans Affirming Therapy, Addiction, & Transformation

·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Grace says a Catholic priest abused her in 1978, and she disclosed it for the first time after getting sober.

Caroline and Honey Rose welcome Grace O'Connor as their special guest. They open with Pride greetings and a warm introduction. Grace is introduced as a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in working with trans and non-binary communities. She brings over three decades of experience in a 12-step recovery and LGBTQI+ mental health approach. The conversation focuses on how her lived experience shapes the way she practices. Grace describes an approach that brings together somatic work, mindfulness, IFS, and decolonized anti-oppressive lenses. She presents healing as emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual all at once. Her story turns toward internalized transphobia and the effect of cultural mirrors on identity. She talks about transitioning later in life and finding more grounding, joy, and alignment. The interview keeps circling back to trust and the way trust grows over time. Grace explains that her work depends on deep-rooted bonds with clients. The discussion widens into recovery and the social world that recovery opened up. She recalls being confronted by people from different racial and economic backgrounds in sober living. That environment forced her to notice distorted thinking about her own place in the world. She names the process of facing racism, homophobia, and privilege without softening it. A memory from the early 90s surfaces, and she admits the embarrassment of once asking why there was a Black History Month. She tells the story of being answered with a simple correction that changed her perspective. The exchange lands as a small lesson about how privilege gets interrupted. Grace keeps returning to the need to think beyond herself and beyond inherited assumptions. The tone stays conversational, direct, and personal throughout. By the end, the episode leaves the listener with a calm, sustaining message about staying connected and not facing hard moments alone. That final note gives the whole conversation its shape: support matters, change is possible, and it is going to be okay.

As heard by us

A grounded Pride-season conversation about sobriety, self-recognition, and trans mental health.

The episode centers trans and non-binary mental health through sobriety, self-recognition, and the slow work of loosening internalized transphobia.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a trans-affirming conversation that feels lived-in, grounded, and hard-won.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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