Pretreatment counseling experiences, stressors, and support differences between transgender and cisgender university students seeking mental healthcare.

Objectives: Our aim was to explore rates of prior counseling experiences as well as pretreatment stressors and supports among transgender university students seeking psychotherapy services in university counseling centers.

Methods: We used regression models to explore relationships between gender identity and prior mental health experiences, risk-related experiences, traumatic experiences, and support among clients (cisgender: n = 162,305; transgender: n = 545) seeking treatment at 136 university counseling centers.

Results: Results demonstrate more previous mental health service utilization and greater frequency of some prior stressors transgender clients.