Frequently asked questions.

Yes. Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) is a peer support hotline run by trans people for trans and questioning people. They are available 24/7, will not contact emergency services without your consent, and you don't need to be in crisis to call — you can call just because you need someone trans to talk to.

The Trevor Project (1-866-488-7386) serves LGBTQ+ people under 25 and is available 24/7 by phone, text, or chat.

RTF provides ongoing peer support — not crisis intervention. If you're not in immediate crisis but are looking for sustained, identity-affirming support, reach out to us here.

Crisis lines provide immediate, short-term support in moments of acute distress — they are staffed around the clock and trained for stabilization. RTF provides ongoing peer support: longer-term, relational, identity-first work that holds addiction, mental health, daily functioning, and identity over time. The two are complementary — a crisis line for when you need someone right now, RTF for building the support infrastructure that reduces how often you reach that point.

RTF provides identity-first peer support for trans, gender-diverse, and intersex people in Los Angeles County. That includes 1:1 peer support sessions, bridge care for people waiting for clinical appointments, systems navigation, case management, warm referrals into RTF's vetted network of licensed providers, and peer support groups. All services are delivered by TGI peer specialists with shared lived experience — not clinical staff.

RTF's services are peer support. They operate alongside therapy and clinical care where those are present, not instead of them.

No. RTF works with TGI people across a wide range: addiction and substance use, eating disorders, mental health, identity and embodiment work, daily functioning, life transitions, and the general project of building a livable life. You don't need a diagnosis, a treatment history, or a specific presenting problem. Many people come with none of those things — just the sense that standard support hasn't been able to hold what they're actually carrying.

No. RTF serves transgender, gender nonconforming, intersex, and gender-diverse people across the full spectrum — including people who are questioning their gender identity and aren't sure yet what language fits. You are not required to have a label, a diagnosis, or a clear sense of who you are. Show up as you are.

Yes — if questioning your gender identity is part of what you're carrying, you don't need to have it resolved before reaching out. RTF works with people at every point in that process: people who know exactly who they are and need support building a life that reflects it, and people still in the middle of the question who need a space that can hold that without rushing toward an answer. A consult is a low-pressure way to see whether this work is a fit for where you are right now.

No. RTF's peer specialists are not licensed therapists and do not provide clinical treatment, diagnosis, or therapy of any kind. This is non-clinical peer support — grounded in a relational and systems practice orientation, not a clinical one. It operates alongside therapy and psychiatry where those are present, not instead of them. Many people work with both a therapist and an RTF peer specialist simultaneously. If you need a clinical referral, RTF can help facilitate that.

A peer support specialist provides support based on shared lived experience — in RTF's case, a TGI person supporting other TGI people. The relationship is not clinical, but it's not generic coaching either. It's grounded in having navigated the same systems, pressures, and experiences as the person being supported.

A life coach typically focuses on goals and forward movement — a frame that often misses the embodied, systemic, and identity-specific weight trans people are actually carrying. A therapist provides licensed clinical treatment with diagnostic and legal obligations. RTF peer support sits in a different lane from both: relational, identity-first, peer-led, and built for the full complexity of TGI experience. If you've searched "transgender life coach" and landed here — this is likely what you were looking for.

No. Many people engage peer support during active substance use — including periods when they are not yet abstinent. RTF's peer support is not contingent on sobriety or clinical enrollment. It is designed for the unstable, high-risk period where relational support is most needed and least available.

Yes. Most sober living environments were not designed with trans people in mind, and some are actively unsafe. RTF has knowledge of the landscape — which environments are genuinely affirming, which have trans residents, and which to avoid — and can help navigate placement as part of case management or pre-treatment planning. RTF also provides ongoing peer support for trans people while they are in sober living.

RTF offers peer support groups for TGI people as part of its direct services — reach out to ask about current group availability. RTF is based at the Connie Norman Trans Empowerment Center in Los Angeles, which also hosts programming from other trans-serving organizations.

For broader community resources, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Trans Can Work, and My Gender IQ are among the organizations serving TGI people in LA County. RTF maintains a referral network and can help point you toward the right resource for your situation.

Yes. Parents, partners, and loved ones reach out to RTF regularly — often when the trans person in their life isn't yet ready to reach out themselves, or when they're trying to understand what kind of support would actually help. A consult is the right place to start. RTF can talk through the situation, explain what services might help, and assist with navigating options — whether or not that involves RTF directly.

Case management is often where family-initiated support begins: help navigating treatment admissions, care coordination, or access to services for a loved one who is struggling.

The simplest path is a warm introduction — contact RTF directly through the contact page, share the client's situation, and RTF will take it from there. If your program has higher referral volume, RTF can discuss a structured referral agreement. RTF coordinates with your clinical team throughout — providing peer support alongside treatment, not separately from it.

No. RTF is not a licensed clinical provider and does not hold a DHCS SUD facility license or clinical certification. All RTF services are peer support — non-clinical, not licensed treatment, not certified SUD services. Clinical responsibility for referred clients remains with the referring licensed provider or organization. Any formal co-treatment arrangement is documented in a written agreement that clearly identifies the licensed entity as the responsible clinical party.

Having TGI staff is not the same as having a TGI-specific service layer. Internal TGI staff are often already carrying multiple roles — designating them as the default TGI specialist adds invisible labor and can lead to burnout. One or two people also can't hold every TGI experience; TGI identity is not monolithic.

RTF is a dedicated specialist layer that expands capacity without adding permanent overhead, reduces overreliance on one or two internal staff, and provides services built for the full range of TGI experience and disclosure your census contains. It coordinates with your team; it doesn't compete with it.

Yes. RTF's peer support can run alongside a clinical program — before intake, during active treatment, and in the post-discharge window. The trans-specific relational layer RTF provides changes what surfaces in clinical work: when a client has an identity-affirming container alongside clinical sessions, they participate more fully and what they disclose is more complete. That changes what your clinical team is working with.

RTF offers TGI competency training in several formats: 1:1 training for individual clinicians, coaches, and CADCs; org-wide staff training; just-in-time clinical consultation on live cases; and self-paced online certification. Training is available as a standalone service — you don't need a full partnership or referral agreement to access it. See the For Providers page for the full training menu.

Standard LGBTQ+ cultural competency training covers a broad population and often treats TGI experience as a subcategory of general LGBTQ+ content. RTF's training is built specifically for TGI people — addressing the embodied, systemic, and identity-specific weight of trans experience that general training structurally misses. The distinction matters clinically: a provider who has done general LGBTQ+ training is not the same as one who has done TGI-specific training, and TGI clients know the difference.

Yes. RTF maintains a vetted network of independent licensed providers — therapists, psychiatrists, and other clinicians — who meet RTF's TGI competency standards and receive warm referrals from RTF's peer specialist team. Providers in the network operate under their own credentials and licensing; RTF facilitates referrals and coordination. If you're a licensed provider interested in joining the network, reach out through the contact page or see the For Providers page.

RTF is actively in conversations with community organizations around implementing pilots of this model. We're not running a formal RFP process — reach out directly and we'll have an honest conversation about whether and how a partnership could work, and what the timeline looks like from where we are now.

RTF is building toward a grant-funded model in which peer support services are funded through philanthropy and grants — not billed to partner organizations. We're currently in early-stage conversations and piloting the model; reach out to discuss what funding structures might apply to your context.

No. All RTF services are peer support — non-clinical, not licensed treatment, not certified SUD services. Clinical functions in any coordinated model are performed by licensed professionals operating under their own credentials. Any formal arrangement is governed by a written agreement that clearly identifies the licensed entity as the responsible clinical party.

Broadly LGBTQ-affirming training doesn't fully address the distinctive pressures facing TGI people specifically. RTF peer specialists are TGI people themselves — peer support from shared identity offers relational depth and cultural fluency that training alone cannot replicate. This isn't a critique of your staff; it's a recognition that TGI-specific peer support is a distinct capacity that most organizations aren't built to provide internally, and shouldn't have to be.

Yes. TGI competency training, org-wide staff training, just-in-time clinical consultation, and online certification are available as standalone services. You don't need to implement the full peer support bridge model to access training and consulting.

Possibly. The question is whether your existing peer support infrastructure is specifically built to hold TGI experience — not just LGBTQ+ experience broadly, but the particular pressures facing trans, gender-diverse, and intersex people. If it isn't, there may be a meaningful gap that RTF's TGI-specific peer specialists can fill alongside what you're already doing. A conversation is the right place to figure out whether there's a fit.

Both. The model is designed for CBOs with clinical waitlists that need a peer support bridge layer, and for trans-led organizations with high client volume that need embedded peer support capacity without building a full internal program. If your organization is trans-led and serves TGI clients at scale, reach out — the conversation is different but the gap is the same.

RTF is a trans-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit based at the Connie Norman Trans Empowerment Center in Los Angeles. Our mission is identity-first, trans-led mental health infrastructure for TGI people: peer support, bridge care, referrals into a vetted network of independent licensed providers, provider education, and workforce pathways that move TGI community members into licensed provider networks, where they can carry systems change from the inside.

EIN: 99-1706471 · hana@rtf-usa.org

No. RTF is not a licensed clinical provider and does not hold a DHCS SUD facility license, clinical license, or certified outpatient treatment certification. All services RTF delivers directly are peer support — non-clinical, supportive, and ancillary to clinical care, not a substitute for it.

Where clinical services are part of a client's picture, those services are provided by independently licensed professionals operating under their own credentials. RTF facilitates referrals and coordinates alongside those providers.

RTF's direct peer support services operate in Los Angeles County. This is where the organization is based, where the peer specialist workforce is being built, and where clinical partnerships are rooted.

Provider training and TGI competency consultation can be delivered remotely to clinicians and organizations outside LA. If you're outside Los Angeles and looking for trans-affirming peer support, Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) operates nationally.

RTF's board and advisory structure includes licensed clinicians whose credentials inform RTF's standards and approach. Current clinical advisors include Dr. Patrick Lockwood PsyD, Jeff Gaddess PhD, Jess Romeo PMHNP-BC, and Dr. Cadyn Cathers PsyD. These individuals serve in an advisory capacity only — their credentials are their own, not RTF's, and their advisory role does not constitute clinical supervision of RTF's peer support services.

The Connie Norman Trans Empowerment Center is an LA-based trans community hub that hosts RTF and other trans-serving organizations. Connie Norman was a trans activist and AIDS advocate whose work in Los Angeles helped lay the foundation for trans rights organizing in the city. RTF's presence at the Center reflects its rootedness in the community lineage of trans advocacy in Los Angeles.

RTF maintains a limited number of sliding-scale and reduced-cost spots for individuals paying directly. Cost is a real barrier in a system that already underserves trans people — if it's a barrier for you, reach out regardless. RTF will be honest about what's available and what the timeline looks like.

RTF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit actively building toward a fully grant-funded, no-cost direct service model. We're not there yet — but sliding scale access exists now, and we'd rather you ask than not reach out.

For immediate free peer support, Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) is free and available 24/7.

RTF's direct peer support services are not currently covered by insurance. Most individuals are funded through self-pay, family, or — for clients referred through a treatment program — through the organization. RTF maintains a limited number of sliding-scale spots. If cost is a barrier, reach out regardless — RTF can often help explore options or flag future openings.

The right first step is a consult — a low-pressure conversation about where you are and what RTF can offer. Come with where you are, not a prepared answer about what you need. The shape of the work emerges from an honest conversation.

Request a consult here →

RTF responds to inquiries within 3–5 business days. If you are in crisis or need immediate support, please contact Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) or 988 rather than waiting for a response.

RTF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded through individual donors, foundations, and grants. Donations directly fund peer specialist time, bridge care access, and the workforce development pipeline that moves TGI people into licensed provider roles. To give, visit the Give page. RTF's EIN is 99-1706471.