Sidney Trantham, a licensed clinical psychologist, began his career with a question: How does trauma impact people’s psychosocial and psychosexual development? This question became the foundation for his master’s thesis, which looked at later-in-life outcomes for children who have experienced abuse, including whether they themselves grow up to be abusers.

Trantham’s dissertation expanded on this question by looking at male childhood sexual abuse and its impacts on men’s adult functioning, including their relationships and sexual identity. “This was in the mid-’90s,” he says. “At the time there wasn’t much research that looked at male childhood sexual abuse.” And yet, Trantham found that many boys who had had sex with people at least 10 years older often experienced negative consequences in terms of intimacy, sexual functioning, and understanding of relationships.

After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Florida, Trantham moved to Massachusetts, where he went on to do a postdoctoral neuropsychology fellowship at the Cambridge Health Alliance. While there, he focused on identifying early cognitive markers of HIV dementia to help lessen the impact of HIV-related cognitive decline. During this time, he also worked as a staff psychotherapist at Fenway Community Health, counseling individuals, couples, and groups identifying as LGBTQ.

Over the past 14 years, alongside his work in higher education and community health, Trantham has maintained a private practice providing psychotherapy and integrative psychological, neuropsychological, and gender assessments for children, adolescents, and adults. Because three-quarters of his clients are people of color, half of whom identify as LGBTQ, much of his work surrounds “identity development”: helping people integrate complicated or conflictual aspects of their life experience, such as racial, sexual, gender, and class identities.

In his years working with transgender youth, he has guided both children and parents in individual and family counseling sessions. “Most parents and children aren’t given any models for how to have a conversation about gender,” he says. “My goal is family cohesion.”

Trantham joins the Lynch School this fall as an associate professor of the practice. He looks forward to mentoring students who are looking to carve their own path through the field—particularly Black students who might be questioning their voice or place in the psychology world.