BHC Assessment and Consulting

I am a transgender man. I went to this office a year ago in order to have a letter written to start hormone therapy. I assumed that my experience was typical of care for trans people, but since moving and finding actual resources for people like me I have come to regard this place as despicable.
I took the soonest available appointment, which was not with Dr. Hargrove, but with Ann Currier. I found her to be self satisfied, clinical, and actively unwilling to give me what I needed. I was in college at the time and expressed that I did not have enough expendable income to keep up with counseling indefinitely, even with their student discount bringing each session to $ 40 (which is a very reasonable price for counseling, just not one I had the resources to pay every week.) Instead of being understanding of my financial situation, Currier used my money problems as yet another reason that she would not write me the letter I needed to start treatment. She was also clueless as to how many health insurance policies actually will cover hormone treatment (mine does), and instead of admitting this insisted that I should be prepared to pay out of pocket costs. In fact, her primary concern seemed to be actively scaring me away from seeking hormone therapy. She forced me to come out to my abusive mother and to beg money from my father to pay the out of pocket cost of hormones before she would even consider writing the letter. It was my hope that I would need only one session with her before she would write the damn letter, but she made me come back for a second, running me another $ 40 I did not have. In addition, and this is a policy of the office not just this specific woman, there was a $ 75 charge to even write and send the letter to my doctor. I repeat SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS to fill out an fax a FORM LETTER. I paid it because I wanted to be done with this circus as soon as possible. Once she agreed I told her I would not need the rest of the session I had paid for and asked that she instead write the letter immediately and send it so that I could make my appointment. Her response was, «well, right after this I’m going to have lunch and take some time for myself.» Apparently she took an awful lot of personal time, as my doctor’s office called me the day before my appointment a month later telling me they still had not received it! I had to frantically call the office several times that day and the next morning before it was sent right at the last possible moment.
The representation of this center that I got from my ordeal with Ann Currier was that this is a place full of cis «allies» who are more concerned with their own egos and bleeding their clients of every cent they’re worth than with the health and well being of their clients. The terrible thing is that there are so few options available to trans people in Orlando that they can basically do whatever they want and they’re still the best option just by merit of them knowing what the word «transgender» even means!
If you can’t find any better options, I have some advice for getting through this: LIE LIE LIE LIE. These are the cis gatekeepers you’ve been warned about. Make sure that as far as they know, you have been «living as your preferred gender» for over a year, that you are out to all of your family members, that you have the expendable income to blow $ 50 – 100 on hormones every month, and whatever else they need to hear to feel nice and comfy giving you access to the medical care you need. In a normal patient/​therapist relationship, it’s a terrible idea to lie, but trust me, BHC does not have your best interests at heart.