Andrew Kuhlmann, MA
About
Pronouns: he/they
Occupation and Specialty: Therapist
Location (Clinic/hospital): Transcend Psychotherapy, Minneapolis
Location (City): Telehealth only, MN
Offers Telehealth: Yes
Contact Information: https://transcendpsychotherapy.com/
Bio: I provide individual and relational psychotherapy for adults and older adolescents. My approach to therapy combines mindfulness, person-centered humanistic and existential theory, somatic and Internal Family Systems approaches. A lot of my work as a clinician is informed by my years of experience as a sex educator and my academic background in gender, sexuality and cultural studies.
Many of my clients come to therapy to address concerns around gender identity, sexual orientation, the body, relationships and physical intimacy. I specialize in working with transgender and nonbinary individuals.
My own values as a therapist are informed in part by my lived experiences as a queer, trans and neurodivergent person. I work from a trauma-informed perspective that centers client consent and autonomy. I am fat and I have a background in fat liberation activism, and I work from a place of body neutrality — there’s no wrong way to have a body. I think therapy can be a powerful space to combat oppression and contribute to the healing of intergenerational wounds.
I have experience working with neurodivergence, chronic pain and illness, depression, childhood and family of origin trauma, grief and loss, substance use and addiction. I have specialized training in working with anxiety, and supporting clients in gender and sexuality exploration and gender affirming transition.
Approach to care
What does it look like for you to provide care to patients in larger bodies? How is, or isn’t, your approach different from how you care for patients in smaller bodies? If you work with children, how is or isn’t your approach different when working with children?
I have a neutral and radically accepting approach to body size and shape. With every client, I follow their lead to set priorities for our therapeutic work. With my fat clients, I hold extra awareness of our shared experiences of weight and size-based oppression. With fat folks who are exploring gender identity or gender affirming transition, I provide compassionate and nuanced support for the complex intersections of fatness, gendered embodiment and the medicalized aspects of gender transition.
What is your perspective on how weight is or is not related to health?
I understand body weight as one of many physical characteristics that could be connected to a person's overall physical and mental well being, just like their posture or gait, their levels of different neurotransmitters, or any aspect of their physical self. I believe fat people deserve healthcare providers that understand the difference between correlation and causation, and who do not pathologize higher body weights or prescribe or require weight loss. As a therapist, there is no way for me to know on my own exactly how body weight relates to my client's health. I believe that if there is a relationship between body weight and any aspect of a client's health, it's my job to learn about that relationship from my client and understand how they experience it.
Finish this sentence: “Fat people are…”
medically underserved! We deserve compassionate, personalized, insightful and effective healthcare.
How do you, your clinic, and the healthcare system you work in use BMI (i.e BMI cutoffs for accessing certain services, BMI on charts and printouts, etc)? Is this flexible?
BMI is not a measure I use in my work as a therapist. I don't think it's a useful measurement for evaluating anything about a person's body, behavior or well being.
If a patient declines to be weighed, how do you and/or your staff proceed?
I'm a therapist, weighing clients is not a part of that care.
If a patient declines to discuss weight loss, nutrition, and/or exercise, how do you proceed?
As a collaborative and client-centered therapist, I do not force clients to discuss any topic. When I occasionally bring these topics up, I do it in a trauma-informed and consent-focused way, not prescriptive.
What does the physical accessibility of your office space look like? What kinds of accommodations are present for people in larger bodies? Are there things you wish were in place that are currently not?
I provide telehealth services so physical accessibility is a factor in the space where the client is located when connecting to our video sessions. I work with my clients to make the audio and video parts of telehealth as comfortable and accessible as possible.
What do you do to allow fat people to feel comfortable and welcome in your office?
My office is online! I try to keep my backdrop visuals warm and friendly for everybody.
If you’d like to use this space to talk about any identities (gender, race, size, sexuality, etc.) you hold and how this relates to your care, please do so.
I am a trans man, I'm white and queer. I have lived experience with chronic health conditions. I'm a fat person, and I've lived for years in many different parts of the fat body spectrum. Insights from all these experiences inform my approach to therapy.