Workshops of activities, dynamics and projects with trans people: social occupational therapy actions

Abstract

Introduction  The conditions of marginalization of trans experiences are a reflection of gender norms, which produce and regulate the rules of how one should be, live, and act. The theoretical-methodological assumptions of social occupational therapy contribute to this debate, in the production of knowledge and practices that strengthen, together with the trans community, strategies for social participation.

Objective  To report and discuss the experience of conducting activity workshops with trans youth from the Federal District, Brazil, based on social occupational therapy.

Method  In the first semester of 2023, three monthly workshops were held, each lasting an average of three hours, with nine participants in total: two non-binary people, two travestis, and five trans men. The systematization of the experience was adopted as the methodology to organize and analyze the data, based on the reconstruction of the process experienced in the activities and the individual and collective critical interpretation of the participants.

Results  The workshops provided educational spaces aligned with the promotion of autonomy, participation, and citizenship, with debates on issues related to daily life, in order to articulate possibilities for change and resistance. Beyond being a group exposed to intense marginalization, these subjects are holders of diverse knowledge and from varied contexts, with a desire for social transformation to guarantee their lives.

Conclusion  The workshops demonstrated the potential of social occupational therapy action with this group, especially in the educational dimension, aimed at education as the practice of freedom, dialogue, and awareness.

Keywords:
Transgender Persons; Social Occupational Therapy; Activities of Daily Living; Social Participation

Resumo

Introdução  As condições de marginalização das experiências trans é um reflexo das normativas de gênero, que produzem e regulam as regras de como se deve ser, viver e agir. Os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da terapia ocupacional social contribuem para esse debate, na produção de conhecimentos e práticas que fortalecem, juntamente à comunidade trans, estratégias de participação social.

Objetivo  Relatar e discutir a experiência da realização de oficinas de atividades junto a jovens trans do Distrito Federal, Brasil, a partir da terapia ocupacional social.

Método  No primeiro semestre de 2023, foram realizadas três oficinas mensais, com duração média de três horas cada, com nove participantes no total: duas pessoas não-binárias, duas travestis e cinco homens trans. A sistematização da experiência foi adotada como metodologia para organizar e analisar os dados, a partir da reconstrução do processo vivenciado nas atividades e da interpretação crítica individual e coletiva dos participantes.

Resultados  As oficinas proporcionaram espaços educativos, alinhados à promoção de autonomia, participação e cidadania, com debates sobre questões relacionadas ao cotidiano, de modo a articular possibilidades de mudanças e resistência. Para além de um grupo que segue exposto à intensa marginalização, esses sujeitos são detentores de conhecimentos diversos e sobre contextos variados, com desejo de transformação social para a garantia de suas vidas.

Conclusão  As oficinas demonstraram a potência da ação terapêutico-ocupacional social junto a esse grupo, sobretudo na dimensão educativa, voltada para uma educação como prática da liberdade, do diálogo e da conscientização.

Palavras-chave:
Pessoas Trans; Terapia Ocupacional Social; Atividades Cotidianas; Participação Social

Introduction

Transgender people (hereinafter, trans) commonly have their daily lives¹ crossed by multiple challenges, such as violence and various forms of exclusion that compromise social participation, having repercussions, among others, on the difficulties of negotiation to be recognized as citizens, considering that citizenship has also been parameterized throughout history to the standardized perspective of the subject, sidelining bodies that dissent. “It has a direct relationship with the way in which bodies are socially arranged and with the way in which they are allocated based on the measurement of how much one is within parameters that legitimize who is or is not a subject of law” (Melo, 2016, p. 222).

The debate around trans experiences has been addressed by various fields, including that of social occupational therapy (Leite Junior & Lopes, 2022), which seeks to produce knowledge and practices in collaboration with these individuals, within the possibilities of confronting the logics of oppression that operate on a daily basis (Melo, 2021). This theoretical-methodological framework enables an understanding of the life contexts of individuals who, by being marked by difference, experience the repercussions of social inequalities (Melo et al., 2020), while also proposing, through its theoretical and practical assumptions, an articulation between macro and micro social dimensions, that is, between the collective and the individual (Lopes & Malfitano, 2016).

Thus, the field makes use of Social Technologies, which are “[…] products, techniques, or methodologies that are replicable, developed through interaction with the community, and that reflect effective solutions for social transformation” (Lopes et al., 2014, p. 591), as strategies for designing its interventions, such as, for example, the Activity, Dynamic and Project Workshops, which focus on the construction of activities to mediate, bring together, monitor and strengthen collectives and individuals, so that they are aligned with the desires and needs of subjects and collectives. For Melo (2016, p. 221), it is in the sense of “[...] expanding experiences and sociocultural repertoires” that it is possible to broaden life possibilities, in addition to articulating strategies for strengthening and accessing social rights and multiple spaces of circulation and relationships with the territory and the community.

The praxis is directed and proposed in collaboration with the trans community, aiming to generate moments of reflection and articulation around autonomy, participation, and social inclusion, taking into account the contexts in which they live, as well as the historical and cultural dimensions that shape their ways of life (Melo & Lopes, 2023), all of which are shaped by gender constructions. In this sense, social occupational therapy grounds its actions on working alongside trans people, with the aim of strengthening their lives.

The conditions of marginalization in everyday life imposed on the trans population, which are translated into exclusion/expulsion in/from school spaces (Monzeli, 2013), low insertion in the formal job market (Benedetti, 2005), poorer access to health services (Bento, 2006), among others, are a direct reflection of the binary gender norm, which dictates the rules of how one should be, live and act, so that everything that deviates from the heteronormative standard² becomes worthy of exclusion (Melo, 2021). On the other hand, citizenship is the guiding axis of the discussion of this work, given the difficulty in maintaining social rights, as well as the lack of guarantee of civil rights, which creates barriers for trans people to engage in participation at social, cultural, political and economic levels.

Thus, social occupational therapy has consolidated important actions that promote autonomy and citizenship, so that it is possible to modify daily life for changes that are aligned with the desires and needs of life (Lopes et al., 2014), considering the contexts and historical dimensions in which the subject is inserted.

Therefore, this work seeks to report and discuss an experience in social occupational therapy with trans people, based on activity workshops, linked to the Núcleo Metuia Cerrado, of Universidade de Brasília – Faculdade de Ceilândia³, in the Federal District.

It is worth noting that this experience was driven not only by the first author's interest in understanding the daily lives of transsexual and transvestite people, but above all by the fact that he identifies as a trans man, being the only trans person enrolled in the Occupational Therapy course at Universidade de Brasília.

Methodology

The systematization of experience was used as the methodological approach for compiling and organizing the data obtained from the experiences presented here, through the reconstruction of the process lived during the activities and the individual and collective critical interpretation with the group. The use of experience systematization is justified by its transformative perspective (Holliday, 2006) on reality, based on the critical interpretation of the lived process. Accordingly, the data were recorded in field journals by the first author and later analyzed in light of the theoretical-methodological frameworks of social occupational therapy, as well as gender and sexuality studies.

The experience involved conducting activity workshops at the Espaço Cultural Renato Russo⁴, addressing themes related to the daily experiences of trans people in the Federal District, which emerged during the activities. Three activity workshops were held once a month during the first half of 2023, with an average duration of three hours each. They involved the prior proposal of activities by the mediating team, with a view to better using the actions with the participants in their reflections, always taking into account the demands and needs of the subjects.

The workshops were publicized through digital platforms both individually and in groups, as well as through printed posters displayed in strategic public spaces frequented by this population, such as the Trans Outpatient Clinic of the Federal District, the Espaço Cultural Renato Russo, and the Universidade de Brasília.

To participate in the workshops, interested individuals were required to complete an on-line registration form in advance. Fourteen applications were initially received, and from these, nine respondents participated in the workshops. The topics addressed included discussions on gender inequality, everyday experiences of transphobia, lack of access to essential services, among others.

The workshops were linked to the extension project Laboratório Metuia Cerrado: Grupo de estudos e práticas em terapia ocupacional social, from the Universidade de Brasília – Faculdade de Ceilândia, which encompasses the activities of the Núcleo Metuia Cerrado. They were conducted by one extension student and two occupational therapy professors.

Results and Discussion

The Espaço Cultural Renato Russo was chosen to host the workshops because it is a strategic space, located in the same region as the Trans Clinic, and is part of a public policy aimed at culture. After a dialogue, the coordinators provided the space for the workshops. Intersectoral work was a fundamental practice for developing strategies for integration between the subjects, by articulating with other sectors and levels of care, such as health and culture, enabling new opportunities for communication between the network devices.

Transgender people participated in the workshops, including two non-binary people, two transvestites, and five trans men. The people who participated in the workshops were between 20 and 28 years old, and lived in multiple administrative regions, as well as in the surroundings of the Federal District. The socioeconomic disparity present among the people in the workshops was a reason for reflection on the different types of access to public spaces, life opportunities, such as access to university and the job market, and even access to resources that make them more passable⁵.

Because it was a collective space, where several activities took place simultaneously, there were some setbacks during the workshops, such as noise during discussions, moving rooms due to schedule clashes with other activities, among others. These interruptions did not affect the content of the activity or its objective, but they were a factor that took up some of the workshop time. Each activity took place in a different room in the Espaço Cultural, a perhaps unconscious movement that allowed the available spaces to be occupied.

First, we will describe the workshops and their objectives, and then analyze the systematization of the process experienced, encouraging the debate on negligence in the daily lives of trans people and the counterpoint on the daily confrontations with processes of oppression.

Understanding activity workshops as a space for expression and problematization of everyday life

Silva & Malfitano (2021, p. 3) discuss activity workshops as

[…] spaces for coexistence and approximation of subjects, in which different activities (physical, playful and plastic) can be used as mediating resources in their operationalization, seeking to approach the demands of subjects parameterized by the notions of citizenship, rights/duties and democratic participation.

Problematization, an inherent characteristic of this workshop, refers to questioning and challenging the apparent obviousness of everyday situations, and, in this case, the violence experienced by marginalized groups whose rights are constantly violated. In this sense, during the workshops in this project, problematization served as the guiding thread of all activities, in which participants were encouraged to question the issues they face in daily life, as well as the obstacles involved, in order to understand the mechanisms that sustain them and to identify possible cracks that might allow for forms of resistance.

The workshops were organized as follows: 1^st workshop – “Who am I?”; 2^nd workshop – “How do I belong to the world?”; and 3^rd workshop – “Theatre of the Oppressed Technique”. All workshops lasted three hours each, as previously mentioned, and the number of participants varied considerably between the first and last sessions, with the first workshop having the highest attendance. Among the key characteristics observed throughout the workshops, the following stand out: the sharing of different ways of knowing, thinking, and producing daily life practices, even when based on the same normative assumptions regarding gender and sexuality; the different meanings attributed to the same activity; and the consistent production of the workshop as a democratic and safe space, where participants collectively adopted and built the rules for its functioning.

In this first workshop, whose objective was to understand the participants' relationship with their gender identities in a playful manner, what stood out was the narrative one of the participants shared about their gender transition process (Figure 1). The activity involved the creation of a poster, in which the participant inserted an image of a suit with flowers on the head, which contrasts with the idea that such clothing marks a place of masculinity, as it adopts contours that point to a body perceived/read as feminine, also due to the flowers on the head. This image represents, for the participant, according to the discussions that took place at the time, her own gender transition, as it highlights symbols that reflect the supposed codes of masculinity (the suit) and femininity (the silhouette and the flowers). The participant explained during the discussion: “I can't say who I am, but how I am. And to say who I am, I have to look at who I was ”. To tell the story of “who I am”, the participant used images that hegemonically point to the construction of a feminine identity, bringing with them “balance” and the desire for a stable life, through the image of ballet, while “creativity”, according to her, is important in her processes of resistance and existence. The fluidity of gender within the participant’s identity construction process marks the place of the body in shaping the experience (Butler, 2003), especially in the way gender transgression creates tension in the attempt to respond, through the body itself, to gender norms via performativity.

Figure 1
Workshop 1: Poster from the “Who am I?” workshop. Source: Own authorship.

In the same meeting, the discussion was guided by questions around what it takes to live as a trans person. Among the accounts, elements directly related to aspects such as income, a support network, access to citizenship services, and other aspects directly tied to the intersection of social markers of difference were mentioned⁶, such as race, generation, territory, among others.

These aspects were highlighted in narratives such as: lack of family support, use of hormone therapy as a readjustment or a movement to reproduce more binarity, among others.

In addition to the elements that refer to the construction and eligibility of gender identity, one can see the use of images related to the possibility of developing different activities, such as the desire to get to know places, as well as to know and understand philosophy: an area of ​​interest for this participant.

When she questioned the norms and standards regarding the bodies of trans people, with regard to the aesthetic pressure of passability⁷, in contrast, another participant, a transvestite, questioned the need for bodily alterations as a strategy for coping with the normalization of their bodies. Through the body, their existence was made possible, as reported by the participant: “I had to get silicone and injectable treatments to be able to work, but that wasn't what we wanted”. This participant described prostitution as a space in which various coping strategies were necessary to deal with different situations, while also being the practice that enabled their income, in addition to allowing the creation of support networks with other sex workers, thus fostering a sense of collectivity and belonging.

Melo & Lopes (2023) discuss how the reconfiguration of support networks can be an important path for confronting the everyday conditions of marginalization experienced by trans people, particularly those working in the sex trade. The sharing of codes and support in the many common challenges these experiences face seems to produce a certain collective strengthening. This movement shifts the focus of support demands from relationships that produce conflicts (commonly located within the family) and brings new actors into the web of support possibilities, where the symmetry in lived experiences ends up bringing people closer and fostering care, thus supporting the construction of ways to deal with the exclusion mechanisms that gender norms create.

If gender can be understood, among other things, as a social construct, the effect of multiple practices and discourses that take on a regulatory role (Butler, 2003), it can also be stated that gender is an operator of inequalities, as it provides codes that, when performed (or not), delimit the action fields of individuals in the social life realm, circumscribing ways of life (Melo & Lopes, 2023). In some dimensions and in different ways, in both individual and collective experiences, when trans people subvert the heteronormative logic, processes of marginalization emerge, which constitute the ways of life of these individuals.

In the group in question, a significant debate arose regarding the need for hormone therapy⁸ as a way to respond to gender stereotypes. The theme arose after one participant reported that they did not feel the desire to start hormone treatment, while another considered it essential for their existence and intelligibility. In this sense, there was a certain duality within the group: while hormone therapy was seen as an important facilitator for managing daily life (due to its ability to enable the adaptation of certain characteristics that legitimize their bodies within binary parameters), it was also understood as a regulatory apparatus that marks a certain social imposition.

Butler (2003) posits that gender manifests through the repetition of acts, discourses, and behaviors, which serve to (re)affirm a certain identity, which, after being reiterated through those repetitions, creates an imagined sense of naturalness. This supposed naturalness, in turn, regulates notions of masculinity and femininity based on heteronormativity, excluding other possible ways of existing, those that deviate from gender binarism. Thus, breaking with this logic can be complex, confusing, and may lead to multiple forms of violence, but it can also introduce new possible identities that dissent from the expected binary.

The workshop provided a safe and welcoming environment to discuss issues related to the construction of gender identity, the repercussions of gender and/or sexuality dissent, the vulnerabilities surrounding the lives of these individuals, and the individual and collective coping strategies being mobilized in the fight against transphobia. Thus, it was pointed out during the first workshop that what seems to be a form of resistance used and/or desired by the participants may align with the expression of their gender identities in a way that leads to significant changes in their daily lives.

In this collage (Figure 2), the participant reported using the activity for leisure, explaining that they managed to set aside time for themselves and reflect on their own identity, as well as on their interests and skills. They expressed interest in nature, exploring images related to it, as well as a desire to have a healthier diet, a goal stemming from their difficulty in eating properly. In the bottom right corner, the participant showcased one of their skills: photography. At the end of each meeting, all participants took home the materials produced during the workshops.

Figure 2
Workshop 1: Poster from the “Who am I” workshop. Source: Own authorship.

Considering the image above, it reflects the desire to experience a routine, ordinary daily life, but one that may be permeated by obstacles and become more complex when the individual breaks with the expectations of the binary imposed by heteronormativity. The creator of the work in question mentioned, during this meeting, the impossibility of attending certain social spaces, such as the gym.

In the presentations of the posters from the “Who am I?” workshop, several connections were made between the participants' creations, with the shared desire to explore and discover new places and other possibilities of life, in addition to the longing for an ordinary life that exceeds the age of 35: the life expectancy of this population, according to data published by the National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals (Associação Nacional de Travestis e Transexuais, 2020). In this regard, participants expressed the need for public policies that ensure the protection of trans people's lives and strengthen their opportunities for social participation, particularly in public spaces and services, guaranteeing them opportunities and autonomy.

The theme of public policies emerged in the workshop “How do I belong to the world?” when participants began to question the spaces they were (not) circulating in due to access barriers. Through the debate, they concluded that, due to stigma⁹ that marks their experiences, it was not possible to access certain spaces, both private and some public spaces. There was a consensus among the participants regarding the institutional barriers faced in their daily lives, such as the insecurity of/when using public bathrooms consistent with their gender identities, the constant embarrassment in clubs, disrespect for their social name, etc.

Binary gender norms generate and validate certain types of violence, which also become naturalized (as much as gender itself). Since the most significant studies published since the early 1990s (Kulick, 1998; Peres, 2005; Benedetti, 2005; Bento, 2006; Pelúcio, 2007; Duque, 2017), the narrative of violence as a common experience for trans people is evident, whether within relationships that should comprise a protective component (such as the family), or broader relationships, such as institutional ones. This naturalization ends up questioning the subjects who experience it, often reserving exclusion as their only story by restricting their possibilities of participation in social life - whether due to the absence of specific and effective public policies for this population (and not only those focused on STI/AIDS prevention practices), or due to the practices of prejudice that permeate the various layers of the social life of these subjects.

In the Brazilian context, other markers of difference reinforce these places of exclusion, especially when we consider aspects related to social class and race, which create very limited spaces for maintaining life, such as spaces of prostitution, predominantly composed of Black travestis from lower classes (Pelúcio, 2011).

Even though the sex trade is not the only destination, given broader public policies (not exclusively aimed at this population), such as those that expand access to higher education, cultural constructions act as a significant obstacle to the opening of new contexts, revealing new configurations in the mechanisms of exclusion.

As reflected throughout all the workshops, these individuals are prevented from pursuing their own interests due to a social imposition that defines which spaces are allowed or denied to them. The rupture with social participation becomes evident, as does the dimension of thinking/doing everyday life in terms of its possibilities for transformation and agency (Farias & Lopes, 2022), as participants present barriers in various dimensions of access that weaken their relationship with the territory. These ruptures reflect everyday situations that highlight the obstacles in exercising citizenship. One transversal situation across multiple spaces that highlights these practices is the neglect regarding the use and recognition of social names by institutions and civil society, which generates discomfort, exposure, and embarrassment, and proves the exclusion from certain places due to past instances of transphobia.

During the reports and exchanges sparked in the workshops, participants revealed that they choose to stop attending certain spaces due to situations of discrimination, particularly the disrespect for their social name. Health services are a key reference to clarify this information, due to the discrimination faced by trans people in this context, which leads to abandonment or even the refusal to start treatment or seek other basic health services (Rocon et al., 2016).

Given the facts presented, it became increasingly clear the need for guidance of the therapeutic-occupational social praxis as a practice of freedom (Farias & Lopes, 2022) aimed at expanding individuals' possibilities of life through the problematization of life scenarios. One of the roles of social occupational therapy, in this sense, is to foster dialogues related to the daily lives of trans people, relating them to social and civil rights, seeking to articulate processes of strategies and confrontation in the face of the logic of excluding citizenship.

In the second workshop, the group was asked to reflect on a world in which there was no transphobia, and, in the midst of it, which spaces would be used and occupied by the group. Thus, the doll built by the participants could represent a future idealization of themselves, as well as assume a supposed identity, subsidizing the creation of a character for the doll. Despite the possibilities that the proposal to make the doll allows, especially in the creation of a character that does not necessarily refer to themselves, a movement was perceived by the group to represent themselves, transferring their desires, expectations, physicality and emotions to the doll.

As one of the participants reported, in this “ideal world”, there would be no stigmas and discrimination, not even questions about the bodies of trans people and patterns of gender representation. In Figure 3, the doll on the right expresses the desire of a trans man for the freedom to take off his shirt without the need for a masculinizing mastectomy surgery¹⁰, since he has no interest in undergoing the procedure. The doll's creator explained that the character has a radiant and happy expression because it is a personal expectation of the young man and that, when imagining the scene, he feels comfort and freedom. It is important to emphasize that the feeling arising from the young man's imagination is individual, but the achievement of this progress will be collective.

Figure 3
Workshop 2: Contradiction of two dolls produced in the workshop “How do I belong to the world?”. Source: Own authorship.

This construction recalls the debate developed in a previous workshop, where body transformation was questioned, taking into account the need versus imposition, as the presence of breasts on someone who claims the place of masculinity challenges the gender barrier, which would make this identity intelligible.

In contrast, the doll on the left (Figure 3) has a sad expression, with a broken heart and tears falling. The participant who created it arrived at the workshop with a downcast demeanor, introspective, showing little interaction with the group. However, they remained engaged in their creation from beginning to end, investing time and creativity into it. They explained during the discussion that they do not envision a different future, as there are many barriers that make their existence difficult. They reported abandonment and family neglect, being expelled from the domestic space and consequently seeking other ways to survive from a very young age, the instability in their support network, and the difficulty of asserting themselves in situations of violence, leading to physical and mental illness.

It is important to highlight how the workshop was empowering for the participants, considering the exchange of experiences, sharing stories, allowing socialization among peers, and the creation of bonds based on the similarities presented and perceived. The workshops became, beyond a space for creation, an environment marked by the practice of care among trans people, with the construction of a support network and the strengthening of individuals and the collective.

A recurring element during the workshops was the welcoming of all the issues raised, as dialogue appeared to be the most instinctive way of confronting them. One can observe the collective and individual interdependence relationship that the workshop enables, as the process is individual, but the activity becomes a mediating resource for strengthening the participants (Lopes et al., 2014). Experiencing the activity alongside the critical reflective process of the workshop enhances the participants' awareness of the issues addressed, through problematization.

During the workshops, a challenge was to think about the operationalization of the desire for change, seeking ways to confront situations of oppression. Some strategies that emerged from the discussions throughout the activities workshops were changes in both micro and macrosocial contexts. In this sense, the creation and implementation of social policies, guaranteed by the state, and policies for access and permanence in public universities were mentioned – although the most important and urgent challenge is the resistance of these people in spaces where they are marginalized and excluded, which highlights the need to think not only about access strategies but also about strategies for permanence.

The third workshop, the Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 2011) (Figure 4), addressed issues related to social inclusion. This workshop consisted of two theatrical activities prior to the Theatre of the Oppressed technique. One of the exercises involved telling a story randomly drawn from a box (image on the left) using only the body and interaction with the environment, without employing spoken language. Some participants reported difficulty in creating the story without being able to communicate verbally with the audience. However, the challenge was precisely to use creativity and improvisation, exploring other ways to communicate with the audience that were not verbal, allowing for numerous interpretations by the spectators.

Figure 4
Workshop 3: Dynamics of the Theater of the Oppressed. Source: Own authorship.

The dynamic of the Forum Theatre, part of the Theatre of the Oppressed, involves creating scenes with everyday situations composed of the oppressor and the oppressed, requiring the resolution of the scene’s problem: the oppression situation.

During the game technique, the participants interacted with each other and sought solutions for the scene's problems, questioning the imposed power structures and articulating communication with other sectors of society, such as the State, institutions, and public figures, like the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office. This echoes the debates developed in previous workshops. In the dynamic, topics such as disrespect for social names, exclusion, and difficulty accessing public spaces (and) leisure, gender dysphoria, and other everyday situations were raised again. The participants who were spectators during the presentations influenced the scene and could enter it to modify or resolve it, as the resolution of the oppression situation was necessary at the conclusion.

Due to the sensitive topics present in the participants' daily lives, some scenes caused discomfort and a feeling of outrage. Through this outrage, a space for questioning and demands was created, as they realized that these marginalizing situations had become normalized in their daily lives. However, through the theatrical dynamic, the young people questioned these barriers that made their daily lives difficult and were able to think collectively about possible strategies for change.

The dynamic of the Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 2011) aligns with the social therapeutic-occupational conduct, in the sense of presenting spaces for critical elaboration about the lived reality and the mechanisms of oppression under which it operates, as well as discussing belonging and sharing strategies and reflections, pointing towards facing the situations of marginalization, in search of understanding the mechanisms that create their daily lives in essence (Farias & Lopes, 2022), using indignation to provoke structural changes, aiming for freedom.

A central point of this experience was how the network built among the participants facilitated the breaking of the restricted space of the workshop, an aspect central to thinking about the praxis of social occupational therapy. Additionally, the bond created among the participants during the activities allowed a support and care network to be established. At the end of the workshops, the group organized a meeting at the Parque da Cidade, a space for socializing and leisure, where the young people brought activities such as games, a ball, and proposed a collective snack. In this final meeting and gathering, two people who did not participate in the workshops joined the others. Unlike the workshops, the content of the meeting consisted of free socialization among participants, through leisure activities such as card games, board games, communication among the young people, and other shared activities.

Final Considerations

Through the analysis of aspects of everyday life shared by the participants, several demands were identified, including barriers to accessing goods and services, especially public ones, fragilities and/or ruptures in support networks, a lack of social policies that directly address their needs, and the many daily situations that hinder the existence of trans people in various spaces of circulation.

Social occupational therapy, through its proposals, supported an approach that helps individuals expand their repertoire of possibilities through critical and reflective engagement. In trans experiences, such engagement is essential, given the challenges involved in having their status as subjects, and consequently as citizens, recognized. In this sense, based on the experience presented, it is possible to affirm the potential of activity-based workshops as a methodology that fosters social exchange and the unveiling of broader social dynamics that shape the impact of inequalities experienced in daily life. Therefore, these workshops went beyond the concept of using activity as a form of intervention, toward understanding the urgency of collectivity as a practice of resistance and confrontation of oppressive situations, by providing a space for encounter, coexistence, dialogue, and critical reflection. We argue that this can support the development of social participation strategies with and for trans people.

Thus, there is a need for further knowledge production and practices with trans individuals, in order to understand their realities through the lens of everyday life and to propose responses and resistance strategies to the current hegemonic and exclusionary logic. We also emphasize the importance of developing practices involving this population during professional training processes, not only to raise awareness among students regarding the multiple forms of experience that fall outside gender norms, but also to foster an understanding of how these experiences impact everyday life.

• 1
  We start from the understanding of everyday life, as defended by Francisco (1988) and Galheigo (2020) when pointing out the need for it to be understood as a socio-historical construction that translates into the concreteness of life in its multiple manifestations. In this sense, such a conception is distinct from the notion of routine, and is therefore associated with transformative human practice.
• 2
  “Heteronormativity expresses the expectations, demands and social obligations that derive from the assumption of heterosexuality as natural [...]” (Miskolci, 2009, p. 157).
• 3
  The Núcleo Metuia Cerrado, of Universidade de Brasília – Faculdade da Ceilândia, is part of the Metuia Network – Social Occupational Therapy, which refers to the teaching, research and extension group in social occupational therapy, formed since 1998.
• 4
  The Espaço Cultural Renato Russo is a public and multiple cultural center that brings together diverse cultural manifestations and is located in Plano Piloto, in the Federal District.
• 5
  Passability, according to Duque (2017), corresponds to an emic term that indicates the ability of a subject to “pass as”. It is based on the assumption of intelligibility of binary genders, but is not restricted to subjects considered dissident, given that we are educated to perform the trajectories, mannerisms and paths of what is socially accepted as being a woman or being a man, and this point is also present in the face of those who were born and identify/recognize with their assigned gender.
• 6
  Social markers of difference refer to a key to understanding social hierarchies and inequalities that are constructed based on difference. This perspective understands the subject as a being socially and culturally constituted in discursive plots, in which gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, nationality, generation, among others, are placed as elements of great relevance for understanding the constitutive dynamics of social inequalities, both from the point of view of the configuration of social classification systems and the constitution of collective bodies and identities (Mello & Gonçalves, 2010; Melo et al., 2020).
• 7
  It is important to mention that, if, on the one hand, passability also needs to be tensioned, considering that it reinforces the social gears that question subjects, on a daily basis, regarding the coherence between sex, gender and desire (Duque, 2017; Butler, 2003), on the other hand, in different contexts, it is through it that some negotiations are possible (Carvalho, 2015), especially in the context of circulation in public space and the construction and maintenance of social relations (Melo, 2021).
• 8
  Hormone therapy is a hormone treatment that, for the purposes of healthcare for trans people, is used to stimulate the appearance of sexual characteristics compatible with the gender of identification. Thus, hormone therapy, as it is also called, can be feminizing (for trans women) or masculinizing (for trans men). It is currently provided by the Unified Health System (SUS) as part of gender transition.
• 9
  From a Goffmanian perspective, stigma refers to a linguistic interpretation of attributes, behaviors or social reputations that show disbelief based on a negative stereotype, which causes an individual to be categorized by another with rejection and conceptions of abnormality (Goffman, 1997).
• 10
  Surgery to remove mammary glands, performed on trans men (Brasil, 2013).
• How to cite:
  Lima, E. K. B., Barreiro, R. G., Melo, K. M. M., & Farias, M. N. (2025). Workshops of activities, dynamics and projects with trans people: social occupational therapy actions. Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional, 33, e3927. https://doi.org/10.1590/2526-8910.ctoRE402539272

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Edited by

• Section editor
  Profa. Dra. Marta Carvalho de Almeida

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  20 June 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  21 Aug 2024
• Reviewed
  29 Jan 2025
• Accepted
  28 Mar 2025