Practicing Radical Safety with Dr. Syd Young

In honor of Pride, all of the Well Beings News reporting (this month only) will be available to both paid and free subscribers. For the first installment of our monthly column Queer in Practice, I spoke with trainer and physical therapist Dr. Syd Young about creating radically safe health and wellness spaces by embracing and embodying the values of strong boundaries, deep compassion, and ongoing explicit consent.

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THE INTERVIEW

In a small community gym and physical therapy studio in Austin, Texas, Dr. Syd Young is redefining what it means to feel safe in a health care setting. For queer and trans clients — especially those preparing for or recovering from gender-affirming surgery — OutWellness offers a rare experience of treatment backed by trust.

Young, a nonbinary physical therapist, doesn’t shy away from naming the problem: traditional health spaces are often unwelcoming, even harmful, to marginalized people. Their solution? Radical, trauma-informed safety.

Radical safety as intentional exclusivity

That safety starts, perhaps unexpectedly, with exclusion. It starts with being unwelcoming to those who would make the space unsafe. “A big part of emotional safety is people knowing, and seeing, that if there’s a person here who is making the space unsafe, that I or another Out Wellness staff member will step in immediately and right that ship,” Young says.

It’s not a point they make lightly. In a state where trans rights are under increasing legal and cultural attack, Young is firm about protecting the most vulnerable people who walk through their door. “We have to exclude people who make this space unsafe for our most marginalized communities, which here in Texas is our trans people of color.”

Some might call this divisive. Young calls it necessary. “There’s a lot of talk like, ‘You can’t be inclusive if you’re excluding certain people,’ but here’s the thing. The people I’m excluding can go in a five-mile radius and find anything they’re looking for with little to no concern for their physical or emotional safety. Most people who come here don’t have that privilege or that luxury.”

Creating a sanctuary isn’t always comfortable work, but Young is clear about the stakes. They criticize what they see as the surface-level gestures of inclusivity that are now common in many health settings. “A lot of places now will have a little rainbow, or pronouns on their nametags, and that’s great. I’m not downplaying that at all. But in my opinion that’s talking the talk, without walking the walk.”

Walking the walk, to Young, means empowering every team member — not just leadership — to maintain boundaries on behalf of their clients. “Anyone who works in a space should have the authority to say, ‘You are making somebody unsafe. You are no longer welcome here.’ Period.”

This isn’t a philosophy confined to the margins of their practice. It’s foundational to how OutWellness operates every day, from their initial intake calls to their post-operative care to their free transmasc and transfemme group fitness classes.

“You have to do the uncomfortable thing. We need vocal allies, we need people who are in these non-queer spaces standing up for queer people. And if you’re not doing that, you’re not actually doing the work to create a safe space for us.”

Principled compassion and consent

Radical safety isn’t just about who’s not allowed. It’s about how everyone is treated once they’re in the room. That begins with compassion and consent. “The folks that are coming to me are in pain: physical, emotional, spiritual — they’re in some kind of pain or distress and they’re coming to me for help with that. So leading with empathy and compassion is super important.”

As a physical therapist, Young is acutely aware that their work can be both healing and triggering. They believe consent must be explicit and ongoing, not assumed. “Physical therapy and personal training are both very touch-based modalities. So, leading with, ‘I’m going to touch you here. This is why I’m doing it. Is that ok with you?’ and always acknowledging that there is a nonphysical way to do that if it’s not ok.”

Many practitioners, they argue, haven’t developed the necessary tools to navigate this. Young rejects the idea that physical touch is ever the only way to achieve a therapeutic outcome. “It’s a lack of skill, in my opinion, to say, ‘The only way I can do this is to touch you.’”

This is important working with any clients, but especially with queer trans folks. “We know that marginalized folks have more trauma, and we know that there are trauma responses associated with that. In order to create a safe space, we have to acknowledge that trauma and ask for consent — even if you’ve been seeing somebody for years. You don’t know what they’re going through that day, you don’t know what they’ve been through since you’ve been seeing them.”

SAFER SPACES RESOURCE

This conversation with Dr. Young inspired a new download, now available in the Resource Library! The Safer Spaces Self-Assessment Toolkit helps small clinics and solo providers audit their environment, language, and policies for LGBTQ+ client safety and affirmation, and then guides you through practicing how to maintain policies and boundaries in real life.

For Dr. Young, radical safety isn’t just a policy — it’s a practice rooted in care, shaped by lived experience, and sustained through community. At OutWellness, healing doesn’t end at physical recovery. It grows in the relationships built between clients and care providers, the boundaries that protect them, and the everyday choices to center those most at risk. In a profession that often prioritizes neutrality, Young has chosen something braver: solidarity. And in doing so, they’ve created not just a clinic, but a model for how to center those most in need.

ON BUSINESS

Where to Find Dr. Young’s Work
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You can find Dr. Syd Young at…

• their website: outwellnessatx.com/

• their Instagram: instagram.com/drsydpt

• OutWellness’ Insta: instagram.com/outwellnessatx

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