Clinical controversies in supporting gender diverse clients

Presenter: Dr James Morandini

What do we know, and don’t know, regarding the clinical management of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents?

Gender dysphoria (GD) refers to distress and/or impairment due to perceived incongruence between one’s birth-assigned-sex and one’s gender identity (one’s sense of being a man, a woman, neither, or somewhere in between).

Nationally representative samples find that about 1 in every 250 individuals are transgender, with the number of individuals reporting transgender experience increasing dramatically in recent years, particularly among adolescents and young adults. As a result, generalist mental health clinicians are increasingly seeing clients reporting GD – and are looking for best-practice guidelines on how to support such clients.

At present, there is surprisingly little empirical data on how best to support gender dysphoric children and adolescents. This is made more difficult by the fact that GD is not one thing – but rather appears to comprise a number of etiologically and phenomenologically distinct types – with their own characteristic challenges.

This pub discussion will highlight what we know and what we don’t know regarding the clinical management of GD in children and adolescents – orienting researchers to relevant literature and resources – which will inform evidence based (and ethical) practice with gender diverse clients. We will discuss gender affirming approaches to childhood GD, controversy regarding the desistance versus persistence of childhood GD and related clinical challenges, and the shifting demographics of GD referrals.

A pub discussion is a relaxed opportunity to observe a presentation on an interesting topic related to cognitive behavioural therapy. There are opportunities for the willing to engage in a discussion relating to the topic towards the end of the presentation.

Registration 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start.

Non-members can join now and have free entry, plus all the other advantages of AACBT Membership!