Course Description:
Historically, this is a pivotal time for psychoanalysis to re-tool itself to offer both comprehension and best care of children and youth who experience and express themselves outside our normative gender structures, either by declaring that they are not the gender that matches the sex designated to them at birth or not amenable to performing their gender within the socially prescribed norms for their stated gender, or both. Dr. Ehrensaft will present the interdisciplinary gender affirmative model of care developed collectively by experts at four major U.S. pediatric gender clinics, including UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where she is Director of Mental Health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center.
Using clinical material from clinic patients as well as presentation of case material from her private practice, the goal of this course is to demonstrate how the tools of psychoanalysis can be linked to the rubrics of the gender affirmative model to provide optimal care for gender expansive and transgender individuals, with a particular focus on children and their families.Opportunity will be provided for participants to discuss experiences in their own clinical practices, as well as to critique the gender affirmative model as to its potential strengths and weaknesses in providing in-depth psychoanalytically informed treatment of children, youth, and young adults.
Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D.is a developmental and clinical psychologist, associate professor of Pediatrics at University of California San Francisco, and Director of Mental Health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.She specializes in research, clinical work, training, and consultation related to gender expansive children, and publishes and lectures both nationally and internationally on this topic. Dr. Ehrensaft is presentlyco-investigator in a four-site NIH grant studying the effects of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones in gender expansive and transgender youth and principal investigator in a companion four-site grant studying the psychological experiences of prepubertal gender expansive children.She is co-editor with Dr. Colt Keo-Meier ofThe Gender Affirmative Model, andauthor ofThe Gender Creative Child; Gender Born, Gender Made; Mommies, Daddies, Donors, Surrogates; Building a Home Within(co-edited with Toni Heineman);Spoiling Childhood;Parenting Together.Dr. Ehrensaft received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has served on the faculty of UCSF, University of California, Berkeley, The Wright Institute Berkeley, Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, and Access Institute San Francisco.She is a member of WPATH and a chapter work group member for the WPATH Standards of Care Version 8 and also on the Board of Directors of Gender Spectrum, an organization providing education, advocacy, and support to families, schools, and community to build gender inclusivity. Dr. Ehrensaft is also a founding member, advisory board member, and senior clinician of A Home Within, a national organization offer pro-bono psychotherapy and serving the emotional needs of children and youth in foster care.
Learning Objectives:After this presentation, participants will be able to:
1.Develop skills in identifying areas of psychoanalytic theory or practice that are potentially harmful to gender expansive children and youth
2.Apply the concept of relational mirroring as used in therapeutic encounters with gender expansive children and youth
3.Integrate Irene Fast’s concept of gender inclusivity into analytic treatment of children exploring gender diverse pathways
Time
Friday, 12:15-1:45 pm
Credit Hours awarded
1.5 per session, CFPS will require Evaluation Submission for the Study Group Series in exchange for a CME Certificate.
Child Study Group Registration Fee - $25 - Visiting Teacher Session
The Child Study Group will require a registration and a continuing education fee for non-CFPS Child Candidates and Trainees.CFPS Candidates and Trainees will be invoiced for Child Study Group as part of tuition.