Why Ethical Therapists Everywhere, Should Be Alarmed by the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA) (Repost)
Today we are going to highlight a different Substack by therapist and friend-of-the-pod Addie Kogan. In their first post, they take a deep and critical look at a group of therapists seeking to launder dangerous transphobia under the guise of nominal liberal concern. It’s both a call to be aware and a good demonstration of how polite language can hide insidious intentions:
The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association GETA, is a relatively small and fringe group of therapists, seeking to wield power as the alternative to gender affirming care and the WPATH (World Profession Association for Transgender Health) standards of care. Just this past week, Nebraska voted on a law that would require trans kids to have 5 months of “non-affirming therapy” opening the doors for Gender Exploratory Therapy as the required first step in treating gender dysphoria. As a trans person and a therapist, imagining a world where GET therapists have incredible power and say over a persons ability to transition is terrifying for trans people and for the entire therapy profession.
I’ve read GETA’s clinical guide of care including the case studies. This group is very clever at seeming reasonable and unbiased, while dropping in guidance and theories that are shocking and dehumanizing. One of the guidelines for gender dysphoria assessments includes unprovoked questions about sexual fantasies and masturbation habits(p.26)
In one disturbing case example, a teen shares that their parents confiscated their binder so they wear multiple sports bras, which makes it hard to breathe. When they went swimming they fainted and had to go to the hospital. The teen shares that their parents didn’t talk to them for days after this incident and that they struggle with shame for wanting a binder so badly. After this disclosure, the therapist wonders to themself, “Is the ‘binder’ a container for her developmental and sexual anxieties as well as an obliterator of them?” The teen has just disclosed that they experienced a medical emergency and then their parents wouldn't speak to them for days. Regardless of views about gender transition, that is a terrifying, traumatic and abusive experience and the therapist does not appear to offer any care. Instead, they retreat into psychobabble, mumbo jumbo pontificating on why the teen desires a binder. This is a prime of example of a therapist being so invested in their own theory and bias that they do not attend to the human in front of them.
Read the rest here. And please give Addie a like and subscribe, it’s worth it!
Solidarity forever.