Supporting transgender children

Supporting your child and finding a health care professional that works best for you and your family along are just some of the amazing tips that developmental and clinical psychologist Diane Ehrenhaft shares in this video.
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Supporting transgender children

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Here is a question: I have a six year old. My six year old is saying he is a girl and not a boy. What do I do to support my child? The first thing you do is listen. What you don't say is, "No, that's not true." Listen to your child. Then from there, I suggest it is very helpful to contact a community support group, read some books, educate yourself, and to find an informed and gender considerate, mental health provider that you can share your concerns with. That person will help you decide whether your child should be seen as well. You must be very careful to pick a professional who does not work from the disease model, but works from the model that goes as follows: If your child is transgender, then we will find ways to support your child the best they can be, as the gender they are.

Supporting your child and finding a health care professional that works best for you and your family along are just some of the amazing tips that developmental and clinical psychologist Diane Ehrenhaft shares in this video.

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Diane Ehrensaft, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Diane Ehrensaft, PhD is a developmental and clinical psychologist in Oakland, California. She is a parenting expert and also specializes in gender studies and psychotherapy and consultation with gender nonconforming children and their families. She is the author of Gender Born, Gender Made:  Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children; Mommies Daddies, Donors, Surrogates, Building a Home Within (co-edited with Toni Heineman), Spoiling Childhood, and Parenting Together. Dr. Ehrensaft has made many media appearances, most recently the Anderson Cooper Day show, and has presented and published both nationally and internationally on the subjects of parenting, child development, assisted reproductive technology, and children’s gender development and gender nonconformity.

Dr. Ehrensaft is the Director of Mental Health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, a University of California San Francisco-community partnership offering interdisciplinary services to gender conforming children and youth and their families, as well as the psychologist at the UCSF Gender Clinic.

She serves on the faculty of The University of California and is a founding member of A Home Within, a national non-profit organization serving the mental health needs of children and youth in foster care.

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