struggles by young people, parents and facilitators
• Re-authoring a story of isolation to connection, through sharing of information, perspectives, resources and coping strategies
• Deconstructing dominant stories about transgender young people’s struggles as a transitional phase
• Parents’ shared and lived experiences, as described in Gray et al. (2016)
• Privileging and thickening subjugated stories, both of resilience and agency, as well as of pain, discrimination and isolation. The group had three main functions.
It served as a cross-generational and multi-family mutual support for families in the locality, providing a safe space to talk about gender-related issues between parents and the gender-variant adolescents. It also served as step-down care for those discharged from CAMHS, for them to provide peer support for themselves and group members who were still in CAMHS. The group functioned as a user-participation group. We invited group members to join us in our gender- variant related training and sharing with colleagues and health professionals. The core group of participants was also involved in the feedback to the service. This included the trust’s half-day patient’s experience group-sharing session and with systemic family psychotherapists at the gender-diversity-themed Eileen Jamieson Memorial workshop in 2016. Yang’s refl ection: As facilitators and CAMHS clinicians, we played key roles in the provision of specialist consultation with regard to referrals and suitability for service users receiving CAMHS, exploring and understanding the needs, struggles, and services and resources required by parents and gender-variant adolescents. I was pleasantly surprised by how the interest of colleagues grew over time and how we learnt more as we interacted more with colleagues and families. Carolyn’s refl ection: As I read Yang’s refl ection, I recall a conversation in which it was important for me, as the group facilitator, to have a thorough discussion with a colleague about opening up the possibilities for a young person’s journey discovering their gender identity. This is however not straightforward for, as cis- gender clinicians, being able to think about gender in a non-binary way is not necessarily
Context 155, February 2018
easy due to the infl uences of cultural scripts and/or lived experiences and values of gender in our own lives. Below were some key themes from the
group sessions: • A group member raised his dissatisfaction about the diff erence between the USA and UK legal age for hormone- replacement therapy. We have since found out that the diff erence is not based on legal age but diff erences in clinical judgement. The USA does not have a unifi ed healthcare system and, therefore, individual clinicians and systems may make diff erent decisions based on the client’s situation, whereas the UK has more established national protocols. In fact, most protocols in the USA also use 16 as the age for cross-sex hormones.
• The young people were keen to hear each other’s gender-transition experiences, as each was at a diff erent age and stage. Examples of this are the issue of binding, and how to bring positive aspects of self when the process the young people are involved in can make them feel low and negative at times.
• The negative impact of religious or spiritual beliefs of individuals, family, school and society and what they say (if anything) about gender identity.
• The struggles and challenges faced by the young people in school because of their gender identities, such as the use of toilet facilities and experiences of being bullied. Carolyn’s refl ection: The families who attended the group were supportive of their adolescents’ transitioning. However, we were aware there were some families who had found it diffi cult to attend the group and share their experiences. Those families might not have reached the point of fully understanding their adolescents’ gender experiences and might require more thinking outside of the group before they felt confi dent in attending. Yang’s refl ection: We were unable to accommodate families with children younger than 12 years old as we were mindful of how the discussions would not be as age- appropriate if we stretched the age range too far. I was glad, however, that younger siblings and a family with an eight-year-old child, whose mother joined the group, did have a wonderful time with the group when their meetings extended beyond CAMHS premises as part of the group’s social gathering.
Voices from the group The participants found the group a
useful space for parents and adolescents to meet one another and not feel alone or isolated; a space to learn and support one another, since they all were at the diff erent stages of transitioning. “The group really helps reduce the
isolation for me as a parent. It’s really helpful to share information and listen to the young people’s experiences. The group is non-judgemental and offers an opportunity to discuss the real issues without fear of prejudice” (a mother). The group viewed that having it in
the locality was really crucial and the meetings helped them to coordinate and link available resources and support, given they were all at diff erent stages in their gender identity journeys. “I like going to the group because every
time I go I get more courage to be proud that I am transgender and it reduces my stress and makes me happy. When we discuss the problems we face, it makes me feel better because I have the same problems and I am not the only one with difficulties” (a son). “There is bad press about transgender but I think there are good things about transgender. The support group is sort of needed and good because it gives the families support they need as well. It is a reminder that the child is going through changes and the process, but families are going through that as well. I’ve been guilty calling [my child] ‘she’ quite a bit lately, I apologise. But it’s hard for the parents and families too to adjust. You come to the meeting you can talk about it, you are not in a situation where people are going to judge you: ‘No you can’t…’ [or] ‘She is born a girl and she has to stay a girl’. It’s nice to talk about this in a relaxed, nice atmosphere” (a father). Carolyn’s refl ection: Reading this father’s quote made me think about how useful the group was with the families being at different phases of the adolescents’ gender transitions. People were coming together and were able to address different struggles, at different times and in different ways. For example, a family who had been through the experience of the adolescent’s hormone therapy was able to share lots of advice and thoughts for others who were waiting. They were also keen to be part of
gender-variant people’s voices and experiences, so that their gender
11
Multi-family support for adolescents with gender variance
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