Welcome to therapy first

Psychotherapy as first-line treatment for gender dysphoria

We’re here to help.

The purest form of listening is to listen without memory or desire.

Wilfred Bion

Therapy First is a non-profit professional association of over 300 mental health providers worldwide who view psychotherapy as the appropriate first-line treatment for gender dysphoria.

We aim to support psychotherapists working with gender dysphoric children, adolescents, and young adults in providing high quality, evidence-based mental healthcare, and to offer public education on mental health and psychotherapy

Start here

Therapy First exists because we see a great need arising from the current oversimplification and politicalization of gender dysphoria in the field of mental health.

Therapists

Join a professional association of mental health providers who view psychosocial support and a whole person approach as the appropriate front-line treatment for gender-related concerns.

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Clients & Families

If you or someone you care about is suffering from gender-related distress, we offer compassionate and evidence-based resources and can help connect you to a mental health provider.

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Transition Regret

We offer resources and information for those who experience regret or grief related to medical transition, including therapists experienced in working with people who choose to detransition.

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Join Therapy First

Therapy First’s professional association is open to licensed mental health providers. Once you become a member, you’ll join a community of over 300 professionals worldwide who actively support one another in exchanging ideas and sharing resources.

You’ll also gain access to weekly peer supervision groups, get discounts to Therapy First webinars and trainings, and have the opportunity to list your practice on a public directory of psychotherapists.

Featured webinar

Therapy First provides a range of trainings for mental health clinicians working with young people who are questioning their identity.

Pornography and the Flight from Sexuality from a Psychodynamic Perspective

Dr. Karin Nadrowski

Monday April 8th noon EST

Living in an oversexed world, being bombarded by the media with sex and nudity, makes us numb, lets our desire vanish. We observe declining engagement in sexual activity, but also a gradual desexualisation of therapy, including psychoanalysis, as well as medical classification systems.

In this webinar we will discuss how this applies to gender dysphoria. Internet pornography, often accessed already far before puberty, distorts the sexual knowledge of youth. It aggravates sexual stereotypes, portraying males as aggressors and women as passive and degraded. It alienates both girls and boys from their phantasies of female or male sexuality and gender expression. This needs to be talked about in therapy.

At the same time, sex is disappearing from our diagnostic classification systems. For example, in the transition from ICD-10 to ICD-11 we observe the omission of chapter F66 (Disorders associated with sexual development and orientation). Additionally, we observe a reluctance to talk or research about autogynephilia in the etiology of gender dysphoria in boys and men.

From a psychodynamic perspective, both the appearance of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) and the eagerness of the medical system to accept the "born in a wrong body“ narrative have been suggested to represent new forms of hysteria. We will discuss how this framing might inform our approach to discussing dysphoria and reintegrating sexuality into therapy.

Therapy First has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider,
ACEP No. 7505. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Therapy
First is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This webinar provide 1.5 hours of CE credits.

Dr. Karin Nadrowski holds a PhD in ecology and is a clinical physician in psychiatry. She is training to become a psychiatrist and psychodynamic psychotherapist. She is also gender nonconforming, and a desister, and serves on the board of a lesbian organization in Berlin. She has recently published the article, "A New Flight from Womanhood? The Importance of Working Through Experiences Related to Exposure to Pornographic Content in Girls Affected by Gender Dysphoria“ in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2023.2276149

 

 

Download Therapy First’s free Clinical Guide for Therapists Working with Gender Questioning Youth. Developed by a team of clinicians with expertise working with gender dysphoric youth and their families, our clinical guide offers mental health providers an introduction to working with this growing population based on the latest research and a solid understanding of psychotherapeutic best practice.

Find a Therapist

We help prospective clients connect with therapists who agree with the tenets of Therapy First’s membership statement.

You can find out more about individual practices by clicking in and viewing their profile.

latest podcast from

Gender: A Wider Lens

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