Welcome to GETA
Gender Exploratory Therapy Association
A psychological approach to psychological distress.
We are here because those who are exploring gender identity or struggling with their biological sex should have access to therapists who will provide thoughtful care without pushing an ideological or political agenda.
We believe that skilled, ethical exploratory therapy is appropriate for those with gender dysphoria, their families, and detransitioners.
The purest form of listening is to listen without memory or desire.
~Wilfred Bion
Start Here
The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA) exists because we see a great need arising from the current narrow framing of Gender and Gender Identity in the field of mental health and in the culture more broadly.
Clinicians
GETA is an association of therapists who believe that individuals experiencing gender-related concerns ought to be treated using a whole person approach.
Clients & Families
If you or someone you care about is suffering from gender-related distress, we offer compassionate and evidence-based resources.
Detransitioners
We offer resources and information for those who have reversed a social or medical gender transition, including referrals for therapists experienced in working with detransitioners.
Join GETA
Membership of GETA doesn’t just give you the opportunity to be listed as a gender exploratory therapist.
It also allows you to join our community of practitioners, where you can share resources, exchange ideas and build relationships.
Featured Webinar
Transference and Countertransference Issues with Gender Dysphoric Patients
Robert Withers
Friday, June 23, 11 am est
The experience of gender dysphoria- a painful discrepancy between a person’s biological sex and their internal gendered sense of identity- can occur in a wide variety of clients. These range from teenagers anxious about the bodily changes of puberty and their emerging sexuality, to adults with a profound life-long unease with their sexed body. Degrees of mental health co-morbidity can also vary greatly. So, it is difficult to generalise about the transference and countertransference dynamics in gender dysphoria. Each person, and each therapeutic relationship is unique. Nevertheless, it may be possible to identify some common dynamics.
Gender dysphoria can be a symptom of underlying issues such as dissociated trauma carried unconsciously in the body, sexual attraction that is defended against, or other dysregulated affects that a person experiences bodily rather than emotionally, perhaps because of some kind of neurodiversity. In such cases, taking an affirmative stance towards a person’s gender identity can create the illusion of a positive transference and countertransference. But this amounts to a collusion to avoid tackling these underlying issues by wrongly regarding the body as a problem requiring medical treatment.
Engaging with dysregulated affects, dissociated trauma and unwanted sexual feelings can be a painful process for both client and therapist, giving rise to resistance and negative transference and countertransference. In this workshop Bob Withers will be exploring ways of working with these dynamics. He will be drawing on Donald Winnicott’s famous (1949) paper ‘Hate in the Countertransference’ as well as his own (2020) paper Transgender Medicalization’.
Bob Withers is a Jungian Analyst, writer and lecturer, who works at the Rock Clinic; a community based psychotherapy clinic in Brighton England which he co-founded in 1990.
GETA provides a range of trainings for mental health clinicians working with young people who are questioning their identity.
Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul. Not theories, but your own creative individuality alone must decide.
~C. G. Jung
Latest Articles
How listening to detransitioners can help improve gender-related healthcare services for all
by Stefan, a GETA member. Stefan's substack can be found here. Detransitioners have the dubious honour of being a minority within a minority. Trans people make up only about 1-2% of the general population in countries like Canada — the most recent census identified...
How listening to detransitioners can help improve gender-related healthcare services for all
by Stefan, a GETA member. Stefan's substack can be found here. Detransitioners have the dubious honour of being a minority within a minority. Trans people make up only about 1-2% of the general population in countries like Canada — the most recent census identified...
GETA Submits a Comment on Title IX Rule Making
Earlier this year, the US Department of Education sought to clarify the 1972 statute known as Title IX that stipulates that educational institutions receiving Federal funding need to eliminate discrimination of the basis of sex. The proposed rules broaden the scope of...
Find a Therapist
Our goal is to help prospective clients connect with therapists who agree with the tenets of the GETA membership statement.
You can find out more about individual practices by clicking on the profile.
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