IN-PERSON-Gender-Affirming Therapy: Adolescents, Hormones, & Managing Expectations


IN PERSON-Friday, April 4, 2025, 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
-$219 including CEUs

Gender-Affirming Therapy: Adolescents, Hormones, & Managing Expectations
Jeremy J. Darling, LMHC

Teenagers who identify as transgender/gender-diverse are twice as likely to consider suicide as their cisgender peers and having access to affirming and supportive adults reduces suicidality in the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, many trans teens struggle to find a safe space to process their own questions and doubts about seeking medical transition steps where they are supported holistically and do not feel as though they are being talked into avoiding medical transitioning at baseline. This training is designed to help any therapist, educator, or advocate to address misconceptions about gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), reduce fears parents may have for their adolescents to begin transitioning based in propaganda, and develop a language of affirmation that holds space for the complicated realities of what teenagers (and questioning adults) may bring to sessions when in the discernment process to begin GAHT.

Following this training the participants will understand:

  • Why providing gender-affirming therapy is suicide prevention       
  • The role of puberty blockers and what risks exist with their use
  • The permanent and semi-permanent effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy 
  • Language used and advocated by Fenway, WPATH, and USPATH in providing care for gender diverse individuals      

Jeremy Darling is a certified sex therapist and licensed mental health counselor with over 10 years of experience working with gender diverse folks at all stages of transitioning. His work is strongly influenced by a humanistic, transcultural lens that prides itself in evaluating the intersections of the micro, mezzo, and macro worlds that clients struggle to balance and understand. He hopes that through his advocacy and trainings more therapists are able to meet the needs of the gender-expansive population and advocate for care at all stages for which our most vulnerable need support.

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