A therapist who helps teenage girls who think that they are male question their feelings, says she must keep her work secret as she is afraid she would be struck off.
Speaking anonymously to The Sunday Times, she said that guidelines issued last month tell therapists they should affirm and assist patients wishing to transition.
The expectation is that alternative treatments or diagnoses should not be explored.
‘Struck off’
She said to the newspaper: “You have a young girl who has turned up and said she is trans and at the end of working with you decides maybe she is not.
“I could now get a reputation as someone who was not sticking to the professional body’s ethical framework and that is not a position you want to be in at all… potentially struck off.”
A teenage girl she had been treating since September is now being assessed for autism, and told the therapist: “This gender stuff is seeming much less important.”
Dangerous
The therapist, who is based in Scotland, said by exploring patients’ issues fully she found many were affected by anxiety, difficult family dynamics, or concerns about ‘gender expectations’.
Sasha Ayad, founder of Inspired Teen Therapy in the US, said she was concerned by trends in the UK, and that it was dangerous to ‘rubber-stamp’ children’s passing desires and allow them to medically ‘transition’.
“I worry for these children in the UK who now won’t have the opportunity to explore gender in any other way than transition”, she added.
‘Madness’
Prominent columnist Rod Liddle also spoke out against the Government and other organisations pushing a dangerous trans agenda which harms both parents and children.
“this hideous experiment will hurt people. Will hurt parents and, most importantly, children.”
Writing for The Sunday Times, he spoke of his appearance on Question Time where, he said, he received the impression that the majority of the public do not support trans-affirming initiatives in schools.
Liddle wrote: “The country at large, I think, believes children shouldn’t be harassed from an early age about their gender identity and that it is madness to send pre-pubescent kids along the route to re-alignment.
“That having doubts about one’s gender – along with everything else – is pretty much par for the course for children, and even more so adolescents. Part of growing up.”
‘Hideous experiment’
Liddle highlighted Education Secretary Justine Greening’s plans to streamline the process of legally changing sex.
He concluded: “The public is not remotely with the supposed authorities on any of this. And this hideous experiment will hurt people. Will hurt parents and, most importantly, children.”