Conversion Therapy is now going by "Gender-Exploratory Therapy"

a person with HELP on their clothing, suggesting panic from gender exploratory therapy

I messed up. I was asked if I do Gender-Exploratory Therapy. Exploring gender in a safe space? With a trusted adult? Who has no investment in the outcome and just wants to give young people a safe space to ask themselves questions? Yeah, I do that.

Whoops. Turns out, “Gender-Exploratory Therapy” doesn’t mean non-judgmental therapy where you can explore your gender.

Gender-Exploratory Therapy is conversion therapy, renamed because conversion therapy is abuse.

Wait, so exploring your gender is bad?

Exploring your gender is healthy! What isn’t healthy is assuming that you must be sick, perverted, or a bad person if you don’t connect with the gender you were assigned at birth.

Not every person who explores their gender identity is trans.

Exploring just means thinking about the way we relate to our gender and to society at large. Understanding ourselves better is always a good thing.

Gender-Exploratory Therapy is abuse

a person with tape over his mouth, suggesting silencing and abuse from gender exploratory therapy

The idea behind Gender-Exploratory Therapy is that “A psychological approach to psychological distress.” This sounds like it makes sense, but it falls apart when we start to examine it closer.

Gender-Exploratory Therapy has a goal of resolving the “psychological distress” that makes teens think they are transgender, and the resolution of the distress will result in them being cisgender.

We can’t make people stop being gay. We can’t make people stop being trans. Any “cures” can only shame them and convince them that they are an abomination.

Conversion Therapies, including Gender-Exploratory Therapy, have been widely condemned by every reputable mental health organization.

Per The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:

a person with "crying blocked" on his neck, suggesting gender exploratory therapy silences and abuses children and teens

[Conversion Therapy] interventions are provided under the false premise that homosexuality and gender diverse identities are pathological. They are not; the absence of pathology means there is no need for conversion or any other like intervention.

Further, there is evidence that “conversion therapies” increase risk of causing or exacerbating mental health conditions in the very youth they purport to treat (2-5).


Per the National Sexual Violence Resource Center:

Conversion Therapy is Sexual Violence

The actions, social context, and effects of conversion therapy overlap with the actions, social context, and effects of sexual violence.

a child hugging a mom, suggesting relief and thankfulness for letting child explore their gender with appropriate support and therapy

If you’re a parent, be informed: conversion therapy rebranded because we know it doesn’t work and is actively harmful.

If you want your child to explore their gender in a safe, non-judgmental space, connect them with a qualified therapist who specializes in gender, not someone who sees your child as sick and broken.

<3 Vered

Want more? Read about a similarly debunked idea: Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria isn’t real.

Kimberly Vered Shashoua

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