Celebrate your child's true self with this parent's guide to gender identity Talking with your child about gender identity can seem overwhelming—but with the right guidance, you can have healthy conversations and create an affirming environment for them as they grow. Whether your child is cisgender, gender expansive, transgender, or still unsure, this guide provides practical advice and strategies to help you embrace them for who they are and support them as they approach puberty. Learn the basics—Refresh your knowledge on the different facets and language around gender identity and gender expression. Discover anecdotes and advice—Feel more assured approaching conversations around gender with the expert strategies and relatable stories from other parents. Cover important topics—Learn how to unravel your personal biases and maintain open communication. Create a safe and inclusive space for your child to explore themselves with The Gender Identity Guide for Parents.

"Guide for parents about how to approach a child's gender expansiveness and help their child understand and transition to a new gender identity"--

This comprehensive second edition inspires therapists to utilize clinical work to pragmatically address intersectional oppressions, lessen the burden of minority stress, and implement effective LGBTQ affirmative therapy. A unique and important contribution to LGBTQ literature, this handbook includes both new and updated chapters reflecting cutting-edge intersectional themes like race, ethnicity, polyamory, and monosexual normativity. A host of expert contributors outline the best practices in affirmative therapy, inspiring therapists to guide LGBTQ clients into deconstructing the heteronormative power imbalances that undermine LGBTQ relationships and families. There is also an increased focus on clinical application, with fresh vignettes included throughout to highlight effective treatment strategies. Couple and family therapists and clinicians working with LGBTQ clients, and those interested in implementing affirmative therapy in their practice, will find this updated handbook essential.

Identity is one of the most extensively studied constructs in the social sciences. Yet, despite the wealth of findings across many disciplines, identity researchers remain divided over such enduring fundamental questions as: What exactly is identity, and how do identity processes function? Do people have a single identity or multiple identities? Is identity individually or collectively oriented? Personally or socially constructed? Stable or constantly in flux? The Handbook of Identity Theory and Research offers the rare opportunity to address the questions and reconcile these seeming contradictions, bringing unity and clarity to a diverse and fragmented literature. This exhaustive reference work emphasizes the depth and complexity of identity processes and domains and presents perspectives from many different theoretical schools and empirical approaches. Contributing authors provide perspectives from psychology (e.g., narrative, social identity theory, neo-Eriksonian) and from other disciplines (e.g., sociology, political science, ethnic studies); and the editors highlight the links between chapters that provide complementary insights on related subjects. In addition to covering identity processes and categories that are well-known to the field, the Handbook tackles many emerging issues, including: - Identity development among adopted persons. - Identity processes in interpersonal relationships. - Effects of globalization on cultural identity. - Transgender experience and identity. - Consumer identity and shopping behavior. - Social identity processes in xenophobia and genocide. The Handbook of Identity Theory and Research lends itself to a wealth of uses by scholars, clinicians, and graduate students across many disciplines, including social, developmental, and child/school psychology; human development and family studies; sociology; cultural anthropology; gender, ethnic, and communication studies; education; and counseling.

Many parents feel uncomfortable with the thought of having ‘the talk’ with their children, especially teenagers. But what many people don’t realise is how much of sexuality education has nothing to do with sex itself. In this book, Clinical Sexologist Anisa Varasteh teaches the foundations of a comprehensive sexuality education for children and teenagers and answers the most common questions young people have about sex and sexuality. Contrary to popular belief, talking about sex and sexuality does not make young people more prone to sexual experimentation. This book provides research-based evidence for how a comprehensive sexuality education is important for children’s safety, psychological and physical wellbeing. It identifies the barriers to having open conversations with children and teenagers, and outlines methods for how to overcome them. With a focus on skills, the book addresses the building blocks of sexuality education and how to develop an environment of mutual trust, it outlines key topics for discussion and the skills that children need to develop to make healthy decisions about their sexuality. Complete with practical support, including over 20 worksheets and a comprehensive list of tough questions from teenagers – and suggestions for how to address them – this book is an essential resource for parents, carers and educators who are responsible for the health, safety and development of children and teenagers.

This accessible guide for clinicians and clinical students working in the fields of eating disorders and transgender health psychology offers useful tips, constructive case studies and reflective questions that enable readers to feel better equipped in supporting their clients' needs. The book addresses the clinical challenges a therapist may encounter, and provides advice on the key issues involved in therapeutic work with transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive clients, including trauma, minority stress, coming out, family support, appearance and body changes. This book will inspire clinicians to bridge the disconnect between the clinical criteria for eating disorders and the type of eating disorder manifesting in a client with co-occurring gender dysphoria.

A Clinician’s Guide to Gender Actualization provides an essential guide for mental health professionals working with gender diverse clients, delivering material that challenges clinicians to provide affirming specialized care for their clients. Gender actualization is the social, expressive, and existential process of becoming and integrating one’s authentic self through the context of gender identity, and this book introduces an effective clinical model for competent gender therapy care. Building upon the reader’s foundational knowledge, chapters provide useful assessment tools, interventions, and treatment strategies to implement in their clinical practice, with accompanying personal narratives and client experiences woven throughout. Challenging readers to explore intersectionality and the crucial awareness of their own privileges, this book is a critical read for providers working with or seeking to educate themselves regarding gender diverse clients.

Contemporary questions about gender challenge our views of ourselves and the proverbial other. In this meticulously researched, well-written, and illuminating guide, Vincent Gil unpacks elements involved in gender-identity conflicts and intersexuality. At the heart of the matter are real people, not just issues. Drawing on histories culled from his many years as counselor, professor, and researcher, Gil explores gender and identity, issues of conflict, and of reconciliation. He distinguishes biological and psychological elements from social issues, and addresses the current movement of gender individuation, its language idioms, and its influences on gender ideology and theology. He also provides an engaging theological discourse, filling gaps in our understanding of procreation to better inform our theology of being. The work assists Christian parents, clergy, and lay leaders by working through the tough questions. It suggests means to engage, counsel, support, and reconcile with those gender-questioning or conflicted, be they children, adolescents, or adults.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the educational experiences of students, parents, and educators—transgender and cisgender—in the context of current debates about the inclusion of transgender people in schools. Drawing on critiques of cisgenderism and emphasising the importance of a whole-of-school approach, Transgender People and Education explores complex topics including sexuality education for transgender young people, teaching about gender diversity, the journeys of cisgender parents of transgender children, the experiences of transgender parents and educators in schools, and the role of cisgender administrators, educators, and school counsellors and psychologists in creating inclusive school cultures. Reporting on empirical analyses conducted by the authors, the book makes a unique contribution to thinking about gender diversity in schools and advocates for the broadening of educational approaches beyond narrow gender binaries.

Despite our best efforts to create welcoming and affirming congregations, the reality is that church can still be a harmful place to LGBTQIA youth. Inside A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth, author Cody J. Sanders challenges pastors and church leaders to reflect on the various trials that adolescence brings for LGBTQIA youth. Designed for congregations that currently have a theologically and biblically affirming stance toward the LGBTQIA community, this unique resource provides insight and practical advice for tough questions like: How does an affirming stance toward LGBTQIA people affect the day-to-day experience of teenagers in a church setting? In what ways can a church's youth ministry have a positive impact on the lives of LGBTQIA youth who want to fully live out their Christian faith and their gender identity? How can a pastor, youth minister, or youth ministry volunteer embrace, nurture, and provide skillful care for LGBTQIA youth in a congregation or community? A glossary of terms to use when talking about LGBTQIA issues and a list of national and location resources that can be used to support LGBTQIA youth are included.