Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023): Supporting the Trans Community in Family Therapy

As therapists we are collectively concerned with these gender-denying bills. Specifically, we are concerned with the coordinated effort to deny transgender people access to established medical care, including mental health care.

We are in a time of great ethical concern. We must each question our legal responsibilities and ethical duties and weigh them against this moment. We have discussed the past harms of psychotherapy as something to learn from, but what of this moment now? We cannot ethically withhold therapy without undercutting our professional ethics.  

We at the New England Association for Family and Systemic Therapy, the New England Journal for Relational and Systemic Practice, the South Shore Sexual Health Center and our allies actively stand against transgender hate-speech and misinformation that denies established standards of medical and mental health care. The articles in this issue discuss how our therapeutic community might respond.