011 | Cancelled for Gender Critical Beliefs | James Esses

James Esses is a former criminal barrister who also volunteered for 5 years at childline before deciding to undertake a masters in Psychotherapy and founder of Thoughtful Therapists - shortly after being given permission during to start his own clinic he was dismissed from the course without notice for gender critical beliefs which became prominent due to a petition looking to safeguard explorative therapies for children as they related to gender dysphoria. After being dismissed from the course he was subsequently let go from child line as well. 

The focus of this episode is on opening up a dialogue around transitioning and allowing people to understand all aspects surrounding it due to many people being afraid to further explore a person's desire to transition due to fear of being labelled a bigot or transphobic, as well as the Unknown factors around childhood transitioning due to no long term data or studies around the usage of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. 

As always relevant articles are linked at the bottom of the description however, If you want to support James in his battle against the university due to the unfair dismissal - this case isn't just about James - it is also about protecting free speech and prevent people from being punished for freedom of speech, thought and expression and as James puts it - especially when the goal is to protect children. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/expelled-university-free-speech/
 (also linked below)
01:20 Intro
03:18 What was it that got you barred from the Masters in psychotherapy?
04:40 What was the general idea behind the petition? 
05:40 Internationally, therapists are scared to work with those suffering from gender dysphoria
07:26 Are there more affirming therapists due to the current social/political climate surrounding gender identity?
09:14 What is the job of a Psychotherapist then? 
14:04 What happens to young people who aren't medically transitioned? What does the evidence say?
15:48 Long term effects of puberty blockers? 
18:26 Transitioning still has high suicide rates for adults & children 
20:04 Are we exploring all options prior to transitioning for children? Is it appropriate?
22:52 Experimentation of John Money 
25:22 Are we regressing to stereotypes?
28:28 Impacts of detransitioning? 
34:26 Social pressure for people to transition
39:50 Power of language
41:50 What is Gender Identity
44:45 Power of pronouns
46:15 How can we truly support & help people with gender dysphoria?
54:30 What can people expect if they speak out?

Thoughtful Therapists
https://thoughtfultherapists.org/

James' crowd justice page if you wish to donate & help towards the legal case
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/expelled-university-free-speech/

Queen speech
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/queens-speech-2022
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/10/the-queens-speech-2022-what-was-in-it-and-what-it-means

Medical transitioning doesn't seem to improve mental health outcomes - correction of an earlier published paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.1778correction

Puberty blockers do not seem to provide significant psychological benefit
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01743-6

Co morbidities in those with Gender Dysphoria
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5841333/

Long term follow up of those who underwent gender reassignment
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885
Small video on the case of David Reimer (the John Money experiment)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfeGf4Ei7F0&ab_channel=PsychED

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