Mental Health Professionals Are Doing Transgender Persons a Disservice

Check out this amazing, touching and highly informative interview by Candace Owens of transgender surgery “survivor” Walt Heyer. Walt was dressed as a girl as a young boy by a disturbed grandmother, and later sexually molested by an uncle. Those issues were never addressed.

In adulthood, he experienced mood and other disturbances over these unresolved issues. In 1983, a mental health professional — at the second therapy visit — told him that he does not need psychotherapy; he needs gender assignment surgery. He was given the approval letter, and went through it, living as a woman for 8 years until he reversed course. He trusted his doctor. He’s now in his 70s and his story is one that all mental health professionals should hear.

It’s not about politics. It’s not about what’s culturally acceptable. It’s certainly not about what intellectually dishonest and coercive-minded people in SJW movements and the federal government want to force us to say, do or think. It’s about what’s best for the mental health patient or client. They’re entitled to get both sides of the story, at the very least.

As a psychotherapist since 1988 myself, I would never advise a client to take such a step without investigating all sides. Of course, in a free country, you’re allowed (as an adult) to alter your body in any way you wish. But you should know all the facts. You should know about “comorbidity”, which is the psychiatric term for one problem manifesting as another. Walt explains how his unresolved feelings over sexual abuse manifested as “gender dysphoria”. The supposed desire to be a woman rather than a man really traced back to his grandmother’s emotional abuse and his uncle’s sexual abuse.

Transgender surgery patients experience 19 times the suicide rate of other people, according to a research review published by National Institutes of Health. An honest mental health professional or researcher would wish to investigate the reasons for this. It’s not enough to say, “Well, society is irrational and unwilling to change. That’s the whole problem”. That’s not what I see. Society is afraid to question what Candace Owens calls the “transgender lobby”. We don’t get to the truth on anything when we place a “do not enter” sign on the investigation of facts or perspectives that could lead to a different conclusion, especially on a complex subject like gender.

Walt points out that transgenderism and homosexuality are not the same thing. They’re not. Most transgender people don’t want to be gay. If they were attracted to the same sex, they could simply accept and live happily with their sexuality, as millions of gay and lesbian people have done. He says it’s bizarre, and I agree, that the transgender movement has been merged with the movement to encourage acceptance of individual rights for gays, lesbians and bisexuals. It’s not that people who consider themselves transgender should be shamed or shunned. But we should absolutely encourage honest, objective discussion and understanding of these issues. In the current climate, that’s not going to happen.

Mental health professionals do their clients a disservice if they tell them, “Let’s bypass these other issues or ways to manage your problems. Forget psychotherapy. Forget self-awareness and self-acceptance. Let’s go right to radical surgery.” It’s very controversial given the one-size-fits-all mindset that has taken over not just the psychological professions (that happened some time ago), but the entire media culture today.

Things have gone so far that you’re not allowed to question even the idea that children should be allowed to change their gender. That’s insane. Children are not allowed to make judgments about drinking alcohol, buying property, using drugs or having sex. We don’t say, “If Uncle Jack wants to have sex with seven-year-old Joey or Suzie, it’s OK as long as Joey or Suzie consent”. We don’t expect children to be responsible for making adult judgments, because none of them yet have the capacity. They’re counting on proper safety and protection from adults. If this principle applies to issues like alcohol and the age of consent, it applies to transgender surgery too. How on earth is this even a controversy?

Candace Owens offered a great analogy. She used to be a nanny. Children said the wildest things. One child insisted she was a mermaid. What if everyone had said, “Yes you are a mermaid, so let’s take you out to the lake where you can live”? It’s absurd. But that’s what passes for enlightenment and mental health these days.

If your children are getting brainwashed in a public school system that teaches only one side, I suggest following Walt’s advice: “Take them out”.

 

 

 

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