Gender Identity
Gender identity is a highly current topic currently, with many young people feeling more comfortable to think and explore their gender identity than in the past. In the past, a tenuous relationship has existed between mental health practitioners and clients presenting with gender identity issues. People have felt pathologized and misunderstood by professionals, whose approach was to try to “cure” people of their gender identity difficulties. Thankfully there has been a shift towards greater understanding of the concept of gender and gender identity. In this talk I aim to help professions take an affirming stance and open up a space for clients to explore and think about their own relationship with their assigned gender. How to work with individuals through various stages of developing their gender identity. To provide mental health professionals with greater understanding on gender identity over time and within a developmental trajectory of an individual.
HPCSA Awards 2 CEUs
This talk will be available 30 days from registration
Speaker:
Vanessa Hemp is a Clinical Psychologist who trained at Wits University. She worked at Tara Hospital with children, adolescences and their parents, on an outpatient basis, and then became Head of Department of Psychology; managing and supervising the psychological service provision throughout the hospital, including the outpatient and outreach services at Alexandra Clinic. Since leaving the hospital, Vanessa has been in private practice, focusing on adolescents, individual adult therapy and parenting. She continues to present at conferences on topics relating to children, adolescence and parenting. Addressing issues of affect regulation and assisting children, teens and their parents to manage stressful situations and overwhelming feelings has been a major focus of her work.