Health & Fitness
**Gender: A Wider Lens**

In this podcast, now in its fourth year, therapists Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad take a deep dive into the psychological and cultural forces impacting the social changes around “gender.” Through interviews with researchers, doctors, therapists, parents, detransitioners, and others, Sasha and Stella’s podcast is a “must listen” for anyone trying to navigate the current gender landscape. With their sharp analytical minds and deep compassionate hearts, Stella and Sasha have also become known throughout many parent networks as lighthouses in the midst of some very stormy seas. Previous guests include Helen Joyce, Jesse Singal, Leor Sapir, Kathleen Stock, Jamie Reed, Peter Boghossian and more.

www.widerlenspod.com

Latest Episodes:

111 — Affirmation Therapy: Necessary, But Not Sufficient Apr 21, 2023

Show notes

Until recently in many parts of Europe, and currently in the United States and Canada, the affirmative model of care is the primary practice in place for working with gender-nonconforming and gender-diverse youth and children. In this episode, Stella and Sasha put some intention into a deeper exploration of what affirmation therapy is exactly. They take time flushing out not just what it is but also facilitate consideration of what it means and what it achieves. Together they reflect on where the concept of affirming therapy came from, how it evolved into its current practice, when a clinician follows the affirmation model, how does that look in practice, and what are the implications?

Sasha and Stella also explore varying types of therapy, both similar to and in contrast to the fundamental premise of the affirmative approach, what they think about it, and does it actually offer any context for a comprehensive therapeutic process in the name of care?

Links:

Gender: A Wider Lens (YouTube Channel)

Live Stream Event from the Genspect Conference: The Bigger Picture

Friday, April 28, 2023 at 11am(PT) / 2pm(ET) / 7pm(IT)

https://www.youtube.com/@widerlenspod

*NEW* Sponsor – GETA

Gender Exploratory Therapy Association

https://www.genderexploratory.com/

GETA Workshop: Gender Trouble, Authoritarianism, and the Flight from Womanhood

Saturday, April 22, 2023 — 6 pm‒7:30 pm(ET)

https://www.genderexploratory.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GETA-Ilene-Philipson-Flyer-April-2023-3-2.pdf

Sasha’s YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@SashaLPC

Genspect Conference: The Bigger Picture

https://genspect1.telltix.com/events/genspect1/845845/r/genspect-banner

Stella’s Book:What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You

http://www.stellaomalley.com/whatyourteenistryingtotellyou

Stella on Benjamin Boyce w/ Eliza Mondegreen

The Dangerous Radicalization of Gender Rhetoric | with Stella O’Malley & Eliza Mondegreen

https://youtu.be/63-bfpx2yy0

Critical Therapy Antidote (CTA) book, Sasha & Stella contributing authors

Cynical Therapies: Perspectives on the Antitherapeutic Nature of Critical Social Justice

https://www.amazon.com/Cynical-Therapies-Perspectives-Antitherapeutic-Critical

Carl Rogers: Founder Of The Humanistic Approach To Psychology

https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html

APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

Premium: Explaining to Others the Difference Between Acceptance and Affirmation Apr 14, 2023

Show notes

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

110 — Pathologizing Normal: The Lure of Identity Labels & Diagnoses Apr 14, 2023

Show notes

It seems like, in Western culture at least, we went from a place where, years ago, mental health issues were never talked about and often dismissed or hushed, to a place today, where it’s so ubiquitous to talk about mental health. And while it’s important that mental health is de-stigmatized, and a good thing that it’s been relatively de-pathologized, in many ways, it has shifted into some kind of identity marker, almost like a sense of identity for people. Mental health categories are becoming a way for people to seek and find meaning about who they are as a person. But this can be dangerous in that people are so much more than just the labels affiliated with their mental health.

With the growing absence of religious and national identities, other identities have come into place in extraordinary ways. In this episode, Sasha and Stella explore society’s evolving tendency to rush to medicalize for quick and radical fixes for generally normal experiences. They discuss obsession with identity labels, the desperate pathologizing of normal distress, medication seeking, and relentless pursuit of the external solution for an internal problem.

Please note this episode was recorded before the release of Stella’s book (which she speaks about being released “soon”). The link for where you can find her book is included below. This episode was also recorded before Detrans Awareness Day 2023 took place, but was released after the events referenced in the episode. Please visit https://youtu.be/my5o0B9H4Tw to watch the replay of the entire 2023 Detrans Awareness Day webinar event.

Links:

Genspect’s School Policy Guide: Establishing expectations for how schools can best support students with gender dysphoria, who are gender-questioning, who are gender non-conforming or identify as transgender

https://genspect.org/comprehensive-gender-identity-school-policy-usa/

The Five Ecological Systems

https://www.simplypsychology.org/Bronfenbrenner.html

Interview with Allen Frances, MD:

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/05/conversations-critical-psychiatry-allen-frances-md/

Stella’s Latest Book — What Your Teen Is Trying To Tell You

https://geni.us/whatyourteen

Detrans Awareness Day Website

www.detransawareness.org

2023 Detrans Awareness Day Webinar Recording

https://youtu.be/my5o0B9H4Tw

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

Premium: Is This the First Sign My Son is Going Down the Road of Being Transgender? Apr 07, 2023

Show notes

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

109 — What If We Are All Wrong: A Mother’s Regret with Rose Apr 07, 2023

Show notes

This episode is a powerful and important conversation exposing the increasingly devastating impact of the conflation between gender identity theory and the experience of living with gender dysphoria.

In this episode, Sasha & Stella speak with Rose who wishes to remain anonymous. Rose is the mother of two young sons and lives in the United States. In August of 2022, she published the piece “True Believer” on the Parents with Inconvenient Truths around Trans (PITT) Substack. She wrote “True Believer” to share her story and help other parents and concerned adults who are struggling to understand the dynamics underneath the current phenomenon of transgender children. Rose’s first-hand perspective is unique in that she and her partner were "affirming parents" — they thought their four-year-old son could be transgender and chose to socially transition him, only to realize they were wrong.

Rose’s story is incredibly important because, at its core, it’s a simple case of the best of intentions garnering devastating impact. This is a humanized account of the pain, distress, confusion, fear, and regret that so many families are facing in the wake of doing what (“experts” told them) was best for their child.

If you liked this episode, more episodes you might find interesting:

“1 — Trans: Identity vs Dysphoria”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

Premium: How Do We Push Back on Organizations and Hold Doctors Accountable? Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

108 — Genspect Vision: The Bigger Picture with Joe Burgo & Alasdair Gunn Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

Premium: Where did all of this come from? How did it come up? (Listener Q+A) Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

A parent writes in seeking helping with figuring out where their son’s gender confusion originated. Sasha and Stella dig into the reality that often there is not “one big reason” or a single “smoking gun.”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com

107 — What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

Premium: I think my kid is secretly binding (Q+A) Mar 17, 2023

Show notes

Sasha and Stella try to give a worried mom advice on how to speak to her teenage daughter who is displaying negative health complications that could be a result of chest binding.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com