Working with trans and gender diverse children and youth and their families

Objectives:

• Participants will develop an understanding of the issues faced by, and the needs of gender diverse and trans children and youth, and their families
• Participants will develop their ability to support children, youth and their families in various environments such as schools, social services, and health settings.

Experience level: All levels

Description:

This one-day training offered in French (Wednesday 30^th October) and in English (Thursday 31^st October) is designed to initiate health, mental health and social care professionals to working with gender diverse and trans children and youth and their families from a transaffirming perspective.

Content:

This training will focus on best practices for working with gender diverse and trans children and youth, and their families, from a transaffirming perspective, and will include the following topics:

• Developmental landmarks in gender identity, gender expression;
• Social issues experienced by trans and gender diverse children and youth and their families;
• Approaching trans and gender diverse identities from a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral perspective;
• working with parents and families;
• working with schools;
• assessing needs in regard to puberty suppression, hormone treatment and surgery;
• Roles and responsibilities of professional working with gender diverse and trans children and youth, and their families.

 

 

Speaker’s bios

 

Dr. Annie Pullen Sansfaçon is a Full Professor of Social Work at the University of Montreal and the holder of the Canada Research Chair on transgender children and their families. She has published several book chapters and articles on the experience of trans youth and their families, as well as on trans-affirming practices, stressing the importance of social changes in order to ensure trans youth well-being. She is the co-author of the book “Supporting Trans and Gender Creative Youth: Schools, Families, and Communities in Action” (Peter Lang, 2014 and revised edition in 2018) and is one of the co-founders of Gender Creative Kids Canada, a Montreal-based community organization working with trans children and youth and their families.

 

Françoise Susset, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist and couple and family therapist. Her current focus is working with gender diverse children, youth and their families, and helping schools challenge notions regarding sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Françoise is responsible for the training and clinical supervision of a great number of clinicians across Canada wishing to integrate transgender health in their practice. She teaches in the McGill University M.A. program in Couple and Family therapy. Françoise is past president of the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH).

 

 

Dr. Shuvo Ghosh is one of the two Co-Directors of the Meraki Health Centre and the head of the Montréal Pediatric Gender Variance Program based at Meraki and at McGill University. He completed the majority of his education in the USA before arriving in Canada to do his fellowship in Developmental-Behavioural Pediatrics at McGill University/Montréal Children’s Hospital. After an undergraduate degree in Biology and Hispanic/Italian Linguistic Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, he obtained his medical degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School, followed by residency in Pediatrics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

 

 

Antoine Beaudoin Gentes is the project coordinator for Gender Creative Kids Canada, a Montreal-based community organization that actively support, equip and protect transgender, non-binary, gender creative children and their families. He is also the artistic supervisor of the Espace Transition program at CHU Sainte-Justine where he pursues his involvement that aims to promote the inclusion of stigmatized youth in our society. Trained as a professional actor, he co-directs the queer and feminist art collective projets hybris with whom he participates in various productions on stage and in public spaces.

 

 

Other speakers to be announced