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In this book, two very experienced, former clinicians from the Tavistock Clinic (Susan and Marcus Evans) address the psychological needs of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. They argue that, at best, adolescence is a complex developmental process to negotiate. At worst, it can cause considerable mental health problems in some, full breakdowns in others. There is a brave new world to negotiate thanks to the changing body and mind of the developing adolescent and this generates enormous uncertainty (Laufer & Laufer, 1984).
When this ordinary development is complicated by questions about one's identity and gender, where a person feels they are in the wrong body and that their assigned sex at birth does not match their gender experience, adolescence becomes even more challenging. In this timely, necessary book,
Contact: Hessel Willemsen, email:
Susan and Marcus Evans provide key insights into what adequate psychotherapeutic explorations of gender dysphoria should look like, against a background of considerable legal turmoil which saw the NHS1 close the UK's only gender clinic, the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) based in the Tavistock Clinic, London, in July 2022. The NHS' recommendation has been to decentralise care and develop a regional network of providers to address the increasing number of referrals and encourage peer review of methodologies.
The book was published against the backdrop of a report commissioned by the NHS, the Cass Review, which raised concerns about the single-specialist model (the GIDS) no longer being safe, as staff were overwhelmed and under pressure to adopt an “unquestioning affirmative approach”.2 It was precisely this type of experience which led Susan Evans, a therapist in the GIDS service from 2003 to 2007, to whistle blow and share her concerns about the gender-affirmative approach more widely. Her husband, Marcus Evans, had been on the Board of the Tavistock Trust but stepped down in 20