Raising the quality of care for youth gender dysphoria. Training and supporting clinicians to deliver developmentally sound mental health care.
Joined December 2021
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We’re excited to announce that Therapy First President @paulgarciaryan will serve as Guest Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, overseeing a Research Topic titled “Navigating Identity Today: Developmental and Sociocultural Dimensions of Gender Dysphoria in Youth.”
📮The call for submissions is now open, and we invite clinicians and researchers to consider submitting a manuscript.
📚 THE RESEARCH TOPIC
This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of the intersections between adolescent identity development and youth gender dysphoria in the 21st century.
It seeks to examine how developmental and psychological processes intersect with contemporary sociocultural contexts in relation to identity formation and gender dysphoria in youth.
Contributions may examine how identity and gender dysphoria develop and acquire meaning within the lives of individual youth, the factors associated with different developmental trajectories and mental health outcomes, and how a fuller understanding of adolescent development can inform clinical assessment, psychotherapy, and gender-related care.
➡️ If you'd like to contribute, please email [email protected] to receive more detailed information about this collection and explore all options available.
@FrontiersIn
NEW: Therapy First president @paulgarciaryan joins @ryancvet on the Ryan Vet Show to discuss why therapists may disagree less than we think on clinical care provided to youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
Drawing on both his personal experience with transition and detransition, and his clinical work as a child and adolescent psychotherapist, Paul discusses the shift from a mental health model to a medical model of care, the ways language and polarization create an illusion of opposing sides in the mental health field, and how social media and digital technology is impacting adolescent identity development.
Watch the full interview: youtu.be/TTRyATk3Fu4?si=NE39…
Therapy First board member SASHA AYAD was interviewed this week on RaQuel Hopkins' podcast, CapacityConvos.
RaQuel and Sasha discuss the evolution of gender-related care in mental health for youth and why the psychotherapy profession has at times lost touch with clinical curiosity when working with this population.
Find the episode here:
youtu.be/ChjVojiZRz4?si=CLY6…
We’re delighted to welcome @KarnacBooks as an official sponsor of Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding? 📚✨
Founded in 1950, Karnac Books is the world's leading independent psychoanalytic and psychotherapy bookseller and publisher. Over more than 75 years, they have become an iconic presence in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
We’re honored to have their support.
Next month, Therapy First will bring together mental health clinicians from diverse perspectives working with young people experiencing gender dysphoria to explore clinical common ground amid a rapidly changing cultural and clinical landscape.
The conference is sponsored by @FrontiersIn, one of the world’s largest and most impactful research publishers, publishing more than 200 peer-reviewed journals, including Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Read the full press release on our website:
therapyfirst.org/press/thera…
Next month, Therapy First’s conference will foster much-needed, substantive clinical dialogue about what professionally and culturally competent psychotherapy with young people today requires of clinicians.
🗓️ New York City, October 17-18, 2026.
Learn more and apply to attend "Identities in the Therapy Room: What is Unfolding?" here:
tinyurl.com/TherapyFirstConf…
The environmental context is inseparable from clinical work.
Contemporary identity development is complex, shaped by culture, technology, peer relationships, and the broader social environment.
This understanding plays a crucial role in informing clinical formulation for clinicians working with youth today.
Therapy First retweeted
Grateful to Frontiers for sponsoring Therapy First’s inaugural conference. We’re looking forward to much needed, substantive clinical dialogue next month on what professionally and culturally competent psychotherapy with youth today requires of clinicians.
Therapy First’s inaugural conference, Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding?, is sponsored by @FrontiersIn, one of the world’s largest and most impactful research publishers.
Therapy First’s inaugural conference, Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding?, is sponsored by @FrontiersIn, one of the world’s largest and most impactful research publishers.
Interested in becoming a sponsor? You can view our Sponsorship Guide by clicking the link below:
therapyfirst.org/wp-content/…
How a clinician engages with a young patient at the beginning of therapy matters. It can either open up the process or narrow the scope of what’s possible.
👥 Therapy First President Paul Garcia-Ryan in conversation with psychologist Patricia Constantinian
Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding?
October 17-18, New York City
therapyfirst.org/conference
Young people today are coming of age in a particularly difficult time, navigating uncertainty about their lives, their futures, and the world around them alongside the already complex developmental work of adolescence.
For therapists, understanding this broader context can be an important part of cultural and professional competency when working with the lived realities of youth today.
Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding?
October 17-18, New York City
therapyfirst.org/conference
The support and professional input of colleagues is essential to working with young people experiencing gender dysphoria.
This October, join us in New York City and be part of an important professional dialogue.
➡️ Identities in the Therapy Room: What is Unfolding?
🗓️ October 17-18, New York City
🔗 Learn more and apply to attend:
therapyfirst.org/conference/
Clinical training on youth gender dysphoria and identity development has too often flattened complexity and created a sense of certainty that doesn't track with what clinicians actually navigate in the therapy room.
Paul Garcia-Ryan and Sasha Ayad recently discussed how Therapy First trains clinicians to stay curious, think carefully and deeply, and tolerate uncertainty.
You can watch Sasha and Paul's discussion here ⬇️
instagram.com/reel/DcjxJNiCv…
And if you'd like to be part of the unfolding conversation, join us at our inaugural conference, Identities in the Therapy Room: What is Unfolding?
🗓️ October 17-18, New York City
Click below to learn more and apply to attend.
therapyfirst.org/conference/