Become Gender Informed
So You Can Help Your Child Navigate their Own Journey
Parent’s Guide to Understanding Gender Basics will teach you the basic information you need to know about the constructs of Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Gender Identity, & Gender Expression, the Impact of Socialization & Cultural Influences, Terminology, Transitions, Gender Dysphoria, Gender Noise, and the various Approaches to Treatment.
For those following the TransFamily Gender Journey Success Path, this is the first milestone of Phase 2, which is becoming Gender Informed. Completing this workshop will give you the foundation you need to move onto the next milestones of understanding gender development for your kid, your initial experiences around this, and help you get a handle on all the interventions and options for your family and your child.
Why Is This Helpful to You?
Regardless of where your kid goes with all of this, your understanding will help.
Accurate information is absolutely necessary on this journey. Your kid has likely done a ton of research, which may be spot on or totally inaccurate. More than likely it is somewhere in between. It is important that you understand what this is all about so you can help them and also gain some clarity on what next steps, if any, might look like.
What is that process of understanding gender? Well, it’s a process of unlearning what you learned earlier in life and through your culture, family, and everywhere else and relearning what gender is really all about based on current scientific knowledge and clinical experience, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
It starts with understanding the basic construct of gender as it actually exists in the world and then applying what you learn to your own family. It starts with being able to answer some basic questions:
- What is gender?
- What is sex?
- What does the science say?
- What can kids know and not know?
- What is gender dysphoria/incongruence?
- What age can kids make decisions around this?
- What role do I play in this as a parent?
- What are the best ways to help if my kid is struggling with gender?
- How do I know this is real?
- Where do I find accurate information?
After you can answer these questions, you’ll want to explore your own experiences and beliefs around gender. But that’s another course…stay tuned if you’re interested in that. Before you can unpack your own gender, you need to understand the basics outlined in this Gender Basics course.
Hello there!
I’m Dr. Shawn Giammattei the founder and CEO of the Gender Health Training Institute and the humble servant of the TransFamily Alliance.
I’m a clinical family psychologist, researcher, educator, and a gender specialist (certified by the World Association for Transgender Health) who has helped hundreds of parents like you raising transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive youth on their own gender journeys. I’m very passionate about helping parents and families in general and I’m dedicated to helping you find the clarity and confidence you need to raise a happy, well-adjusted transgender, non-binary or gender expansive child.
I want to make sure you have the most accurate, and up to date information about gender and the gender journeys you kiddo may be traveling as well as helping you understand your own journey as a parent or family with a gender expansive kid. I’ll be around as you take the course, virtually of course to answer questions that may come up. I sincerely hope this course helps you on your journey!
