Setting up a specialist psychotherapy service for gender identity disorders

Although many clinicians are familiar with trans­ gender individuals and the physical treatments available to them, many will be unfamiliar with the psychological treatment options available for other gender identity disorders. Eden and colleagues have detailed the role of the gender specialist when offering assessment and physical treatments in the forms of hormone therapy and surgery to transgender patients (this issue: Eden 2012; Wylie 2012). In this article I outline the specialist adaptation of psychotherapy as a treatment for people with gender identity disorders that do not neatly fit into a transsexual diagnosis or for whom physical sex (gender) reassignment is not a suitable option. The recommendations here are based on findings from a specialist psychotherapy service for patients with gender identity disorders that operates in the UK within the National Health Service (NHS).