Talking therapy is the only appropriate response to a trans child
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull said:
“At the very most, if a child presents like this, I think they should be taken into some sort of counseling and find out exactly what has happened, um, and, and give them sort of talking therapies and nothing more.”
Recommending talking therapy before any medical step sounds cautious and child-centred, and many parents would find it reassuring that someone is urging restraint.
Talking therapy is part of good care for a gender-questioning child, and nobody serious is arguing otherwise. The problem is framing it as the ceiling, with nothing more permitted, because that is not a cautious position, it is a restrictive one, and it does not reflect any mainstream paediatric or psychiatric guideline. Every major body in this field, from the Endocrine Society to WPATH, supports a range of responses matched to what the child actually needs, which may include social transition and, where appropriate, medical support, because the evidence consistently links affirming approaches to better mental health outcomes. Children and families who hear this and conclude that the responsible path is to withhold all support beyond counselling may not be told that the approaches this most closely resembles, where the goal is to reduce or redirect a child's gender identity, are associated in the research with real harm.
Gender-questioning children and their families, who may be denied evidence-based support and instead subjected to approaches that research links to worse mental health outcomes.