Ethical WPATH Letter Writing

A practical & trans-affirming approach

Do you want to write letters for transgender clients to access surgery, but feel uncomfortable about being a 'gatekeeper'?

Get practical guidance that is ethically aligned for trans-affirming practitioners providing WPATH assessments and letter writing.

Meet your obligations while accounting for the historical, political, and ethical considerations of doing this work.

By accounting for the complexities of this work, we can provide respectful, client-centred assessments, with a sense of personal-professional ethical alignment.

What We Will Cover

Core historical and ethical considerations for ethical practitioner positioning
Detailed breakdown of assessment items according to WPATH Standards of Care version 8
Detailed breakdown of what to include in a WPATH letter
'Complex' case considerations, including what is not complex.
Essential practical considerations to harm reduction and client-centred care

Essential Resources

Assessment Checklist and Notes Template
Letter Template
WPATH Specific Consent Form template and Client Info Pack
Example Letters for adolescents and adults

Details:

Date: December 18th, 12-2pm (Aus Eastern Standard Time)

Location: Online (Zoom), or self paced.

Live and Recorded: Access for 1 year

Price: Your standard session fee (guide $100-250)

I know it's a busy time of year.

You will get the recording.

I will not run it again.

About The Trainer

Hi, I'm Ari Heart (they/them).

I am a psychotherapist, educator, parent, trans non-binary person, and co-founder of Trans Wellbeing.

I have been supporting trans people and their families to navigate the various stages of their journeys for many years.

My personal experience as a non-binary trans person informs the depth of care I bring to this work, but it is the many thousands of hours of conversations with trans people and their families that has built much of the purpose and content of our training and programs.

This work is deeply personal for me, as someone who's been on the other side of this process and who now writes letters for others seeking gender affirming medical care.

I've felt, seen, and heard about many different approaches for conducting WPATH assessments and writing letters. This experience can be affirming and easy, or it can be dehumanising, disempowering, and stressful.

I also know what it is like to grapple with our own role in this process, as mental health practitioners.

Rather than turn away from the difficult questions about the ethics of this work, let's lean in and grapple with these questions so that we can find our own way through - a way that we feel at peace with.

Who is this training for?

If you write WPATH letters for clients to access hormones or surgery, or you are a mental health worker who would like to do so, this course is for you.

The official WPATH SOC8 guidelines on who is eligible to write these letters is here:

"HCPs [health care practitioners] should have at a minimum a masters-level qualification in a clinical field related to transgender health or equivalent further clinical training and be statutorily regulated; examples include a mental health professional (MHP), general medical practitioner, nurse, or other qualified HCP. In some settings, statutorily regulated HCPs with lower levels of qualification may practice under the clinical supervision of a qualified HCP who takes ultimate clinical responsibility for the quality and accuracy of the completed GAMST assessment."

Please remember that the WPATH SOC is written for a USA context. These descriptions may not be as fitting for an Australian context. If you're unsure whether you are able to conduct a WPATH assessment please reach out to me.