New Social Work Role with Autistic Young Adults and Trans-ideology Really Worrying!

Can you dig into the feelings they have - both their rejection of their existing body and the feelings they assume they will have as the other sex? Can you work with them to accept and respect and appreciate their current physical form and to find ways to achieve in the present the positive feelings they seek from transing.

You could say that the process of transing is slow and the hurdles are many and that it would be great for them to reach some of their emotional, self-acceptance and self-compassion goals independent of the progress of their trans journey, so they are equipped with self-love, self-respect, self-acceptance, social confidence as soon as possible rather than waiting as these are still skills they'll need to practise and learn, so may as well start now. That they deserve to be able to access these feelings right now, and that they do not need to be dependent or tied up with their trans journey.

Can you also encourage them to discuss goals and interests that are independent of transing and to encourage them to engage fully with these goals?

So you are not in any way challenging their trans-beliefs, but dissolving the connection between transing and self-actualisation and happiness.

Might that work?

The fact is it is that organisation's policy and if you can't enact it or are actively seeking to undermine it, this is clearly not an organisation you should be working for.
Wow! That's pretty chilling. "Don't you dare question. Just obey"

She won't personally be transitioning them, on demand or otherwise. These are people who have transitioned or who wish to transition irrespective of OP's wishes or beliefs, she does not actually have the power to either start or stop them.

This is not a question of whether you think the organisational policy is correct. The fact is it is that organisation's policy and if you can't enact it or are actively seeking to undermine it, this is clearly not an organisation you should be working for.

the training went into specifics such as I am to ask questions gender identity in the first meeting, wear pronoun badge, encourage gender identity discussions etc.

Surely this is not normal. This sounds like something out of Stonewall training.

Taking out the fact that this is a contentious issue, surely no employer cant make these guidelines. It is implies they aren't aware of the Forstater decision. ie that being gender critical has to be given equal value as those who believe in trans ideology.

What happens if you one of the students you are asked to support is in fact gender critical.

Can you imagine the impact of someone that had been led to believe was there to give support, in their first meeting with you, is then told by you to perform as though a trans believer.

Is there any way you can query this, and if necessary put it in terms of not wanting to breach the legal rights of a student who may be gender critical and would be underminded by the approach they say is compulsory.

You're forgetting that we're in a world where flat earthers and science deniers have been given permission to bully and threaten any woman who doesn't immediately comply with the demands that children of any age must be transitioned on demand and that sex isn't binary.
Taking advice about how to mange the bullies and ensure that these young people get informed and thoughtful support is what all good people do.

Ignore Freedomdogs. As the mother of a ND teen who is still dabbling with this ideology I want to say that I'm delighted there are sensible adults supporting these kids. Thank you to you and the others on this thread. You are literal lifesavers.

oh and @FreedomDogs can you tell
me what your thoughts are
on the Cass review?

no @FreedomDogs it suggests that she's a thoughtful, compassionate person who knows enough about autism to see how important it is to safeguard young people.
Do you care about safeguarding?
If, for example a young person is certain they're fat despite being visibly underweight and wants to lose more
weight, should their therapist affirm them and agree that they're fat or explore
the underlying reasons for their
anorexia nervosa?

Definitely get in early before uni. and give her some ideas of the reasons why you are gender critical. The forthcoming Paralympic male athlete running against women would be a good starting point. Make sure you have some stats on male advantage/ why it's not just about testosterone to hand. My student DD is very 'be kind' and uncritical of gender ideology. She didn't know much about it before going. I don't think it's the university, it's her fellow students. Some of her friends are non binary.

I mean, you obviously from the statement you just made have a particularly rigid and unsympathetic view about what it means to be trans and for some reason you think it's appropriate to bring that into your work with trans people so yes I'd say perhaps you are not the right person to be doing this job.

Doesn't the very fact you feel you have to lie about your beliefs to your employer and are actively seeking advice on how to bring them into your work via subterfuge- doesn’t that actually suggest a fundamental incompatibility between the requirements of the role and what you want to do and seem set on doing regardless?

I would be tempted to encourage acceptance of their identity without requiring change. So present as you wish, but no need to alter your body.

Absolutely!
Many people de- transition when they get older when they realise that it hasn’t solved their problems-
Sparing dangerous surgery and hormones is a big plus.

She is working with students because they are autistic, not because they are trans. That is secondary. Her priorities will be supporting their autistic identity which she is eminently qualified to do. I’m sure there is an LGBTQ support network available for their other identity needs. That’s generally better provisioned, IME.

God this terrifies me. I have an autistic daughter who I am trying to keep away from this stuff. It makes me so worried that it could be encouraged when she gets to University ☹️

wrong.
Exploratory therapists are exactly the right sort of people to be working with C &YP to unpick and explore gender identity. The absolute worst approach is someone from the "school of fluffy gender woo" (made up
name, obvs) just giving blanket affirmations to a troubled young person. That's not therapy or social work. Therapy explores deeper reasons for the causes of someone's poor mental health and struggles with gender identity, especially if the struggles are a result of ROGD (rapid onset gender disphoria)
Transitioning, even just social transitioning is a huge step and not a neutral
act, like being gay is. It's puts you on a path to being a lifelong medical patient.
We know from the Cass review that if CYP aren't immediately affirmed, they go on not to be trans and often just become the gay and/or autistic young person they were always going to be.

The only thing that will challenge this are the voices of young autistic people themselves.

I used to work at a children's charity and the stance was supporting young people to explore their identity. Not sure that is pro trans per se.

If you're not able to work comfortably with trans clients, perhaps it's not the job for you

Hello, fellow social worker here.
I'm doing some master study into autism (privately, not through my employer), have a lot of neurodiversity in my family and have worked with asc young people within child protection teams. Currently I work with young adults with learning disabilities, some have co occurring autism.

I've also done autism training through my Local Authority and never come across what you describe, within the training material. I wonder if what you're hearing is because your organisation is not bound by statutory legislation in the same way as a LA? I some LAs have got the terribly wrong but on the whole it is third sector and education that seem to go all out ideologically driven trans/ non binary (as opposed to compassion driven acknowledgement of complex needs/ identity needs in modern life)

What is being said in the training in relation to co occurring conditions? You don't have to agree with the training, I would be asking more questions. Are teaching that gender dysphoria or incongruence is an indicator that someone may be autistic, if so where's the evidence?
Is it training given by a private provider, are you able to say who it is?

In relation to being open about gender critical views in counselling practice: personally I don't think this is necessary or ethical. Maintain curiosity and encourage your clients to be curious.

Many young people who access therapy have a range of beliefs some of which are true and some which are less than true.

For example, someone accessing therapy for eating disorders probably has body dysmorphia in the sense that they believe that they are fat when objectively they are thin.

The therapy doesn't focus on challenging the belief directly because that is pointless. Instead it focuses on discussing other issues that might be driving the eating disorder.

In the same way if you are counselling people with autism who may believe they they are trans then it isn't appropriate to argue with them.

What it is appropriate to do is to say (similar to a poster above) that some people are trans and others are not and it's something that can be explored and encourage the young person to talk about it.

If you are gc then presumably you understand that a large part of what is driving the trans movement in young people is dislike of their bodies as they move through puberty plus massively increased pressure to stick to rigidly refined gender roles and also porn.

These are all things where the impact of this on the young person can be explored through conversation and they can begin to see the influences and pressures on them and how they can move beyond them.

You might find this useful:

x.com/psychgirl211/status/1808825717204922755?s=46&t=88gZvdSnTk70X8b2ZUPZtA

Children have been exposed to a lot of pressure to conform to gender ideology at school and online, and children just like many adults want to fit in and be accepted, and like you, they will be aware of the potential repercussions of any pushback against this ideology, so establishing a safe space to enable these children to talk about where they are experiencing the most pressure with regard to their identity, will be a very important part of being able to help and support them I think