Spotted this today, posted by James Esses:
https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/news/ukcp-guidance-regarding-gender-critical-views/
With the King's speech on Tuesday and the Conversion Therapy Practices Bill mooted (and likely to be included in the speech) this seems very timely. Please contact your Conservative MPs with this information and ask them to get the Bill removed from the King's speech. I'm told that Conservative MPs have been inundated with demands to have the Bill included and it seems Stonewall have been pulling every string: apparently a lot of communications seem to be coming from people working in the public sector. In an attempt to fight back I've have contacted Rishi Sunk, Steve Barclay and others, including Baroness Nicholson, to ask them, in the light of this new decision by the UKPC, to vote down the Bill. If others could do likewise it might help. Here's a chunk from the statement issued by UKCP:This is a public statement and I quote it at some length:Psychotherapy (UKCP) is today issuing a statement on the law regarding gender-critical views and its implications for the practice of psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic counselling. This statement is also being made to highlight the fact that exploratory therapy must not be conflated with conversion therapy.Case law has confirmed that gender-critical beliefs (which include the belief that sex is biological and immutable, people cannot change their sex and sex is distinct from gender-identity) are protected under the Equality Act 2010. Individuals who hold such beliefs must therefore not be discriminated against.Psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors who hold such views are likely to believe that the clinically most appropriate approach to working therapeutically with individuals who present with gender dysphoria, particularly children and young people, is exploratory therapy, rather than medicalised interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or reassignment surgery. Such therapy explores the presenting issues through open-ended discussion, and is conducted without any preconceptions or pre-decided theoretical framework regarding the person’s gender identity. An important aspect of exploratory therapy is the ability to explore the fullest range of issues that may contribute to the person seeking help. Within the interim Cass Review report, the exploratory approach is described as ‘therapeutic approaches that acknowledge the young person’s subjective gender experience, whilst also engaging in an open, curious, non-directive exploration of the meaning of a range of experiences that may connect to gender and broad self-identity’.