Local therapy provider thinks trans women are female.

[Msmoonpie]

Trying to sign up for some therapy locally and they want to know your gender.

Is is listed as

Male (including transmen)
Female (including transwomen)
Non binary
Other
Decline to respond

I went with other and wrote biological female since they don’t seem to know what female means.

If’s ridiculous - have any “identity” you want but stop mucking about with biological sex.

If someone is listing "male/female" as a "gender" they've clearly taken gender ideology to the furthest extreme, and I would back off from even contemplating using their service.

Well I'd not be going to them, that's for sure.

Good luck finding an alternative, though!

Looking through a list of counsellors/therapists in my region, pretty much all of them made a big point of flagging being trans friendly, dealing with transphobia, transitioning etc.

That is so fundamentally opposed to my worldview that I'd have difficulty opening up to somebody like that, when so much of my lived experience is to do with being female and lesbian. I'd feel ... gosh I think I have to borrow that much maligned word, 'unsafe'!

In other words, I wouldn't engage with any of them, to stay on the emotionally safe side. Which is the opposite of how it should be.

Unfortunately they are the only one available on the NHS but at least I won’t be seeing anyone anytime soon due to the waiting list.

Sliver lining I suppose.

I would just see this as a business decision. Loads of people (particularly young people) with identity issues - so a big potential client pool. Makes sense for a therapist to try and attract them. I think the real question is what the therapy would entail.

Fuck that. I have a trauma history caused by men. You bare your soul to your therapist. I peaked mine (she wasn't brainwashed before, just blissfully unaware). I'd find it incredibly retraumatising to have therapy with a genderist. It took me YEARS to realise what happened wasn't my fault; that male violence against women and girls is endemic. Imagine a therapist of all people actually believing that I could have simply chosen to "identify" differently and my trauma wouldn't have happened! Or believing that if my rapist said the magic words, he'd be entitled to use women's spaces.

PP is right that many therapists are keen to virtue signal their allyship. The upside is that if they don't, there's a strong chance they are a rational thinker. It's fine to ask them. Be direct and clear in your question. Remind them that you are asking in confidence and they are bound by both gdpr and their accrediting organisation's professional standards. Even the irrational ones are unlikely to do anything malicious.

I disagree unfortunately.

Have worked with several sensible therapists. They were wary of trans clients. The whole narrative is anathema to depth psychotherapy. Fear of retaliation and damaged reputation if they said the wrong thing now, prosecution in the future if they went along with affirmation. Fear of being sued by wealthy parents either way.

Unless it's a very established, experienced therapist, I would assume those that that virtue signal about gender hold genderist beliefs.

So true.
The very place where I was SA'd is now a "unisex" changing room (with separate cubicles). My only pleasure, if I can call it that, is that it does say "unisex" and not "all gender", but I bet someone'll complain and they'll give in.

Derailing a bit, but I feel I'm amongst friends here-

The very place where I was SA'd [a neighbour's house] has been demolished!
And don't worry about the housing stock, they are building two new houses on the site
I was in the old neighbourhood the other day and was delighted to see the house is a pile of dusty old rubble.

💜and✊to all survivors.