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Managing barriers to transition - potential wells, activation energy, and metastability.
Keira Bell and Jay Anderson - Be Trans Support and Community
About the session
Gender transition is not a smooth process. Even when the individual has a clear goal in mind there are many facets and each of those facets are multi-staged. We present a model to help visualise this; giving the chance for a deeper understanding of how and why people can get ‘stuck’ at some intermediate point. We then hope to give some meaningful, practical advice on how to support people through this journey, and to facilitate a discussion of how much ‘help’ is appropriate to get people past their current roadblock.
Key takeaways: an understanding of some of the mental and practical hurdles faced by people considering or undergoing a gender transition, be that social, medical or purely internal. The sort of support someone is likely to need through this process and how that can be provided. Understanding that the support needed and how it is provided will depend on the circumstances of the individual (socio-economic / racial / familial / co-morbidities). Some context about ‘knowing what is best’ for the individual.
About the speaker
Jay and Keira work together as volunteers at Be Trans Support and Community, a charity which supports transgender, non binary, gender diverse and questioning adults in the North East.
They together bring a wealth of experience in how to support transgender people. Their professional knowledge includes Jay’s experience managing youth and complex safeguarding services, and Keira’s management of a multi national organisation with expertise in people management and modelling complex dynamic systems. Combined with their lived experience - being trans people themselves, parenting and providing nurturing, consistent and person centred approaches - they provide a deeply rooted and unique insight into managing barriers to transition.