In Episode 13 of CapacityConvos, RaQuel Hopkins sits down with Sasha Ayad, a licensed professional counselor who has spent the last 10 years working with young people and families navigating gender identity and gender dysphoria. Sasha has worked with more than 1,100 families and previously hosted the podcast Gender: A Wider Lens, where she interviewed clinicians, whistleblowers, and people directly impacted by the gender affirming care model.
Together, RaQuel and Sasha explore how gender affirming care moved from a relatively niche clinical approach to a widely adopted model and why Sasha believes clinical curiosity can sometimes get lost in the process.
They discuss the difference between validating someone's experience and agreeing with their interpretation of it, the challenges of applying a standardized approach to complex mental health cases, and what can happen when children, parents, clinicians, and institutions have different understandings of what care should look like.
At the center of the conversation is a larger question about therapy itself: Can a therapist fully validate what someone is experiencing while still remaining curious about what may be underneath it?
In this episode, you'll hear:
• How Sasha began noticing patterns among gender questioning students while working as a middle school counselor
• Why gender affirming care is not one single model and how approaches can differ across clinics and schools
• The distinction Sasha makes between validating a client's experience and agreeing with their conclusions
• What clinicians and whistleblowers from gender clinics have reported about pressure to affirm
• Why Sasha views the parent child relationship as an important protective factor for young people experiencing distress
• How debates around conversion therapy intersect with questions about clinical exploration and curiosity
Quotable:
"If we take everything at a surface level and we affirm the client, but we don't use that affirmation as a starting point for further understanding, we risk confirming the story that our client is telling themselves." — Sasha Ayad
Connect with Sasha:
A Therapist's Reflections on Gender In A Polarized World on Substack
Sasha Ayad's Substack
Therapy First on Instagram
@therapyfirstorg
Follow RaQuel on Instagram: @raquel_the_capacity_expert
Subscribe on YouTube: @capacityconvos
Join The Capacity Letter: The Capacity Letter
Subscribe, rate, and share CapacityConvos
