Section II Conversations
Gender Questions: Working with Trans and Gender Expansive Youth
A conversation with Dr. Laurel Wright, PhD, MPH, and Jayson “J.D.” Miller, LCSW,
moderated by Dr. Michael Tate, PhD, of Section II
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Location: Zoom
Time: 12:30-2:00pm EST
The landscape of gender development seems to change just as rapidly as our understanding of it. Today’s youth use the terms like trans and queer in a multitude of ways to describe their gender presentation and experience. Simultaneously, we live in a moment when political figures are legislating trans kids’ bodies with a new ferocity; claiming to know what these kids need.
Join us as we invite queer child therapists, working with queer children to describe their needs and development in their own words; helping to illuminate the always shifting landscape of gender experience for all.
*Registration is free for members of Section 2. For all others a suggested donation is requested.
Click Here to find out more about Section II and the benefits of being a member.
More about the speakers:
Laurel Wright, PhD, MPH (they/them) is a queer, trans/non-binary psychologist in Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Wright is alumni of the clinical psychology doctoral program at CUNY Graduate Center, City College of New York. Dr. Wright completed training at the Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project to specialize in TGNB youth and family mental health.
After internship, Dr. Wright stayed on as a staff psychologist with Maimonides Medical Center to found an LGBTQ+ sub speciality clinic and related training track for psychology externs. Currently, Dr. Wright has a private practice in Brooklyn, NY and as an adolescent inpatient psychologist at Kings County Hospital, where they are developing an LGBTQ+ speciality unit for adolescents.
Jayson “J.D.” Miller, LCSW (they/them)is the founder and Director of the Identity & Acceptance (I&A) Program at the NY Foundling, which seeks to recognize and honor every intersectional aspect of their client’s identities and fill the needs that often exists for empowering queer, trans and gender-diverse youth directly. Jayson has been creating safer spaces, advocating for, and working to update policies to be more inclusive for the LGBTQIA+ community since 2008, while outwardly identifying as part of the community since 2006. Their personal life experience as a queer and trans individual has led them to understanding some of the struggles with access to LGBTQIA+ competent mental health treatment and services, as well as challenges that youth may have around their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.
Their clinical experience includes training in working with neuro-divergent populations, TF-CBT, EMDR, Trauma Systems Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Nurturing Parenting, completing the Ackerman’s Family Engagement and Acceptance Training program, along with certification through The Centers LGBTQ Institute for Family Therapy and Transgender Training Institute. Jayson holds an MSW from Columbia University, graduated from San Francisco State University where they studied clinical Social Work, Human Sexualities, Counseling and LGBTQ+ Studies; and are currently attending CUNY Brooklyn for two additional bachelors in Sociology & Women’s and Gender Studies.
