Workshop: Running a group for parents and carers
The support of parents/ carers is important in outcomes for trans people across the lifespan and particularly for young trans and gender diverse people. As the age for leaving a parental home rises, we are more likely to meet trans clients living with parents and carers.
We ran a group within Gender Plus to offer support to parents of young trans and gender diverse people (16-24 yrs) earlier this year. This was a pilot group run over 5 sessions, approximately once a month, in the evenings, attended by 7 parents. We used the Parental Empowerment Scale (Raab et al 2025) to evaluate whether any change happened in terms of feeling less isolated and being able to talk to others about their trans young person and being more able to understand their young person’s experience. Qualitative data was also gathered to evaluate whether the group should continue to be offered and how to improve it for future participants. We will present this data and reflect on it.
We will also reflect on the therapeutic task of running a group and the style and content that was developed to suit the needs of this particular group of parents.
We will describe the topics the group wished to explore and learn about. The intersection of neurodiversity was highly relevant for this group and was threaded through the group sessions.
We will reflect on the societal context parents and carers of trans+ (young) adults are experiencing currently.
We will think how these experiences could be applied to other contexts e.g adult gender services and other relationships e.g couple relationships
We will engage participants in thinking about their experiences of engaging with relational aspects of trans people’s lives and wider support structures for their clients.
Speaker
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Laura Johnson
Laura Johnson (she/her) is a Pathways Coordinator and Research Assistant at Gender Plus, where she has worked since graduating with a first class bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2023. She handles data collection, trains and line manages honorary research assistants, and supports clinicians with various research and evaluation requests. Laura has also guest lectured on the topic of Minority Stress Theory in LGBTQ+ populations at her alma mater for 3 years running. -
Sarah Favier
Sarah Favier (she/her) is a Systemic Family Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer. She has worked with trans and gender diverse people for over 11 years in NHS and independent settings. Sarah has a background in Social Work and Child & Adolescent Mental Health, she is an Associate with Gender Plus where she facilitates parent and carer groups as well as offering family therapy.