Book contents
- Variations in Sex Development
- Reviews
- Variations in Sex Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Section 1 Ordinary Lives
- Section 2 Medicalization and Resistance
- Section 3 Psychological Theories and Applications
- Section 4 Working Psychologically
- Chapter 9 Choosing “Normalizing” Genital Surgery
- Chapter 10 Caretakers’ Grief and Growth
- Chapter 11 Assigning Legal Gender
- Chapter 12 Disclosure
- Chapter 13 Sexual Intimacy
- Chapter 14 Childfreedom
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Chapter 10 - Caretakers’ Grief and Growth
from Section 4 - Working Psychologically
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2022
- Variations in Sex Development
- Reviews
- Variations in Sex Development
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Section 1 Ordinary Lives
- Section 2 Medicalization and Resistance
- Section 3 Psychological Theories and Applications
- Section 4 Working Psychologically
- Chapter 9 Choosing “Normalizing” Genital Surgery
- Chapter 10 Caretakers’ Grief and Growth
- Chapter 11 Assigning Legal Gender
- Chapter 12 Disclosure
- Chapter 13 Sexual Intimacy
- Chapter 14 Childfreedom
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
In Chapter 10, the author suggests immense possibilities for psychological care providers (PCPs) to contribute to compassionate care following the birth of a child with variations (and in the antenatal period). Psychosocial research and first-person accounts inform us of caretakers’ brokenness, which is often responded to by “normalizing” the child. Here, the author suggests that PCPs work with caretakers in a grief-informed way. Grief is a language that everyone understands and compels services to privilege psychological safety as a first care principle. The practice vignette is built around an expectant mother in difficult circumstances with an unborn child with TS. However, the concept of grief is also relevant for older children and adolescents who are newly diagnosed. Indeed processing loss is integral to adjustment, whereby taken-for-granted ideas of selfhood give way to new identities.
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- Variations in Sex DevelopmentMedicine, Culture and Psychological Practice, pp. 166 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022