Taking Stock at Tavistock - with Anastassis Spiliadis & Dr Anna Hutchinson
Anastassis Spiliadis is a psychotherapist and psychologist based in London & Athens, working with individuals couples and families. He works clinically in private practice and as an Education Lead in the NHS. He has worked for many years with people of all ages affected by eating disorders, gender-related distress, relationship challenges and often enduring mental health difficulties.
Anastassis worked in the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at The Tavistock Clinic as a clinician and trainer between 2015 and 2019 where he also established and led a Family Therapy Clinic. There he witnessed and reported unethical clinical practices alongside some thoughtful work by other therapists. He disagreed openly with the service’s treatment model and in 2017 coined the term Gender Exploratory Therapy aiming to develop a therapeutic approach away from conversion and affirmative practices.
Anastassis continues to work with gender-related distress alongside his generic practice and supervises and trains clinicians and University students from different modalities.
He is particularly interested in the development and evaluation of treatment approaches for eating disorders, gender-related distress and co-occurring difficulties holding on to a family-focused and developmental lens.
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Dr Anna Hutchinson is a London based clinical psychologist with twenty-five years of frontline experience. She is the co-director of an independent practice and employed by the NHS as an Education Lead. Clinically, she specializes in adolescent mental health, gender and physical health.
Anna worked in the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at The Tavistock Clinic at a senior level between 2013 and 2017 where she witnessed unprecedented changes in the patient demographics, referral numbers and an emerging evidence base that challenged practice. Her publications document a shift in her thinking as a result - in 2016 she was writing from a gender affirmative position, by 2019-2020 she was discussing rapid/late onset gender dysphoria and detransition/regret. Her testimony alongside those of many colleagues, formed a key part of the narrative in “Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children,’ by Hannah Barnes.
Since leaving GIDS, Anna has been working with others to improve awareness of the complex needs of young people experiencing gender related distress. She continues to teach and write in the area, with a particular focus on the need for ethical psychotherapy for young people and families coping with issues related to gender.
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Links:
The Cass Review: https://cass.independent-review.uk
Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/time-to-think-hannah-barnes/1142106254
Data from Tavistock GIDs regarding mental health benefits of puberty blockers: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66842352
Gender Exploratory Therapy Model: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334559847_Towards_a_Gender_Exploratory_Model_slowing_things_down_opening_things_up_and_exploring_identity_development
In support of research into ROGD
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31317286/
Butch Identity Development: The Formation of an Authentic Gender: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959353505049709
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