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Sasha’s previous work experience includes:
- School counselor for middle- and high-school students at a charter school for underserved communities
- Behavioral therapy with children on the autism spectrum
- Individual and group counseling for women and children impacted by domestic abuse and sexual violence
- Developed and ran the first counseling program at a large state supported living facility for adults with intellectual disability
Sasha holds a B.S. in Psychology and an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology.
Curriculum Vitae available upon request.
How I Came to Work with Gender + Identity Issues
In 2014, I was a school counselor working with low-income and at-risk youth. There, I founded and led our first GSA, or Gay-Straight Alliance. It attracted students from multiple grade levels and the group was full of bright, creative, and engaged kids – truly inspired teens. I always tried to be watchful and nuanced when framing our discussions because of how sensitive and impressionable teenagers are. I quickly noticed that the kids were expressing a lot of confusion. Specifically, they got into animated conversations about the growing list of divergent (and sometimes bewildering) gender identities and sexualities being introduced by mainstream LGBT advocates. I remember one meeting in particular: a girl told the group about a set of bracelets she had seen online. Each one is a different color, worn to supposedly indicate what gender you are “identifying as” that day – so others know what pronouns to use when addressing you. She seemed puzzled and asked us, “I mean, how exactly can you feel like a boy, or a demi-girl, or non-binary? Are they talking about emotions, like if I’m feeling kinda angry and aggressive, does that mean I’m identifying as a guy that day? Or like, what kind of clothes I am wearing?” Other students chimed in, agreeing, and we had a thoughtful and interesting conversation about what it could mean to have a gender identity. We couldn’t reach a satisfying conclusion, perhaps because gender identity is complex and multifactorial.
Interestingly enough, a few years later, one of the young women who couldn’t even fathom the notion of gender identity, now suddenly claimed she had a new one herself – she had come to identify as a “trans boy.” Apparently, she had made this self-discovery after spending a lot of time online trying to learn more about gender identity, precisely because she didn’t understand it and wanted to be a good ally.
The iatrogenic nature of this cycle seems clear and deserves more research. I have been learning and speaking about this phenomenon since 2016. Through appearances, writing, workshops, the Gender: A Wider Lens podcast, and my YouTube channel, The Metaphor of Gender, I advocate for psychological exploration and a symbolic understanding of gender dysphoria, rather than a literal one.