Research and Knowledge Exchange Webinars

Monday, June 8 · 4:00 - 5:30pm GMT

APA Task Force Report on VSC

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This Summer APA's governing Council will consider their Task Force Report, which review reviews the broad relevance of psychology to people with VSC.  This webinar will feature the Task Force Chairperson, Amy Tishelman, and three members; Cindy Buchanan, Matt Malouf, and Peter Hegarty.  They will discuss the challenges encountered in articulating the relationship between psychology and VSC, give a sense of the scope of the Task Force report, and open a conversation with members of the PSII network about whether and how the Task Force report can be put to work both in the USA and internationally.  

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Speakers:

Dr. Amy Tishelman is the Chair of the APA Task Force on VSC. A clinical and research psychologist and Professor at Boston College, with expertise in trauma, pediatric psychology,  gender diversity and VSC, she was also Clinical Research Director and Senior Attending psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School Be-U and Gender Multispecialty Services (GeMS) which serves young people with VSC and/or gender diversity and their families. She led the development of the WPATH SOC8 for children , and is currently MPI on an NIH-funded USA based national study to create a self-report, self-advocacy tool for young people with VSC. 

Amy will discuss the history of the task force development, interdisciplinary care complexities and youth/family clinical care in the area of VSC.

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Dr. Cindy Buchanan is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is a pediatric health psychologist that works clinically in the Department of Pediatric Urology and the Department of Adolescent Gynecology at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado.

I will discuss how medical decision-making in VSC is uniquely complex, often shaped by uncertainty, developmental factors, and competing medical, psychosocial, and cultural considerations. I will highlight a shared decision-making framework and the critical role psychologists play in supporting individuals and families through values-based, emotionally informed, and evolving decisions.

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Dr. Malouf is a counseling psychologist operating a Baltimore, Maryland, USA-based group practice specializing in sexuality and gender. Previously, he served on an interdisciplinary variations of sex characteristics team, as medical school clinical faculty, and as training manager for an LGBTQI-focused FQHC. His professional service includes APA's VSC Taskforce, WPATH's Revision Committee, SAMHSA's LGBTQI2-S Youth Workgroup and the PSI-I steering committee.

 I will be speaking about: the task force’s approach to discussing the needs of adults with VSC as well as the current psychology training landscape and training needs related to VSC competence within the field.

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Peter Hegarty, Professor, School of Psychology & Counselling, The Open University, UK
Peter is a social psychologist and historian of psychology who has researched public understandings of intersex/VSC and its medicalization using qualitative and quantitative methods. He is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on differences of sex development, and the Executive Committee of the charity ICON UK.

I will speak to the first two substantive chapter of the Task Force report on the history of psychology's engagement with people with VSC and the ethics of psychological practice with people with VSC.

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Sophie  Haber-Sage Program Manager,  American Psychological Association

Sophie (she/her) is a program manager on the Social Impact Team in Public Interest at the American Psychological Association (APA), where she has spent nearly seven years advancing initiatives related to health equity, socioeconomic status, and inclusive psychological practice. She has supported numerous APA initiatives addressing issues affecting marginalized communities, transgender and gender-diverse adults, people with VSC, and low-income populations. Sophie is currently pursuing her Masters in Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Sophie will provide an overview of how psychological science moves through APA's governance process, from expert review and research synthesis to inform policy development and professional guidance.