Bridging the GAP: Bringing Assessment & Gender Affirming Practices Together
2024 SPA Convention Featured Lecture
Saturday, March 16 | 11:00 AM (PT)
Abstract:
Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are more visible in our society than ever before and are seeking psychological care across specialties. For general psychologists in the field of assessment, this likely means that they are seeing an increasing number of TGD individuals. This talk intends to highlight gender affirming practices that are particularly pertinent to the field of psychological and personality assessment so that attendees feel better equipped to provide competent, sensitive, and affirming assessment to the TGD community.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the core tenants of the gender affirming model of care.
- List at least two (2) gender affirming practices that can be incorporated into one’s assessment practice.
- Describe best practices for utilization of gender norms for scoring on assessments.
Biography
Dr. Col Williams is an attending-level, clinical psychologist in the Gender Multispecialty Service, GeMS, at Boston Children’s Hospital and holds an Instructor of Psychology appointment at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Williams’ expertise is centered on working with transgender and gender diverse individuals across the lifespan. This is founded upon Dr. Williams having completed two post-doctoral fellowships – the first fellowship focused on providing interdisciplinary care to LGBTQ+ veterans at the Bedford VA and the second fellowship focused on working with transgender youth and their families, youth with intersex conditions, and youth with urological health concerns at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Williams’ current clinical, research, and scholarship is focused on the transgender and gender diverse community, and they have a niche specialty in working with trans and gender diverse athletes.