Upcoming KAPA ZOOM CE event

How to Consider it All? Navigating the complexities of ethics, law, and the evidence-base related to gender-affirming care within the practice of psychology

Leticia Flores, PhD, Caitlin Williams, PhD,

Jackie Sullivan, MA, and Jillian Dobson, BA

University of Tennessee, Department of Psychology 

UT Psychological Clinic

This program is designed to meet the requirement for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee to obtain continuing education in ethics and the law, including the requirement to obtain continuing education on Tennessee State Law.

For further information, please refer to the Rules and Regulations of the Tennessee Board of Examiners in Psychology. 

Summary:

Providing healthcare to trans/gender diverse clients in ever-changing and increasingly politically charged state and national landscapes is challenging and complex, requiring providers to navigate changing and conflicting guidelines for evidence-based care (Cass, 2022), relevant legal codes and case law (e.g., H.B. 2310/S.B. 2782), and foundational ethical principles (APA, 2021). This talk will cover the relevant ethical and legal considerations for the state of Tennessee, as well as at the national level, for the provision or supervision of healthcare services to trans/gender diverse youth and adults. In addition, panelists will discuss recent research (e.g., Lin et al., 2020, Puckett et al., 2018) about the complex mental health needs of trans/gender diverse youth and adults, with special attention given to how recent clinical experiences of the panelists support (or conflict with) suggestions from presented research. Finally, this talk will briefly address the practical aspects of providing healthcare to trans/gender diverse youth in Tennessee, with participants having plenty of time for questions at the end.

Learning Objectives:  

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1.      identify at least one legal and one ethical issue that are relevant to providing gender-affirming care to youth and adults in Tennessee, 

2.      identify three common areas of clinical concern that trans/gender diverse youth often bring to clinical encounters, and

3.     identify two resources where they can learn more about providing gender-affirming care in an ethical, clinically-sound, and evidence-based manner, given the current legal context.

Target Audience: 

This program is open to all KAPA members and other interested mental health professionals who are not members. The content of this presentation is appropriate for mental health professionals educated at the graduate level in psychology, psychiatry, or other mental health related disciplines, as well as graduate students in a mental health related discipline.

Instructional Level:

The material will be appropriate to intermediate levels of practice and knowledge.

Continuing Education:

This program - when attended in its entirety - is available for 1.5 APA approved continuing education credits. With full attendance and completion of a Program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Partial credit will not be awarded. Participant's attendance will be verified via their Zoom login name and sign in / sign off time. Please assure that you are identifiable by your Zoom login name.

American Psychological Association Approval Statement:

The Knoxville Area Psychological Association (KAPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for Psychologists. KAPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 

There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the CE Sponsor, presenting organization, program content, research, grants, or other funding sources that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest. During the program, the validity/utility of the content and risk/limitations of their approaches will be addressed.

Registration Fees and Policies:

If you are a member of KAPA, then this program is free of charge. If you are not a member of KAPA and you do not want CE credit, this program is free of charge.

Speaker Information:

Drs. Leticia Flores (she/her) and Caitlin Williams (she/her) are the Director and Associate Director of the University of Tennessee Psychological Clinic (UTPC), where graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology doctoral programs at UT Knoxville complete their therapy and assessment training while serving the mental health needs of the broader Knoxville community.

At prior institutions where she served as training clinic director, and at the UTPC specifically since 2013, Dr. Flores has provided close, psychodynamically oriented supervision for countless therapy cases involving sexual minority folks, consulted on a wide variety of cases involving the intersection of queer mental health, ethical, and legal issues, and delivered occasional direct therapy services to members of the local LGBTQ+ community. She regularly teaches graduate courses on ethical issues in professional psychology and psychodynamic therapy.

Dr. Flores is an active member of the Tennessee Equality Project and is widely respected for her knowledge about the intersections of ethical, legal, and practice issues related to the LGBTQ+ community, as well as for her activism for the queer communities at the local, state, and national levels.

Dr. Williams has provided direct therapy and assessment services, primarily from trauma-informed and third wave perspectives, to sexual minority youth since 2015, and has provided supervision to graduate students working with sexual minority teen and emerging adulthood clients since joining the UTPC in 2023. She also teaches graduate courses on supervision and professional development and practice related issues. Dr. Williams has worked extensively with youth involved with the child welfare and legal systems, many of whom were LGBTQ+, in a variety of clinical and research contexts.  

Jackie Sullivan, MA (she/her), and Jillian Dodson, BA (she/her), are graduate students in their fifth and third years, respectively, in UT’s clinical psychology doctoral program. They have continuously provided a mix of assessment and individual, group, and family therapy services at the UTPC since their second year, and at external practicum sites since their third year. Ms. Sullivan and Dodson have worked with numerous LGBTQ+ adults and teens across a variety of clinical and research settings, including authoring multiple publications and presentations related to sexual minority populations.

All panelists were involved with the implementation of the inaugural year of the Community-University Research Collaboration Initiative (CURCI)-funded partnership between UTPC/UTK and Knox Pride, a non-profit community and resource center for LGBTQ+ folks in East Tennessee. Dr. Flores helped cultivate the partnership, write the grant, and manage the project, Ms. Sullivan and Dodson have provided therapy and assessment services to KP clients at UTPC, and Dr. Williams has supervised KP therapy clients and consulted for KP assessment clients.