Az Hakeem

UK

Dr Az Hakeem is a member of WPATH:
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Dr Az Hakeem is a member of ANZPATH:
The Australian and New Zealand Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Specialist Psychotherapy for Transgender, Gender Dysphoria & Other Gender Identity Conditions

Since 2000 I have run a national Specialist Psychotherapy Service for persons with transgender and other gender identity conditions.

Whilst gender reassignment procedures of cross-sex hormones and sex-reassignment surgery are certainly useful options for people with a fixed gender identity of the to the opposite gender to that of their sex at birth, there are people who have other less fixed, less binary gender identity conditions for whom gender reassignment may not be helpful, and there are also people with gender identity conditions who choose not to pursue physical gender reassignment. For these people a specialist form of psychotherapy for issues relating to gender may be useful.

Such patients may include those with autogynaephilia, those with non-binary gender identification, and those with intermittent fluctuation between gender dysphoria and transvestism. Other patients may have previously had physical gender reassignment procedures and have since changed their mind and once again find themselves with a gender identity incongruent with their physical body.

If a person is assessed and is clearly seeking physical gender reassignment and has no uncertainty about this then they are referred to the appropriate gender clinic. For other patients who may have more atypical gender presentations such as those described above they may be suitable for a specially tailored psychotherapeutic intervention aimed at further clarifying and establishing an understanding and certainty of their sense of gender which may or may not correlate with their biological sex.

The aims of the specially adapted psychotherapy are two-fold: firstly to reduce the degree of distress or preoccupation a person may have in relation to gender in their day to day lives, and secondly to promote a sense of stability and confidence in their own uniquely tailored gender identity, whatever that may be, irrespective of whether that corresponds to their biological sex at birth, a 'trans

  • Work
    • Psychiatrist Doctor,
  • Education
    • MBBS,
    • Msc,
    • FRCPsych
    • M.IGA,