Episode description

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and Sara Stockton explore her past as a clinician in the field of Transgender care, how she helped co-author the processes by which gender-dysphoric children are assessed for medical intervention, and why she wholeheartedly regrets it now. 

Sara Stockton is a licensed marriage and family therapist, lecturer, researcher, presenter, and clinical supervisor of a psychotherapy group practice in Central New York. In 2012, she co-authored and published one of the first mental health assessments utilized to assess youth's readiness to begin medical treatment for gender transition. She spent the first part of her career as a clinician treating and advocating on behalf of youth and families surrounding issues with gender. Furthermore, she spent time traveling to teach medical facilities, physicians, and schools how to provide what we now refer to as “gender-confirming” care. Treating well over one hundred families, she also wrote many of the first letters that were used to approve gender transition surgeries on minors. However, due to many concerns with the treatment outcomes and how this ideology was being presented to children, she shifted her focus away from working primarily with this population. More recently, Sara Stockton was interviewed for a documentary to discuss some of the implications of what is happening developmentally to our children. Since appearing in that documentary, Sara Stockton receives constant emails and calls from medical professionals across the globe sharing their fears about speaking out and the lack of conversation around this serious topic.