Book Review: On The Couch With Doctor Angello
When you were a young TG sprout having feelings of being attracted to the things the opposite gender were supposed to be attracted to, or even feeling like you were being put into the wrong sex group, wouldn’t it have been nice if you could have given your parents a book that told them what was going on and how to cope with it? It certainly would have been good. For far to many years transgendered children had to keep their feeling to them selves or face a what might be a terrible confrontation with their parents.
In recent years that dilemma has begun to become a thing of the past as more awareness of transgender issues has begun to seep into the public consciousness. When the word “transgender” wasn’t even available as a label it was awfully hard for someone to identify themselves in that way. Part of the change has come from segments of the psychology profession who have realized that the roots of transgenderism are deeply embedded in people and that adult TGs generally knew that they were different at a very early age. Helping trans children and their families adapt to a gender change at an early age is now more often the norm than making attempts to “cure” the child.
One of the leading practitioners who has been working with the trans community for 15 years — and with gender variant children for 13 of those years — is Doctor Michele Angello. Dr. Angello has set a goal which is the eradication of the tragedy that has often accompanied “coming out” as TG to family members. In Dr. Angello’s world there is no need for trauma and drama surrounding what is, as seen from it’s prevalence, a natural occurrence in some percentage of the population. Using commonsense, compassion and empathy her goal is to help the trans child to become comfortable in their preferred gender identity and to help parents see that their child is not crazy or rebellious when they insist they aren’t a boy or they’re not a girl.
Dr. Angello’s new book, On The Couch With Dr. Angello, A Guide To Raising & Supporting Transgender Youth is a must-buy book for any family that contains a trans child. Through use of anecdotes and stories from her years in practice blended with humor and commonsense On The Couch With Dr. Angello brings hope to families dealing with gender variant children. It contains tips for dealing with schools, finding allies who will help facilitate the gender change and deal with all the other issues that surround a child changing genders. And it makes a good read for transgendered adults — or anyone trying to understand TGs.
On The Couch With Dr. Angello
ISBN:978-0-9892772-0-4
$20.00
Paperback
Available online through Dr. Angello’s website.
(Full disclosure: This reviewer has sat on a couch with Dr. Angello.)
Category: Product Review
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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