a therapy first conference
Identities in the Therapy Room: What Is Unfolding?
New York City | October 17-18, 2026
Moving forward together.
Meeting the needs of gender dysphoric youth is one of the most urgent and complex challenges facing the mental health field today. Therapy First envisions a world where these young people have access to care that follows widely recognized clinical guidelines, which support therapy first before medical intervention.
Therapy First’s programming focuses on training clinicians to meet the established standard of care and on supporting the delivery of developmentally appropriate, evidence-informed mental health care. By doing so, Therapy First helps ensure that the public has access to care that aligns with professional best practices and the developmental needs of youth.
Psychology may be a science but psychotherapy is an art.
nancy mcwilliams
Become A Member
Membership is open to licensed mental health professionals who align with Therapy First’s values. Members participate in a supportive community of professionals who collaborate to strengthen mental health care for youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
As a member, you’ll have access to peer supervision groups and clinical case conferences led by leaders in the field, discounted Therapy First webinars and trainings, and the opportunity to play an active role in advancing the mission of Therapy First.
Upcoming Webinar
Therapy First’s webinars provide knowledge on developmentally informed mental health care for youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
Anastassis Spiliadis
June 4 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EDT
This webinar explores how psychological thinking and psychotherapeutic interventions may support adolescents experiencing co-occurring eating disorders (primarily of a restricting type) and gender-related distress. Emerging practice-based evidence suggests that individuals experiencing gender-related distress may also present with eating difficulties or eating disorders. At the same time, clinicians working in independent practice or in public mental health services have observed that some adolescents presenting for eating disorder treatment may also identify as trans and/or experiencing gender-related distress. While eating disorders and gender-related distress are not symmetrical phenomena, both may involve the body becoming a source of distress.
When working with adolescents, whose bodies, brains, relationships and identities are in a state of developmental flux, a range factors may further complicate both hypothesizing/formulating and psychotherapeutic interventions.
The session will include a presentation focusing on the evolving evidence-base, the integration of systemic family therapy and psychodynamic thinking, and considerations relating to safety, risk, and the development of a safe therapeutic alliance. It will also introduce the concepts of double-blocking and systemic embodiment. There will be space for discussion and reflection, with the aim of supporting clinicians working across different contexts to think more integratively about psychotherapeutic work with the co-occurring presentations and experiences. No prior clinical experience with eating disorders is required.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Describe links between theory and practice in relation to co-occurring eating disorders and gender-related distress in adolescence.
- Identify areas of overlap and difference between these presentations, formulate complexity and risk, and consider stage-appropriate psychotherapeutic interventions.
- Discuss the evidence base relating to embodied distress in adolescence.
Presenter Bio
Anastassis Spiliadis is a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist and UK-registeredSupervisor with a background in Psychology (MSc) and Organisational Management(MSc). His professional interests include embodied distress across the lifespan, the integration of developmental processes within family therapy contexts, and the development of psychotherapeutic interventions.
He works clinically with individuals, couples and families, and also consults with public and third-sector organisations in the United Kingdom and Greece. He has worked for more than ten years within the UK National Health Service across specialist and generic mental health services. He teaches as a Visiting Lecturer across psychology, psychotherapy and sexology training programmes at university level, and provides supervision to teams and individual clinicians.
He is Vice Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee at theAssociation for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (UK),and is currently a DoctoralCandidate exploring how female detransitioners experience and make sense of changes in their bodies.
Therapy First webinars are open to the public. Parents, clinicians, teachers, and all those interested are welcome to attend. Psychologists and professional counselors are eligible to earn 1.5 CE credits for participating in the live webinar (attendance for the entire length of the program is required to receive CE credits).
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