‍

Everyone has a gender identity—a feeling or sense of being masculine, feminine or something else. Sometimes people’s gender identity matches their bodies, and sometimes it does not. When someone is born with a penis and identifies as a girl, or born with a vagina and identifies as a boy, this person may have a gender identity called “transgender.”

The changes of puberty can make any person feel anxious, and it’s possible a person who is transgender may feel especially anxious when their bodies start to change in ways that don’t necessarily match their gender identity. These feelings are totally normal.

If your body is changing in ways that do not match how you feel inside, it may be helpful to talk with a trusted adult such as a parent, caregiver, school-based counsellor, teacher, healthcare provider, or myself. These adults may be able to help affirm your gender identity and explore ways to support your pubertal development that are more inline with your affirmed gender.

For the trans youth identifying safe people to confide in can be difficult. People familiar to the child may be able to provide emotional support, however, are not always knowledgeable about information that can help a trans-youth navigate through the physical and psychological changes they are experiencing through puberty. Nor are these adults able to help them navigate the social pressures and self-esteem difficulties that can be experienced by a society that often lacks understanding and inclusion. This can leave gender-diverse youth isolated and extremely vulnerable.

As well as being a Clinical Sexologist, Dave Wells has also worked extensively with gender diverse people, as well as the transgender community in Brisbane, regional Queensland, as well as training in his study placement at Porterbrook Clinic, a gender health service in Sheffield, England.

The knowledge and life-experiences have equipped Dave Wells to develop a best practice approach to ensure that each client is linked to the appropriate professionals to address their needs.  For example, Dave Wells can assist you with achieving self-awareness and approval (sexology), or help you successfully navigate through difficulties that you are facing (psychosocial), however, referral in areas that are outside of his scope maybe necessary i.e. a more suited professional is important in examples where the person has the goals of hormone therapy and surgical changes, or for other medically related, physical and mental health needs.

Dave Wells can not only initiate referral processes with a suitable specialist, but also offers to accompany and support the person through the medical process where required.

‍

In a society that can present barriers to being a fulfilled individual, these are multiplied for many people who are diverse in their gender. Unfortunately, our society is very premature when being fully inclusive of gender outside of cis-male and female, and this lack of understanding and ignorance still fuels discussions politically and in media, and each time it does, it creates hardship, ill-health and makes feeling good about yourself even more difficult for the gender diverse person.

For many of us, regardless of the barriers that we need to over-come, we learn to move to a place of self-acceptance, resolution, growth, and the creation of our own world with improved control of it.  Until we reach self-acceptance and give ourselves approval, we constantly risk the wrong people being in our world and risking its harmony and quality.

Achieving self-esteem and self-confidence can at times feel impossible, sometimes we focus on the hurt caused by others, when we ourselves can be our own worst enemies.  At times it may feel impossible to accept ourselves, or feel accepted by others, however through the development of empathy and a dialog of respect, acceptance, and a broad knowledge and his lived-experiences, Dave Wells prides himself on his ability to develop a relationship with clients based on the foundations of trust, comfort, and the safety necessary to discuss any health needs, and sensitive topics.

Summing up, Dave Wells does not identify gender by a person’s genitalia, nor necessarily how that person presents, but rather by how a person identifies.

Whether a person identifies as being transgender, female, male, neutral or fluid, Dave Wells works with the person to express themselves their way, and to develop the strength created by self-acceptance and self-approval to be masters of their own destiny.

‍

‍