When Your Son Becomes Your Daughter: A Mother's Adjustment to a Transgender Child

This article applies the theory of self-psychology, developed initially by Heinz Kohut and more recently adapted to brief treatment and counseling the mother of an individual who underwent male to female sex reassignment surgery. It Includes a brief summary of transgenderism and of self-psychology as a theoretical framework with specific focus on the self-object matrix as the therapeutic vehicle for change. The article illustrates the stages of treatment in a detailed case discussion that also raises concerns about how cultural gender bias contributes to shame and stigmatization.