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Tamara Pietzke, USA

"But in the past year I noticed a concerning new trend in my field. I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender - the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria - I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition."

Tamara graduated in 2012 with a Masters in social work from the University of Washington. She's since worked with older adults, pregnant and postpartum women, the chronically mentally ill, those in inpatient centers, and she's spent the last six years doing outpatient community mental health. She deeply enjoys the work that she does and feels it’s an honor to be let into other people’s lives. She got into this work with the driving force of wanting, to the best of her ability, to prevent people going through a hard season from feeling alone or like no one cares. She is a mom of three, a cat mom of one, and a turtle mom of one. She enjoys writing, crafts, and being outside, but she can be talked into enjoying pretty much anything as long as she's doing it with the people she loves. Don’t ask her who her favorite musician or band is because she has no idea who the artists are for the songs she enjoys, and even though she lives in the Seattle area, she despises coffee. She never sought out to be a whistleblower, but she believes wholeheartedly in having a voice when something is wrong, even when it seems like you’re standing alone. She will always advocate in the best interest of her clients, not because they’re her clients, but because they’re people, and people are worth fighting for.

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Tamara's story was first published by the Free Press on Feb 5, 2024. 

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She appeared on the Transparency podcast on Feb 11, 2024.

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Updates: 

Tudor Dixon Podcast

Are you a clinician who relates to Tamara's story? We'd love to hear from you. 

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