Sasha Ayad
This content was last updated Nov. 15, 2023, 10:30 p.m. UTC
Sasha Ayad is an American psychologist who practices conversion therapy and, alongside her close collaborator Stella O’Malley, promotes a disease model of gender identity, gatekeeping of transitional care for transgender people, and the fringe theory of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). She runs a website that provides anti-trans coaching to parents of trans and gender-nonconforming youth.
Ayad promotes detransitioners; transgender-exclusionary lesbian, gay and bisexual organizations, works with anti-transgender medical group Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM).
If a child is threatening to kill themselves, we should take a huge pause and think of the big picture. The most empathetic thing we can do initially is to listen with care, but we, as adults, also need to determine if this child is thinking clearly. Since when do emotionally unstable, demanding children get to use threats to dictate decisions as important as fertility and surgery? Furthermore, if a child is that disturbed or troubled, then they are clearly in no position to make good choices about their long-term well being. The use of this threat by some advocates is incredibly manipulative and has no precedent whatsoever in the field of psychology.
Education and Work
Ayad received both her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Masters of Education in Counseling Psychology degrees from the University of Houston. She has worked as a private practice behavioral therapist in Houston since 2005, and as a Licensed Professional Counselor since 2008. She has worked in group therapy environments for women and children who are victims of sexual violence and she has worked as a counselor at charter schools in Houston.
Presently, Ayad works in primarily online video counseling practicing conversion therapy with transgender youth through her website Inspired Teen Therapy. She previously maintained a Patreon account that provided anti-trans informational videos to parents of transgender youth, but has since moved that content to a SubscribeStar account. She also conducts Zoom Q&A sessions with anti-transgender parents.
Work with Stella O’Malley and Lisa Marchiano
According to the website for their consulting firm that hosts luxury retreats for anti-transgender parents, Ayad has been working with Stella O’Malley and Lisa Marchiano since 2017. Together, Ayad, O’Malley and Marchiano share membership or a founding role in nine separate anti-transgender organizations.
Together, Ayad and O’Malley host an anti-transgender podcast, Gender: A Wider Lens. The podcast is sponsored by two anti-trans political groups that both Ayad and O’Malley have connections to Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics (ReIME) and Genspect.
Broader Connections to Anti-Transgender Groups
Ayad has a direct connection to multiple organizations devoted to the spreading of medical misinformation regarding transgender people, gender fluidity, and gender non-conformation, in particular promoting the theory of ROGD.
These organizations include conversion therapy advocates Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Dysphoria Working Group (PAGDWG), anti-transgender group Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), formerly the International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners (IATDD) which has seen been absorbed into the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA), anti-transgender group targeting schools Genspect, and ROGD promoters ReIME.