
Dr. Francis McGivern is providing therapeutic support for Gender Dysphoria. Developing a trusting therapeutic relationship in counselling can significantly benefit an individual who is living with gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria occurs where a person feels that they are living within a body of the wrong sex. People may be more familiar with similar terms such as:
- gender identity disorder
- gender incongruence
- transgenderism
A person with gender dysphoria may:
- experience anxiety, uncertainty and persistently uncomfortable feelings about the gender that they were assigned at birth;
- believe that their gender identity is different from their anatomical sex (for example, a man with gender dysphoria will feel that he is more female than male even though he was born with the anatomy of a man).
Psychological support for gender dysphoria aims to help people make sense of and become content with their gender identity.

Francis McGivern has been involved in psychology since 1996 but has a background as a carer for the elderly within the HSE. He holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from The Queen’s University of Belfast and a postgraduate Master’s degree in Applied (Counselling) psychology from The University of Ulster. He has been counselling since 2000 and was one of the youngest counselling psychologists in Ireland and the UK when qualifying in 2002. He holds chartered status with the Psychological Society of Ireland and is a full member of the division of Counselling Psychology. Francis completed a Doctorate in Psychotherapy at Dublin City University in 2014 (research entitled: ‘The Personal Impact of Uncompleted Suicide on Partners’) and has published papers on ethics in the context of psychotropic medication and psychotherapy. He published his first book Life After a Partner’s Suicide Attempt in 2021.