Any opinions on the 'online therapist' Dr. Graham L. Peveller?

Question

TransGender Victoria received a question which I'll post here

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I am writing to you for a little help. I have been working with a Psychiatrist (Dr Graham Peveller) who has many years of experience working with people who suffer gender dysphoria.

He has diagnosed me as transsexual and advises strongly that I should under go srs reassignment surgery.

He has been wonderfully helpful . I wondered if you have ever come across him in your work and if so how he is perceived as a professional.

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Personally, the idea of online therapy re SGD without client and therapist seems fraught with risks. I've also never heard of Dr Peveller before. All the same, I'd welcome any thoughts

Answer 1

Don't have any experience with Dr Peveillier, but I just Googled Dr Graham Peveller and it looks like others have wondered about him too. I just read the discussion at this link...

http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php?topic=52723.0

The info at the link was useful because it made me think that online therapy can be helpful for some people who are having problems accessing therapy due to other reasons (like long waiting lists, being in an isolated area geographically, etc).

I guess like any therapist, it's advisable to check their qualifications and credentials, especially if you're requiring a letter for surgery. I know of at least one therapist who offers therapy sessions that are done via Skype. So maybe online therapy in itself isn't necessarily a poor choice. Ultimately I'd rather have online therapy with a sensitive, trans-friendly psychiatrist than face-to-face therapy with an insensitive psychiatrist who was clueless about gender identity issues.

Answer 2

I too don't have any experience with Dr Peveller but there are a couple of things that already concern me. Firstly I am very concerned that a professional has strongly advised that someone undergo SRS. The decision to undergo SRS is a very personal decision which one should come to after carefully weighing up all the pros and cons. The role of the health professional is to give information and assist the individual in exploring all the ways of expressing their gender identity. No professional should "strongly advise" someone to undergo SRS. With regards to online therapy it is true that online therapy has eased access to health professionals and is generally well accepted however it should NOT be offered as a replacement for face to face therapy if this is available. Furthermore there needs to be good links between the therapist and the individual's local mental health services if more intensive support is needed (eg if a person becomes acutely suicidal during their treatment, the therapist has a duty of care to ensure that professional local support is available. This is extremely difficult if not impossible if the therapist lives in a different country with no understanding of local conditions). Furthermore, if the therapist acts unprofessionally there are no avenues to make a complaint. Medicare has recently introduced incentives for medical specialists to use online therapy to ease access to specialist healthcare and more therapists are starting to use this. On a minor technical note, Dr Peveller is not a Psychiatrist but a Psychologist.

Answer 3

Hi Everyone, I have had direct dealings with Dr Graham Peveller and have undergone SRS in Thailand as a result. I am extremely happy with the whole process and found his services absolutely wonderful in my case. I was very sure who I was before I contacted Graham and was very sure what I needed to do (have SRS). I guess if you are one of the many people who seem unsure about where they are in life then by all means go to a local professional for help. But if you are in the category of being sure of yourself and you don't want or need to be treated like a psychiatric case then seek out Graham. I started my "treatment" locally ( in Australia) but I became totally disillusioned with the whole process when I was told I needed to do a real life test for up to 2 years! This was something I just could not have undertaken, " performing socially as a female" while still a male was just completely wrong to me! My whole life up to that point had been wrong, I wasn't going to continue living as the wrong person any longer! So, if you feel definite about the way you want your life to go then put your case to Graham and see if he can help you.

Answer 4

interesting........ I am goin.to.get on this... Sick of.waiting.and waiting.and waitinf.for SOUTHERN GENDER CLINIC (MONASH) to.get.back to.me

Answer 5

 

H everyone...

Dr. Graham Peveller is not a psychiatrist. He is a social worker with a Ph.D. in gender dysphoria and a few decades of experience working with the transsexual community both in the UK and in Thailand, and with working with Thai and USA based surgeons on pre-surgery assessment and counselling.

The Thai and USA surgeons regard his opinion very highly, and will operate based on his letter of approval, along with a short Q&A session with a Thai psychiatrist on the day of your surgery to make sure you are basically mentally well.

He's one of the people who surgeons such as Dr. Preecha of PAI or Dr. Saran will refer you to if you live in a country where there is no support for transsexuals, or where it would be illegal for a local doctor ot help you.

He is also one of a number of mental health professionals (including psychiatrists and psychologists) who help people who have been declined surgery by clinics such as Monash or Charing Cross to gain approval. Obviously, this makes him unpopular in some circles, and you will see this in some of the reviews online.

However, the fact that thousands of transwomen are now happily post-op and living great lives (I know several personally) following his approval should suggest that he knows what he is doing. Many of these people would not have obtained surgery otherwise, either because they did not meet some psychological profile of a gender clinic (e.g. being gay in their desired gender, or nor sufficiently feminine or masculine) or because they lived/live in countries like Malaysia or Qatar where gender transition and even cross-dressing is illegal.

If you work with Dr. Peveller, be prepared to spend a LOT of time documenting your life history and how you came to the decision to have SRS. Not seeing you in person, he will work a lot with the facts of your life, and he will make sure you have good logical reasoning and have come to this decision with considerable thought.

Also make sure you don't miss the opportunity to draw on his expertise as he has worked with many thousands of transwomen (and also transmen) in the past, and is happy to share his experience.

And if you want an opinion from someone local in Australia - feel free to contact me - Melissa Star - on 0409 005 005 or via email at melissa@melissastar.com

Answer 6

Dr Graham is really REALLY unprofessional!

He has such a short temper about everything, he mispells every other word, and I ended up counselling him on his own problems that he was having at home.

An example of his short temper: He wanted an address to send the letter. So I start off my giving my Postal Code and he suddenly ends the conversation by claiming I was exhausting and tiresome because I hadn't provided my full address.

I payed for those sessions, yet he cut them short. In real life, face to face conversation would not happen like that. Needless to say, that was nothing to loose your cool about.

I would recommend him only to get the letter as soon as possible, DO NOT count on any other type of counselling whatsoever.