This is something that came to me over the last few days. It may wind up as a scene in a future story. Or not. But I felt it was worth posting on its own.

The therapist sighed.

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way..."

The father interrupted, "Don't give me that psycho mumbo jumbo. He's got to live in the real world, not this, this fantasy

The therapist gave his patient's father a look that stopped him mid rant.

"OK, you want the real world? In the real world the fantasy is 'getting your son back'."

He continued, "Look, you never have had a son, no matter what it looked like. She has known she was female as far back as she can remember. Gender identity is a very basic part of someone's personality."

"Your choices are to try to accept her. And work with her to help her transition."

He paused, a sour look on his face.

"Or you can keep trying to force her to be a boy. At best, she'll be utterly miserable. Worse than what led you to bring her to me. At worst, she'll commit suicide."

The mother cried out, "But surely we can stop.."

"No. You can't watch her 24 hours a day. And before you suggest it, any drugs that could stop it would be turning her into the next best thing to a zombie. It'd be totally unethical to do that."

The father muttered, "And this is ethical?"

He wasn't as quiet as he'd thought.

"Yes, yes it is. What you want is more or less brainwashing. Which never works long term. And is considered abuse by all reputable medical and psychological groups. Yes, you may still find a few people willing to do what you want, sir. But it's illegal. And even more likely to eventually result in suicide."

"So, your real long term choices are a dead 'son' or a live daughter. Short term you can try something else, but that'll just be prolonging things and causing all of you a lot of unnecessary pain."