LINCOLN- Nebraska’s new gender care restrictions are causing confusion among mental health providers as the law first affects therapy sessions. The state law took effect Oct. 1 prohibiting transition surgeries and requiring state regulation of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones prescribed before the age of 19. However, the law is having a chilling effect on therapy sessions before any medications are dispensed.

Camie Nitzel, a licensed psychologist and founder of Kindred Psychology in Lincoln, wrote a Nov. 1 letter to Dr. Timothy Tesmer, the state’s chief medical officer, saying that the temporary rules currently in place force providers to violate state law regarding unprofessional conduct by psychologists. Unprofessional conduct is defined as behavior that deviates from accepted standards in the profession.

“The language as it currently stands leaves mental health providers in a personal and professional quandary for how to practice both legally and ethically in the State of Nebraska,” Nitzel wrote Tesmer, who created the regulations. Nitzel said the regulations further reduce transgender people to their gender identity and push them to seek care outside Nebraska.

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