Acceptance, Understanding, and Support

Are you feeling stressed or misunderstood as a queer person? Do you have friends or family who don’t know how to support you? Do you need a private, safe place to speak honestly about what it’s like to be you? 

What is LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy?

LGBTQ+ affirmative counseling is a special approach to counseling that honors your unique experience of gender and sexuality. It focuses on supporting you as you embrace your authentic self and navigate through a world rife with stereotypes and sexist, heteronormative pressures.

Why Is LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy Needed?

Throughout history, queer people have faced significant biases and discrimination. These biases have manifested in various forms, from microaggressions to violence to institutionalized discrimination. These societal biases have often made it difficult for queer people to obtain healthcare, housing, and education, and have led to negative mental health outcomes, social isolation, and economic hardship.

To address the harm of these systemic prejudices, LGBTQ+ affirming therapy seeks to go beyond mere tolerance and acceptance. LGBTQ+ affirming therapy focuses on improving the mental health of queer people, fostering resilience to experiences of minority stress, and validating and celebrating queer culture, love, and joy.

How Does LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy Work?

As an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist, I provide a safe and supportive space for individuals to explore and affirm their identity while also addressing their mental health needs. My approach is to create a non-judgmental environment where you can be completely honest about who you are and what life is like for you.

Services I Offer:

• LGBTQ+ Affirming Individual Therapy: In on one-on-one sessions, you can address personal challenges, explore identity, and develop healthy coping skills.
• LGBTQ+ Affirming Couples Therapy: In sessions with your partner, you can work on improving communication, resolving conflicts, and deepening intimacy.
• LGBTQ+ Affirming Family Therapy: Sometimes it’s helpful to bring a parent, sibling, or other family member into sessions. In family sessions, I help facilitate difficult conversations about coming out, exploring new relationships, or having children.

My Approach:

The process starts with an initial clinical assessment. During this first meeting, we talk through your history, your concerns, your goals, and your strengths. We confirm your diagnosis (if applicable) and work together to make a treatment plan, which would include determining the best research-backed therapy for you and your situation.

Several research-backed therapies are compatible with LGBTQ+ Affirmative Therapy. These include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Focuses on helping individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Uses principles of CBT while also incorporating principles of mindfulness, acceptance, and staying true to one’s values.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): Teaches mindful self-awareness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal skills.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR): Involves learning advanced self-soothing and grounding skills. Also provides opportunities to make peace with painful memories of past traumas, and prepare to deal differently with trauma triggers in the future.
• Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM): Teaches somatic relaxation and resourcing skills while also providing gentle options for coping with triggering thoughts and images.
• Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT): Reveals the connections between your emotions and your behaviors, guiding you towards healthier strategies.
• Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT): Focuses on helping couples or families stop negative interaction patterns and speak from the heart so that they can experience less conflict and more intimacy.

Once we determine the right therapeutic approach for you and therapy is underway, I welcome your feedback and insights. Your experiences and perspectives are an important part of the process.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Contact me today to schedule a consultation.