LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy

What is an LGBTQ-affirming therapist?

LGBTQ people enter therapy for the same reasons everyone else enters therapy. They are depressed, or they’re severely anxious, or they’re compulsively abusing substances, or they’ve endured a recent breakup, or their mother just died, or whatever. Regardless of LGBTQ status, the challenges that bring people into therapy and the diagnoses they are given – major depression, PTSD, substance use disorder, and the like – are most often manifestations of early-life trauma and shame. In other words, these are not LGBTQ issues, they are human issues.

Unfortunately, many LGBTQ people arrive in therapy with an extra layer of trauma and shame related to their sexual orientation or gender identity and the ways in which that orientation/identity has been responded to by their families and/or society.

LGBTQ and Trauma

Unless an LGBTQ person comes in to therapy for the purposes of dealing with past trauma, it is very possible that a non-affirming LGBTQ therapist would miss the fact that being raised in a society, and possibly in a family that rejects who you are and may even condemn who you are as an LGBTQ person produces feelings of shame and is experienced as trauma.    This is why there is a higher rate of suicide and substance abuse in the LGBTQ community.

Advantages of having an LGBTQ Affirming Therapist

LGBTQ-affirmative therapists are either LGBTQ themselves or they have loved ones who are LGBTQ. They are neither externally nor internally homophobic, seeing no real difference between LGBTQ people and straight people. They are similarly accepting of gender dysphoria and all sorts of other “queer” issues. Furthermore, LGBTQ-affirmative therapists are fully cognizant of the discrimination, ridicule, and shame that their LGBTQ clients may have experienced, and they understand how these hurtful external messages can become internalized. Finally, whenever appropriate, LGBTQ-affirmative therapists actively build this understanding into the therapeutic process.

My aim as an LGBTQ-Affirming Therapist is to be in solidarity with your experience, understanding from a personal level as an LGBTQ person, what you might be dealing with.

Developing a positive identity as an LGBTQ person does not happen automatically. It can take some introspection, some work. But for all people, even those who have been traumatized, it is possible to come to feel proud and strong about who you are as an LGBTQ person.

It’s about being intentional.

As an affirmative therapist, I am intentional about my commitment to LGBTQ inclusivity and sensitivity in terms of providing services where YOU, as the CLIENT, do not have to educate me about your gender, sexuality, identity. I understand. I have been there, and not only that, I have done my research and work to be an understanding of the entire LGBTQ community.

I just have regular problems that aren’t related to being LGBTQ, so why do I need an affirming therapist?

I am a therapist first and foremost; my training makes me capable of doing therapy with anyone. However, in my experience there are nuances and sometimes underlying issues that are related to a person’s sexuality that are not obvious on the surface of things, and a properly trained LGBTQ-Affirmative Therapist will notice them and provide you with a whole integrated approach to your therapy.

And then, on top of that, due to my own experiences as a lesbian, I have delved into the specifics of what it means to live in this society where we are not always loved and accepted for who we are.

It’s about identifying with the problem.

It may be that your issues do not have to do with your being an LGBTQ person; but if for some reason they do, I am the right person to work with you as I have expertise in this area of therapy.

On many occasions with clients, there comes a point where some things are found out to be rooted in some oppressive or negative thoughts you might have about yourself as an LGBTQ person or beliefs about relationships in heterosexist ideas that don’t apply to your life.

This is normal and understandable.

Seeking an understanding listener helps.

If you are interested in working with someone who is not only qualified but empathetic and understanding of the issues with which you are dealing, please call me at (562) 213-5318.

I will provide a safe and confidential space for you. Moreover, I will understand.