gender & sexuality
Therapy for LGBQIA & Trans/NB Folx
Maybe you've been out for a long time; maybe it's all brand new for you. Or, maybe it seems too risky for you to be out right now. It's all personal.
Wherever you are on your journey in life, you have your reasons, and they are all very personal. You and so many other LGBQIA & Trans/NB folx have been challenged in life unlike so many CisHet folks.
3.9% of 18+ adult Connecticuters identify as LGBTQ+.
4.5% of 18+ adult Georgians identify as LGBTQ+.
4.2% of 18+ adult Marylanders identify as LGBTQ+.
New York is home to the largest 18+ adult LGBTQ+ population in the United States.
LGBQIA & Trans/NB folx are more than twice as likely as CisHet men and women to meet criteria for a mental health diagnosis in their lifetime and 2.5 times more likely to experience depression, anxiety, or substance misuse according to the American Psychiatric Association.
You've had to endure systemic discrimination in the form of medical, legal, and social homophobia, and transphobia. This is all too common, and it's wrong.
Exposure to homophobic and transphobic hate likely internalized, settled in, and took root deep within you as a result. Hello, Inner Critic, how are you?
We want to help, and we can understand why you'd rather avoid it. Inhibitory emotions like shame, guilt, and anxiety get in the way and interfere with our core emotions like anger, fear, sadness, disgust, excitement, and sexual excitement. Frequently, we try to defend our Self somehow (e.g., depression) from all of the big, overwhelming emotions.
Working with a mindful and inclusive therapist can give you the safe space, outlet & sounding board, and therapeutic support that you need to untangle all of these thoughts, emotions, and defense behaviors while we unburden the parts of you that need attentive time, space, and introspection to be seen, heard, and understood.
We proudly affirm and serve people of all gender identities and all sexualities including "alternative sexualities" (kink, CNM/polyamory, BDSM, sex work, etc.).
Community and support systems are important. However, you can't always rely on the people in your pod for therapeutic support because it's neither their responsibility nor is it their expertise to help you heal, grow, and thrive emotionally, psychologically, and socially.
Hello, Gorg, how are you? We're proud to serve you.
what to expect:
FIRST: Free 15 Minute Phone Consultation. This is the first opportunity for you and the therapist to ask each other questions. We discuss reasons why you're getting started in therapy, your needs and your therapeutic goals, and schedule availability. Mostly, we want to figure out if you and the therapist could be a good fit to work together. If so, then we schedule an intake appointment and you receive a Welcome Email to the Client Portal, where you can complete the required consent forms and book future appointments online.
SECOND: The Initial Intake Appointment. This is the next best opportunity for you to share as much about you and your life story as you can in order to help the therapist better understand you and what you need moving forward. Assessment & Evaluation of your mental health will guide discussion that is also focused on recent and remote history of many parts of you and your life like family, education, employment, self-care, and social relationships. We discuss a lot in this first appointment while we also make sure that the pace of our process helps you feel seen, heard, and understood. Finally, we identify specific therapeutic goals, discuss your treatment options, and create your personalized plan for therapy.
THIRD: First Follow Up Appointment. Assessment & Evaluation, Treatment Planning, and Discharge Planning will continue to show up as frequent topics of discussion throughout the course of treatment - they're not just discussed once in the first session and then never again mentioned. Now that you have had a chance to create a personalized plan for your therapy, we start working it into action. Mostly, we keep building rapport because the therapeutic relationship drives the work.
GOING FORWARD: Follow Up Appointments. Therapeutic process moves at your pace. Safely guiding clients through their own personalized treatment plan tops the agenda for each and every therapy session. Feedback Loops will help us monitor and modify how we work with each other in order to ensure that you get the return on your investment in therapy that you need because that is what matters to us most. Eventually, therapy will end and you will continue to build a life worth living.
