Your identity is yours. It's yours to explore, come to terms with, and share whenever you're ready. Many LGBTQ individuals have found that LGBTQ therapy can help them explore the ideas that may be circling in their minds. Ruminating on these thoughts on your own can be challenging. But, working with a mental health professional who accepts you can be very helpful. They can support you in working through your thoughts about gender and sexuality. You can come out whenever you want to. Or, if you never feel the need to, then don't! Likewise, you don't ever have to label yourself.

As an LGBTQ person you've had to navigate through some difficult experiences. You may still be coming to terms with your sexual orientation or gender identity. You might need help figuring out what this means. Or, you're comfortable with yourself but still struggle with self worth. Maybe, you suffer from depression or anxiety. Though all humans struggle with fearful thinking, relationship challenges, and big, existential questions of identity, the LGBTQ population faces particular stressors and challenges when compared to our cis-het counterparts.

Somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of LGBTQ people deal with anxiety and depression at some point in their lives. That rate is 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than that of their straight or gender-conforming counterparts. This is not too surprising when you think about the impact of being subjected to persistent prejudice and discrimination. It means you become hyper alert at reading situations and gauging how safe it is to be yourself. This leads to what psychologists call minority stress. According to the American Psychological Association, minority stress is "the relationship between minority and dominant values and resultant conflict experienced by minority group members." Many studies have shown that minority stress has powerful, lasting, and negative impacts on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ people. The end result can be depression and/or anxiety.

It's possible that you've tried therapy in the past, only to be paired with a straight clinician or self-proclaimed LGBTQ ally who failed to get to the root of your distress or just couldn't seem to understand your lived experiences. You're tired of being misgendered or pathologized and explaining aspects of your identity when you'd rather be exploring something else in therapy. With an LGBTQ-identifying therapist, you can use your time in counseling to address your precise needs, understand your emotions, and process your experiences with someone who can hold space for you on your path to healing.

As a cis-gendered female LGBT-identified therapist, as well as being the incredibly lucky daughter of two women who were pioneers in their day on their quest to seek a path to being mommies. I work to understand the unique strengths and needs of the queer and trans community as well as understand my privileged perspective. I provide trauma-informed, culturally humble, LGBTQIA+ celebrating, social justice focused, and gender affirming counseling services. I can provide an affirming space for you explore all of your intersecting identities so that you can live boldly as your authentic self.