Seattle, WA
No more shrinking. You were made to shine.
Individual Therapy with LGBTQIA+ Adults
Despite your best efforts to embody your true identity, old beliefs about how you are supposed to look, act, even exist, still seem to have power.
Maybe you pick up your phone and see the latest anti-trans bill come across your screen. You love who you are, but fear and shame make your body start to shake and you feel a familiar pull to get small and hide yourself in order to survive. You might feel isolated and alone, but getting out of the house and trying to connect with other queer people feels like too much, especially with all the grief you’ve been feeling. Or maybe your childhood trauma has been getting in the way of having the relationships you really want. Maybe you feel like there’s no space to heal in the midst of ongoing sociopolitical chaos.
Our queerness is not what causes us to feel anxious and depressed.
It is the environment around us telling us we are wrong, or bad, or don’t exist. Conservative upbringings often focus on messages about denying ourselves or telling us we are untrustworthy, dismissing any information our bodies might give us about what feels risky or safe. All these things converge to teach us to shut out our own wisdom and give up our autonomy.
For many LGBTQ folks, childhood trauma and religious trauma overlap.
In the political climate in the USA, these things are coming up more and more. Our nervous systems are reverting to being on high alert or deadening everything in order to survive the onslaught in the larger world and to cope with our daily lives.
Let’s give your nervous system somewhere safe to land so the rest of you can show up for a good life.
Queer Therapy with a Queer Therapist
I get it. I am in this with you. Working with a queer therapist means you don’t have to start by explaining to me what it’s like to be a queer person right now.
When you walk into my office and ask me if I saw the latest supreme court case about gay rights or the next bill introduced to keep trans kids out of sports, I will know what you’re talking about. In our work we will explore the individual struggles you are experiencing and consider how the things happening in your family, community, and country are affecting you.
Sometimes clients have specific themes they want to address, like not feeling comfortable with themselves, being unsure how to be close to others, or how to protect themselves from the judgment of others. Clients also come to me looking for relief from childhood trauma or grief. Our work together can incorporate all of these things.
I use a unique blend of EMDR therapy and psychodynamic therapy in extended or intensive sessions to help you heal. We will work together to:
Identify early trauma or internalized beliefs to release the charge they still hold
Recognize systemic impact and set up supports where possible
Practice nervous system regulation in a safe environment
Break free from binary thinking that denies the complex human experience
Develop the capacity for authentic, close connections
LGBTQIA+ Affirming Therapy helps you live a more authentic and meaningful life.
Let your own inner wisdom guide how you show up in the world
Release the shame your church convinced you was yours to carry
Explore spirituality on your own terms through whatever calls to you — nature, astrology, mysticism, or something else entirely
Let yourself be held by chosen family, queer community, and the people standing beside you in the fight
Heal enough that showing up to a protest feels empowering instead of terrifying
Meet your body with curiosity and kindness even when it doesn’t yet match what you know to be true
Reclaim the joy of being queer.
Questions?
FAQs
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I’m so glad! And, there may be other ways that you find things you don’t believe have power in your life and you don’t understand why. Maybe when you hear a politician saying that trans people are terrorists, even though you know that’s not true, your body still feels a jolt of shame. Maybe it’s not religious but there are family or cultural beliefs that bring confusion or a sense of needing to silence some parts of yourself. We can explore those things too. I also work with folks healing from other types of trauma, including abuse and neglect, and folks working to figure out more of who they are beyond traumatic experiences.
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When I say queer therapy I mean a mindset or way of approaching healing that rejects rigidity and embraces complexity. Queer as in not normative. Queer as in my liberation is tied to yours. Queer as in, how can we look at things creatively to find what works for you instead of sticking with what’s expected? So while I have extensive education and training as my foundation, I also work hard to adapt sessions to the needs of each of my clients. This is one of the reasons I do extended and intensive sessions — 50 minutes just doesn’t work for some folks.
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I grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian family and didn’t come out until I was 30. Purity culture, heteronormativity, James Dobson, and intensely rigid gender binaries all had deep impacts on my sense of self and my mental health. I am so grateful to have done the work to identify internalized shame and find the joy in who I am.
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Not at all. Many of my clients are straight and/or cis people who are working through attachment wounds and family dynamics. I also work with folks who are wondering how they might identify if they were really free to explore their gender and sexuality more freely. You can reach out directly if you have more specific questions about whether we might be a good fit.
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An intensive is an opportunity for longer sessions to get further into your therapeutic process so that you can find relief faster. I offer two options for intensive work: ongoing 3 hour sessions and occasional or one time full day sessions. All the info is on my intensive page here.
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a highly effective therapy used for healing all sorts of internalized beliefs and traumatic experiences. Check out this page for a detailed explanation.