Queer affirmative therapy
Queer affirmative therapy facilitates you to feel affirmed, celebrated and validated in every aspect of your identity, your sexual desires and behaviours, and your relationship choices.
Whether or not you are seeking therapy for reasons related to your sexuality, gender identity or relationships, you may have questions regarding how safe and understood you will feel, such as;
Will my therapist respect the pronouns I, my friends and my partners use?
Will my non-monogamous relationship be considered as valid as a monogamous one?
Will my gender identity be truly acknowledged as real and meaningful?
Will my kinkiness be celebrated and not viewed as dangerous or problematic?
Will my therapist judge me for not coming out to my family or church community?
If I do not fully understand my gender identity or sexual orientation, will my therapist think my queerness is not genuine?
Will I be pitied for not exploring my queer identity earlier in life?
Will I be frowned upon for the number of sexual partners I have, the events I attend, or the sexual decisions I make?
As a gender, sex and relationship diversities therapist, I will affirm every aspect of your identity, whatever point in your journey you are at, and I will help you to do the same.
I can facilitate you to unpack and understand the impact of societal conditioning, oppression and stigma. I can help you explore whether you have internalised this stigma, which means absorbing negative messages from the outside world and believing them.
If relevant, I can help you pinpoint negative feelings and self-beliefs caused by internalised stigma. Once you have identified these beliefs, you can start to update and let go of them.
It might feel important to examine your queer identity in the context of other aspects of your identity. For example, we might explore matters relating to your family background, culture, race, religion, neurodiversity or disabilities.
We will also explore your life experiences more broadly, including your experiences of early attachment (caregiver) relationships and any trauma you have experienced in childhood or adulthood. You can read more about my general therapeutic approach here.
I can work with you to navigate the different aspects of your identity, have compassion for any difficulties you might experience, tune into what you want and gain clarity on how you feel.
I can also help you to name your needs, tune into and communicate your boundaries, and identify what you value in yourself (and others).
Most importantly, we will journey together towards a place where you can more readily love, accept, and celebrate every part of yourself.
Learn more about my fees and location, and contact me to inquiry about my availability.