®LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy
You don't have to explain yourself first.
Queer, trans, nonbinary, questioning, and asexual people — and the partners and parents who love them. Your identity is not the problem being treated.
Affirming is a description of practice, not a label
A lot of directories let a therapist tick a box. The word tells you less than it should, so here is what it means in this practice.
It means I am not assessing whether you are really trans, really queer, or really sure. It means I will not treat your identity as the presenting problem unless you tell me it is. It means that if you come in to work on your job, your marriage, or your grief, we work on that, and I do not route every conversation back through your gender.
It also means I know the systems. Letters of support, insurance denials, surgical timelines, what a WPATH-informed assessment involves and what it does not. That knowledge matters because a therapist who is warm but does not know the paperwork will cost you months.
Not a fit if
You are looking for someone to help you change your orientation or gender identity, or looking for someone to talk you out of yours. Neither is what I do.
What brings people here
Gender identity and exploration
Including the version where you are not sure and the uncertainty has lasted years. Not knowing is a legitimate place to work from and it is not a problem to be solved before we start.
Try the Gender LabComing out
Not the single conversation people imagine, but the ongoing series of decisions about who, when, and how much, made repeatedly across a lifetime.
Coming out guideNavigating gender-affirming care
Finding providers, understanding what documentation is required and by whom, preparing for procedures, and processing what comes after, which almost nobody warns people about.
Surgical provider directoryFamily rejection and chosen family
Including partial rejection, which is harder to name than outright rejection and often harder to carry.
Religious trauma
Particularly for people raised in traditions that named their existence as sin.
Religious trauma therapyBeing neurodivergent and queer at once
Autistic and trans people overlap at rates the research is clear about, and the overlap gets used against people constantly. It also creates a real clinical problem: if you have difficulty identifying your own internal states, the standard question about how your body feels is unanswerable.
Read about alexithymiaFor young people and the adults around them
Reading and tools
Where I practice
Telehealth across Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, and Alaska.
The law that applies to your care is the law of the state where you are physically sitting during the session. Working with a therapist based in Illinois does not place your care under Illinois law if you are somewhere else.
If you need support right now
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 · all ages
The Trevor Project — 1-866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678 · LGBTQ+ youth, 24/7
Trans Lifeline — 877-565-8860 · peer support staffed by trans people
Ready to start?
A free consultation is a reasonable place to ask whether this is a fit before committing to anything.
Quick exit
Press ESC three times or tap the button three times to leave this site immediately.
Leaves this site immediately. It does not erase your browsing history.