The choice for queer people to engage in LGBTQ therapy is a personal choice and one that can lead to transformative outcomes. It is a common misunderstanding that queer people seek counseling solely related to their sexual or gender identities.

The truth is, queer people present in counseling with very similar concerns as non-queer clients. Many report struggles within their careers, their relationships, managing their emotions, or to enhance aspects of health and wellness. The difference, however, lies within the unique ways queer identities intersect these other areas of life.

Common methods of counseling and therapy include various types of CBT approaches or more solutions-oriented approaches. While effective, these approaches can often under-focus on the uniqueness of queer identity. To capture ‘queerness’ as it presents in a counseling or therapeutic environment, culturally competent counselors and therapists utilize knowledge and approaches inclusive of queer identities.

They are also aware of their own attitudes and beliefs about queerness and queer people. LGBTQ+ focused counseling and therapy is an integrated approach that intentionally infuses queerness into the treatment process. In short, you will learn to identify and strengthen the gifts queerness can beget, and experience the transformative power of LGBT therapy.

What is LGBTQ-Focused Therapy?

As an integrated approach, queer-focused counseling and therapy (i.e., LGBTQ therapy or LGBTQIA therapy) utilize the inherent strengths and qualities of queerness to reach client goals. Rooted in post-modern philosophy, these approaches function on ideas of multiple truths and the subjective nature of health and wellness.

What this means for clients is that you are the deciding factor in how your life looks during and after counseling. Health and wellness are defined by you the client, and are pursued in ways that make sense for you.

Gender affirming therapy and queer-focused counseling and therapy is rooted in Feminist and Multicultural theoretical principles such as identifying and deconstructing power, identifying sources of oppression, and altering our environments to gain mastery. The foundation of these principles supports and enhances other evidence-based practices to build a treatment plan uniquely tailored to you.

The integrated nature of LGBTQ therapy means you as the client will learn the cognitive tools and skills to challenge internalized messages that affect quality of life; learn and practice new behaviors and ways of being that focus on authenticity and liberation of self; and seek out relationships and connections that are enhancing and fulfilling.

In doing so, you and a counselor can hone in on the areas of life – whether it is work, relationships, or understanding yourself – and create a life you can take pride in. You can expect a dynamic therapeutic environment that centers your queerness and builds authenticity.

In addition to the active interventions, the attitude towards queerness in the therapeutic space creates an environment for the work to be accomplished. Mental health professionals are trained to be mindful and aware of how their values and biases can impact the client and therapeutic process. It is true, that there are real risks to the client when the counselor’s values go unchecked.

There is also potential for rich work to be done when shared and overlapping values are intentionally integrated. Therapists and counselors who hold a positive attitude towards queerness and queer clients understand the strengths inherent in living a queer life.

Strengths like deep community connections, and accepting a life in flux and the fluidity of nature. Strengths such as the importance pleasure plays in creating an enjoyable and satiating life. Strengths like the seductive nature of learning more about ourselves, our wants, and our desires.

A counselor or therapist who holds these attitudes supports the myriad iterations of gender and sexuality that present in our clients, and we work to help our clients to view their queerness as a place to draw strength and not a place to mask or police, tenants of successful gender affirming therapy and LGBTIA therapy.

What can LGBTQ Therapy Do for You?

The social pressures and stigma against queerness can lead to individuals having to mask or diminish aspects of themselves to avoid shame, isolation, ostracization, and even physical harm. The result is a person out of touch with or avoidant of their authentic selves.

Many queer people over the course of their lives have had to engage in a deep level of self-policing – that is intentionally choosing clothes, words, and interests to avoid drawing negative attention from others. Self-policing is a purposeful behavior, not so unrelated to situational awareness.

However, self-policing as a choice is one that is often borne out of survival in the pursuit of safety. In public, queer people are critiqued and othered, and demonstrations of affection and love are viewed as political messages or statements. So, we are mindful of where we hold hands or pacify our affections so as to not arouse suspicions. These almost-daily experiences mean queer people are removed and divorced from connections with and expressions of their own joyful lives.

In LGBTQIA therapy and gender affirming therapy, you can work with a counselor to unlearn heteronormativity and develop new definitions for “normal” and “good”. You can learn to spot how the world functions off the easy choice of an “either/or” binary and impose that simple choice onto us.

With these re-definitions, you will be empowered to find ways to exist and thrive between the “either/or”. You can experience the transformational power of relationships that are fulfilling and multiply joy. Queer-focused therapy can assist you as the client in identifying clear and concrete ways your life can be transformed and enhanced by tapping into queerness as a strength.

Even if you as a client do not identify along the queer spectra, you too can benefit from a queer-informed counseling environment. As LGBTQ therapy is rooted in feminism and multiculturalism, the foci and work can be equally beneficial for cisgender and heterosexual clients.

All clients can benefit from being more in tune with how authenticity in ourselves can lead to a pleasurable, joy-filled life. Queer-infused therapy can help many understand and learn more about how the influence of hegemonies shapes our sense of self.

If you are interested in learning about yourself, where and how your desires in life are defined, or if you want to learn ways to subvert the hegemonic patriarchy, have a conversation with a current or future therapist about how they infuse queerness throughout the counseling process. You, too, can feel and experience the transformative power of a liberated, authentic sense of self.

Written by: Vincent Marasco

This blog is made for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. The information in this blog is not intended to (1) replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified licensed health care provider, (2) create or establish a provider-patient relationship, or (3) create a duty for us to follow up with you.