Whether you’re an affirming therapist working in the community for years, or you’re beginning work with your first LGBTQIA+ client, we are here to help.
- Are you feeling lost and alone in your clinical work?
- Did you recently fumble in a session not knowing what to offer your cient to help?
- Are you the only therapist in your community that is working with LGBTQIA+ clients?
- Or are you struggling with all the systems-level advocacy AND clinical work in your community?
At Out Couch Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, we believe that providing high-quality, affirming care shouldn’t be done alone. This work is especially hard right now, and it may not feel like the deep, collaborative exploration you want to offer.
- What happens when you can’t find the balance between attending to a client’s internal world and the threatening systems of oppression in the external world?
- How do you negotiate the therapeutic stance of learning from the client’s experiences, and not relying on them to teach you about their community needs and minority stressors?
- Where do you go to manage your own, very real anxieties and big feelings about the political and cultural conflicts related to gender and sexuality?
That’s why we are here; to hold the complexities of both the interiorities and external stressors LGBTQIA+ people are living in. Our continuing education isn’t just a checklist of definitions; it is an immersion into truly working affirmatively with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender nonbinary, polyamorous and kinky clients.
Learning Beyond the Basics
At Out Couch Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, we believe that providing high-quality care shouldn’t feel like navigating a minefield of saying the wrong thing. This work, after all is working toward making the unspeakable, more able to speak. It should feel like a deep, collaborative exploration between a therapist and their client.
Lifelong Learning & A New Way to Practice
When you register for one of our pre-recorded home study courses, join a consultation group, or meet with us one-on-one about a specific case, you aren’t just engaging in professional development, you are refining your clinical mind.
- Move Beyond Definitions: Shift from memorizing labels to working with Dr. Cadyn’s “Spectrums Model” of sex, gender, and sexuality. Learn how you can help your clients build a stronger sense of self and more protective relationships.
- Uncover the Unseen: Work with your clients to identify and dismantle messages from early childhood AND the world around them by using the therapeutic relationship to build more awareness and deeper senses of safety and security.
- Find Your Community: Stop practicing in a vacuum. This work can’t be done alone. Join a network of therapists who believe in the importance of a healthy unconscious, anti-oppressive systems of care, AND lifelong learning.
Meet Your Instructors
Cadyn Cathers, PsyD, MBA
Dr. Cadyn has been teaching graduate level psychology since 2011 and started teaching continuing education for post-doctorate level clinicians in 2018. He is the founder and CEO of Out Couch Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Melissa Dellens, MA, LMFT
Melissa has been providing community trainings on a wide variety of topics since 2011, has teaching continuing education courses since 2021 and teaching graduate level psychology courses since 2022. She is the Chief Education and Compliance Officer at Out Couch Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Genuine Exploration with Affirmative Intervention
Imagine walking into your next session with a transgender or neurodivergent client. Instead of worrying about the “right” thing to say, you feel grounded and more prepared to face the unknown. You can more effectively manage your own emotional reactions toward your clients’ experiences. You’ll have cultural humility, and clinical fluency to help explore your client’s world (inside AND out) and affirm ALL their identities.
You’ve moved from being “ally” to working toward understanding community and cultural experience more deeply. You’ve transformed your practice into a space where authenticity isn’t just welcomed, there’s space to work toward helping someone feel deeply understood.
