Affirmative Therapy for Transgender and Gender Nonbinary (TGNB) People

Whether you’re beginning to explore your gender, or have been out for 20 years or more – we are here to support you. Affirmative therapy can help you with gender exploration, or life issues and challenges without pathologizing your gender.  If you’ve been thinking about looking for therapy to more deeply explore your gender identity, we can imagine you must have a lot of questions on your mind like: 

• How do I really experience my gender?  

• Do I feel like the labels I use fully capture who I am? 

• Have societal expectations about gender influenced how I see myself? 

• How has society impacted my sense of self? 

• How do I express my gender in my day-to-day life (through clothing, appearance, behavior, etc.), and does this feel authentic to who I am? 

• Do I feel wholly supported and affirmed in how I express my gender? What kind of changes or support would make me feel more authentic? 

• How can I feel safer in my body, and with people around me when there is so much transphobia?

These are big questions we cannot answer on a webpage, but they are questions we’ve explored ourselves, and with our clients. Spending time with these questions alone can also affect mental health. If you don’t have clear answers, therapy can help with:  

• Decreased gender dysphoria 

• Less shame about who you are 

• Congruence with your sense of self 

• The ability to manage your sense of safety in public spaces 

• Better communication with friends and family 

• Decreased depression, anxiety, substance use or suicidal ideation

Even if you’ve decided to seek therapy for some of these concerns, you might also be wondering about your therapist. All our therapists have spent time exploring their own gendered experiences and have received continuing education from The Affirmative Couch. We know the mental health industry has a long history of harm when it comes to transgender and nonbinary clients. We are committed to staying up to date in the best practices in gender affirming care.   

Further, affirmative psychoanalytic psychotherapy requires ongoing exploration of how we may be biased or impacted by dominant norms in our society.  We know finding the right therapist is the most important part of committing to therapy. We are here to take a consult call with you, book a first session, and continue to build a relationship together that will begin to find some answers to these really big questions.