Identities Counseling

Our Practice

Going to therapy can feel very overwhelming and vulnerable for so many people. It takes a lot of courage and strength to take the first step toward healing and recovery. Whether you struggle with depression or anxiety, or more pervasive mental health concerns that negatively affect your life, we can meet you where you’re at and engage in a meaningful and collaborative working alliance to help you work through these things. We are an inclusive, affirming, empowering and supportive practice where we believe in our client’s autonomy, ability and capacity to achieve true healing. We embrace and respect diversity, and understand that each of us are unique and have varied life experiences that shape who we are and how we understand ourselves and how we exist in the world.

We are trauma informed clinicians and coaches and understand how varied traumatic experiences can change our worldview, undermine our trust and negatively impact our sense of self, negatively impacting our self-esteem and our ability to trust not only others, but our own perceptions of ourselves and others.

We are lgbtq+ informed and understand that gender and sexual identities are often fluid and expansive and reside on a spectrum. We are very much informed and aware of the many ways is which gender and sexuality intersect with every other aspect of a person’s life. We understand in some very profound ways, how discrimination, hatred and oppressive actions impact the lives of lgbtq people and how damaging this is to one’s mental health.

We have experience in many different areas and we work with each person in navigating their current mental health concerns and navigating the world around lgbtq identities. We work with families as they navigate the “coming out” as lgbtq+ family members. We work with parents as they come to learn and may need assistance in finding an understanding of their childs identity as they understand themselves. We assist families, parents and siblings in maintaining positive and productive connections within the family system, with hopes that the family can find healing while maintaining a loving and supportive system.

We come from a Christian faith-based perspective. We choose love and acceptance above all, and reject no one. We believe that there are many lgbtq+ people of faith in our community and others that may want to come to know Christ, but realize that the larger and extremely harmful narrative of Christianity is hateful, discriminatory and oppressive. We refuse and vehemently reject haters and the negative narratives they use to control and condemn lgbtq+ people.

We believe that maintaining family connection and resting on our faith can go a long way in healing individuals and families on their journey to finding acceptance. We also understand that faith is not everyone’s cup of tea, so we do not force our Chistian values or views onto anyone. All are welcome.

Our Focus

Our Treatment Focus

We come from an integrative, client centered, trauma informed and faith-based perspective with all of our clients. We consider our work together as a collaborative experience as we understand that each client is an expert in their own lives and have both the capacity to heal and autonomy to make their own choices about things that affect their lives.

Our Client Promise

We will support you and assist you in any way that we can in the service of your healing. We respect a person’s choices and autonomy to make their own choices and stand with you in the face of adversity, injustice and intolerance. We will always stand up for what is right and just.

Trauma Informed

It is almost impossible these days to navigate life without experiencing one, or more traumatic events. Trauma is defined as “a distressing event, which is usually something that overwhelms our ability to cope when the event as it happens”. Trauma is the lasting emotional response and feelings that often results from living through a distressing event. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm and negatively impact a person’s sense of self, removes a sense of safety and can cause significant issue in our ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. Trauma undermines our trust in others, in ourselves and in the world around us. Healing from trauma is possible, and it is difficult, but is necessary in order to move beyond the pain and into recovery and healing.

Our Therapy Services

Identity Development

Transgender, Gender Nonconforming and Nonbinary Identities

We believe that a person’s identity is a very complex construct. One’s identity is a personal understanding of who they are, an innate sense of who we are in the context of the world around us and often resides on a spectrum. Our identities can influence and impacted by internal factors, genetics, biological factors, family, culture and l

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Transgender, Gender Nonconforming and Nonbinary Identities

Transgender, gender nonbinary and other individuals who reside within the gender spectrum usually have unique concerns related to their gender identity especially young people who are trying to figure out who they are. We understand these unique concerns and appreciate the challenges that exist. We can work with you as you face these challenges and assist you in developing a healthy sense of self.

LGBTQ Identity Development Concerns

Transgender, Gender Nonconforming and Nonbinary Identities

LGBTQ Identity Development Concerns

Often times when someone identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual, they may have a difficult time understanding what this means for their lives. Often discrimination, rejection and judgment can come along with these identities and could lead to pervasive mental health concerns. Depression and anxiety are often pervasive in this culture.

Trauma Focused Narrative Therapy

Dissociation, Derealization & Depersonalization

LGBTQ Identity Development Concerns

Many individuals can easily recount at least one traumatic experience in their lives, if not more. These events overwhelm ones ability to cope with the situation and process the information as they are experiencing these events. If these traumatic events are not processed, they can cause significant distress later in life. We work within

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Borderline Personality Disorder

Dissociation, Derealization & Depersonalization

Borderline is one of the most difficult and pervasive mental health issues to deal with. Borderline is sometimes a direct result of trauma. Its presentation of the fear of abandonment, pervasive and unstable sense of self, splitting, turbulent relationships, highly disregulated mood and affect, impulsive and the engagement in self destru

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Dissociation, Derealization & Depersonalization

Dissociation is often a result of trauma and other events that have caused us to feel overwhelmed and overly distressed. It can make us feel like an outside, third, party observer of our own lives. We can "zone" out because the memories are too painful to deal with. It is the minds way of protecting itself. This can be activated by many different triggers, memories or flashbacks.

Self Injury

Suicidal Thinking

Sometimes when someone is struggling with profound internal pain, they will engage in self-injury, such as cutting, burning, biting, head banging, hair pulling and other acts that will produce physical pian allowing them to feel something other than emotional pain. This is often a method of trying to ameliorate internal pain. These are no

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Suicidal Thinking

Sometimes people begin to feel so hopeless and alone, so incredibly exhausted with having to deal with ongoing depression, sadness and emotional pain every single day, that it becomes so hard for them to think that things can get better. Sometimes they don't feel like they have the energy to go on, so they seriously think about ending their lives. There is help. And things do get better.

Family Therapy

Suicidal Thinking

Family Therapy

Family therapy can work in really profounds ways in maintaining connection, promote healing and create accountability. Many families struggle when someone within the family system struggles with mental health concerns. It is also very common for families to become impacted by someone coming out as lgbtq+, it can have a profoundly devastating impact on the family system. Many people are not sure how to navigate these conversations, and rather than working together to support and find understanding within these concepts, the family system can fall apart. We work with families as they navigate difficult conversations, find a level of acceptance and understanding so the family system can sustain and even flourish.

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