Healing Trauma with LGBTQ+ Inclusive Therapy in NYC

Pride in NYC isn’t just a celebration—it’s a statement. “Love is a Human Right” reminds us why inclusive, affirming therapy for LGBTQ+ individuals matters.

Updated on April 30, 2025

Starting Your Healing Journey with LGBTQ Therapy in NYC

Starting therapy can be daunting, especially if you’re LGBTQ+ and trying to find a truly affirming space in a city as intense and fast-paced as NYC. Maybe you've experienced subtle or overt discrimination. Maybe you're carrying trauma from your family of origin or from systems that never honored who you are. Or maybe you've been to therapy before and felt the disappointment of not being fully seen. That matters. Your story matters. Your healing matters.

As a gay therapist who has lived, loved, and healed in this city, I specialize in LGBTQ Therapy in NYC that affirms every part of you—especially the parts you’ve had to hide. I bring over 15 years of experience helping queer individuals navigate trauma, anxiety, identity development, and the complex push-pull of wanting to belong while needing to protect yourself.

Let’s talk about the unique trauma LGBTQ+ individuals carry, how it shows up in life here in New York, and what makes inclusive therapy different. You deserve a space that honors your full identity and helps you build a life that reflects your truest self.

Trauma in the LGBTQ+ Community: What Makes It Unique in NYC

Living in New York City as an LGBTQ+ person offers incredible freedom—but it also means navigating microaggressions, chronic stress, performance culture, and the residual impact of rejection, discrimination, and fear.

For many LGBTQ+ folks, trauma isn’t always one "big event" – it’s the accumulation of small wounds: being misunderstood, judged, or left out. Maybe it’s the religious background that told you you were wrong. Or the family that wouldn’t talk about your identity. Or the therapist who couldn’t quite get it and didn’t even try. That kind of neglect is trauma. And it stays in the body.

From the outside, you may look like you’re functioning—successful, intelligent, high-achieving. But internally, you might be carrying old burdens like anxiety, emotional exhaustion, a deep sense of not belonging, or the fear that something about you is still "too much."

This is why LGBTQ Therapy in NYC must be more than a rainbow flag on a website. It has to be trauma-informed, deeply attuned, and genuinely affirming.

What Healing Looks Like in LGBTQ Therapy

Safe Isn’t Just a Word—It’s a Practice

The foundation of healing is safety. And for LGBTQ+ clients, especially those with trauma histories, safety isn’t something that can be assumed—it has to be felt.

That’s why, in our first sessions, I’ll introduce what I call our therapy agreements: clear, mutual commitments to how we build trust, hold boundaries, and create space for all parts of you to emerge. These agreements aren’t just about structure—they’re about care.

Clients often say they feel something shift early on—like they can finally exhale. There’s a sense of "Oh, this is different. I’m really safe here." That moment changes everything. It’s the beginning of real healing.

"It’s like salt in a dish," a client once said. "When it’s there, everything tastes richer. And when it’s not, you just know something’s missing."

The Therapy Approaches I Use (and How I Tailor Them to You)

Not all therapy is created equal. LGBTQ+ individuals need care that honors their unique experiences. Here's how I work:

Healing happens here. Whether you’re in NYC or upstate, LGBTQ therapy via telehealth can feel grounded, safe, and real—just like this cozy space.

Photo by Joyfulcaptures; Uploaded from Unsplash on 4/30/25

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

We explore the different "parts" of you—maybe a high-achieving part that keeps you going, and a scared part that fears rejection. We help those parts stop fighting and start working together with more self-compassion and inner alignment.

EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is one of the most powerful tools for Anxiety and Trauma Therapy in NYC. I use it gently and respectfully to help reduce the emotional intensity of painful memories, especially those tied to rejection, religious trauma, or identity suppression.

Experiential Therapy

Experiential Therapy allows us to move beyond words and into lived, felt experience. Instead of just analyzing why you react the way you do in certain relationships or why success might feel hollow, we use creative and body-based approaches to help you directly encounter these emotional truths in real time. Whether through guided imagery, parts dialogue, or grounding enactments, experiential therapy can help shift patterns that talk therapy alone might not fully reach.

Attachment-Based Therapy

This helps us examine how early relationships have shaped your ability to trust, connect, and be seen. It’s powerful for clients who feel guarded or who struggle in intimacy.

My approach is fluid and flexible. Some days you might want to dive into an old wound. Other days, you just need tools to manage your week. That’s okay. Healing isn’t linear, and I honor where you are.

My Story (and Why This Work Is So Personal)

When I moved to NYC, I was carrying my own trauma from growing up in a conservative religious system that taught me to distrust my own identity. I craved connection, but every time I reached for it—in dating, in professional spaces, in community—I could feel my nervous system bracing. I had learned that belonging came at the cost of authenticity.

Being a therapist, especially to LGBTQ+ clients, has been part of my own healing. My earliest private practice clients were fellow queer people, and it felt like something inside me clicked into place. I knew the lingo. I didn’t need them to explain everything. And I could offer not only my training, but my lived experience.

I also know what it’s like to be in therapy where I had to explain everything. Where the therapist was affirming on paper, but not embodied. Where I left sessions feeling more guarded, not less.

Affirming care has layers. It’s not just about being "okay" with queerness—it’s about understanding the complex realities, griefs, humor, language, longings, and nuances that shape our lives.

What Clients Say About Working With Me

Clients often say they feel like they can breathe again. That they can finally say the hard thing they’ve never said before. That there’s relief. Safety. A sense of being understood without having to educate me.

"It feels like you’re really with me. Not just listening, but attuned."

"I don’t have to translate everything here. That makes such a difference."

"I can actually feel things shift inside of me, instead of just talking about them."

Therapy shouldn’t be another place you have to perform. It should be where you come home to yourself.

Overcoming the Weight of Performance Culture + Religious Trauma

Healing from LGBTQ trauma can feel like shedding weights you’ve carried too long—until suddenly, you’re running freer, like this sunset stride in Central Park.

Photo by Zac Ong; Uploaded from Unsplash on 4/30/25

Living in NYC can feel like running a marathon on sand—especially when you’re dragging unhealed wounds behind you.

Whether it’s anxiety rooted in never feeling "enough," trauma from a religious upbringing that tied love to compliance, or just the daily emotional labor of being queer in a straight-centric world—you are likely carrying too much.

Therapy isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about unburdening what was never yours to carry.

When you work with a therapist who "gets it" and has the tools to help you move through it, you're not just surviving—you're reclaiming. You're building a life that feels lighter, more honest, and more you.

Cultural Competence Matters

LGBTQ Therapy in NYC must account for intersectionality. Your experience isn’t just shaped by your gender identity or sexuality. It’s also about your race, family of origin, neurodivergence, faith background, and so much more.

In my practice, I stay curious. I don’t make assumptions. I bring humility and active learning to every session. If there’s something I don’t understand, I own it, and I get the supervision or training I need. Because you shouldn’t have to carry the burden of teaching your therapist how to respect your story.

Therapy That Feels Like A Real Relationship

Finding a therapist isn’t just about credentials—it’s about fit. You deserve someone who isn’t just technically affirming, but who actually creates a space where your nervous system can start to trust.

If you’re tired of talking in circles, or of feeling like something’s off even with "a good therapist," I invite you to try a different kind of work. This is therapy that includes your body, your identity, your relationships, your fears, and your dreams.

Ready to Begin?

If this post resonates with you, I encourage you to book a free 15-minute consultation with me. It’s a no-pressure conversation to see if we’re a good fit. I work with adults across New York and Connecticut via secure video sessions.

Let’s create a space where all of you is welcome.

➡️ Visit my homepage to learn more and schedule your consultation
➡️ Read more on LGBTQ Therapy in NYC
➡️ Explore how political stress impacts anxiety

LGBTQ Therapy in NYC isn’t just about surviving. It’s about becoming. And you don’t have to do it alone.