LGBTQ Couples Counseling
For LGBTQIA folks, navigating relationships can feel a little like being hung out to dry.
Where is the roadmap? How do you know what to do? Who can you ask for help?
You look around and you see stories of love and relationships everywhere, but they aren’t relationships that look like yours. While your straight couple friends can walk into any bookstore and find an entire section designated to unpacking a relationship that looks like theirs, for you and your partner it’s harder. They can turn on the TV and watch couples like them fall in love, fall out of love, fall back into love. They turn on the radio and hear love songs about relationships like theirs.
(Or, they can go to just about any couples counselor and have their specific issues addressed, without having to worry about being heard, understood, accepted or safe with their couples counselor).
So how can you get started working on our relationships, if you were never shown what that could possibly look like for you? How can you live authentically within your relationships if you are being forced into someone else’s story?
Your story matters and it deserves to be heard.
It can be painful to feel so overlooked. You might feel misunderstood, unwelcome, or isolated. This neglect can even be a type of trauma, and can affect how you show up in your relationships. Throughout your life, you may have developed methods of keeping yourself safe in a world that is not safe for LGBTQ folks that no longer serve you, and may now even be actively harming you and the health of your chosen relationships.
Our LGBTQ couples counselors want you to know your experience matters. We are here to sit with you, without judgement, and help you and your partner address whatever issue is affecting your relationship.
With our LGBTQ couples counselors, you won’t ever have to defend your queer experience or take time our of your session to explain the basics of the LGBTQ community or your queer identity to your therapist. Your only job will be to show up willing to do the work with your partner.
Skilled and Caring LGBTQ couples counseling
We believe that the world is a better place when we can all feel comfortable with who we are. We are passionate about providing a well-informed, affirming and positive environment for our LGBTQIA+ clients. We understand that you may have experienced discrimination, lack of awareness, stigma, and prejudices, and we want you to feel welcomed and safe here.
We care deeply about providing safe and affirming LGBT counseling for couples. Our therapists are welcoming and affirming to people on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual), including gender non-conforming and non-binary identities.
Whatever you need, we want to provide the most affirming and best therapy experience for your needs and focus. We understand that opening up in any setting is scary–especially for LGBTQ folks who don’t always know who is safe to be vulnerable around. We know you may have had negative experiences seeking help in the past.
We make it our mission to make you and your partner feel safe, because we know that it’s only when you feel safe and cared for that you can let yourself get vulnerable and address your emotional needs.
LGBTQIA+ Couples Counseling
There are a lot of “universal” challenges for couples, no matter their sexual, romantic, or gender identity. These things can include:
- Communications difficulties
- Challenges with sexual intimacy
- Challenges with emotional intimacy
- Feelings of jealousy
- Feelings of insecurity
- Lack of trust due to jealousy and insecurity
- Handling conflicts within the relationship
- Relationship injuries (such as affairs)
- Financial issues
- Work-related stress affecting the relationship
- Family conflicts
Looking at this list we can see that, In a lot of ways, couples counseling for LGBTQIA+ folks is similar to the counseling we provide to all couples.
But, your identity is a part of you, and it informs every part of your life, especially your relationships! Your LGBTQ identity gives you unique experiences to bring to the table. We understand that your sexual or gender identity impact the relationships in your life in a way that straight folks typically don’t have to consider.
And there are a lot of issues specific to the queer community that don’t come up in couples therapy for straight couples. Your therapist will be trained to help you work through issues specific to your LGBTQ relationship–meaning you won’t have to do the work to educate your therapist on the differences between straight couples and queer couples. You will just be able to show up as you are, and get the specific support you need.
These LGBTQ-specific issues can be things like:
- Dealing with prejudices, bigotry, negative attitudes in society, which can result in increased feelings of guilt, shame, or the desire to hide your authentic self in order to protect yourself
- Isolation + trauma that comes with unwelcoming, unnaccepting, or homophobic families
- Commitment challenges
- Continued identity questioning; realizing one label is more true to yourself than a previous one; navigating feelings of loss/grief/dysphoria/euphoria that comes with “coming out” again
- Coming out again while in a serious relationship
- Legal, medical and religious discrimination
- Internalized homophobia
- Queer parenting (becoming parents, starting a family, issues and complications related to the “non-traditional” form queer parenting often takes on, lack of legal recognition of being a parent, social inequalities also affecting the children, etc.)
- Bisexual and pansexual erasure in straight passing couples from both straight and queer communities
- Ways in which your sexuality can influence your gender identity or perception
- Exploring gender identity later in life
- Exploring gender identity within a relationship
- Understanding gender without relying on “gender roles” that often show up in straight couples
If you and your partner are currently experiencing difficulties, our well-trained queer couples therapists are non-judgmental, respectful and sensitive to the issues experienced by all individuals and couples, including those in the LGBT community. With support from our LGBTQ couples therapists, you and your partner will have the opportunity to strengthen trust in your relationship, and increase your connection.
Let’s get started changing your life and meeting your goals! To schedule an appointment, feel free to call 303-513-8975, X1. You can also book an appointment online through our portal. Schedule Appointment