LGBTQ+ Counseling
in Houston, TX and Online
Do you want to become your true, authentic self in which every facet of who you are is appreciated and respected?
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you seek to reduce work stress, strengthen relationships, manage mental health issues and otherwise improve your quality of life and overall wellbeing. You may also be facing specific personal, societal, and cultural challenges related to your gender identity and/or sexual orientation. You may feel confident and comfortable in who you are. Although like many others, you might find that the stigma and intolerance you face cause anguish and anxiety.
Individual Support With LGBTQIA+ Therapy
The majority of LGBTQIA+ individuals have faced discrimination in some form during their lives. Discrimination can take on many guises, including social rejection and bullying. Along with verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse. Or even internalized homophobia/transphobia, which can inhibit you from being your true, authentic self.
Additionally, LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination with regard to public accommodation, housing, employment, education, family planning, and basic human rights.
Many LGBTQ+ individuals also face rejection by friends and family. Along with confusion over gender roles and expectations. Not to mention the higher rates of substance abuse, disordered eating, body image issues, domestic abuse, and suicide. While this list can sound dire, know that you are not alone in your experience. Our Texas LGBTQ therapists want you to know that joy and fulfillment are possible.
Working With LGBTQ+ Therapists
Creating an Inclusive Space in LGBTQIA+ Therapy
While LGBTQ+ individuals face mental health issues just like everyone else. They disproportionately experience negative mental health outcomes due to prejudice and societal biases. However, working with competent, compassionate LGBTQ therapists or LGBTQ-friendly therapists can help you feel comfortable, accepted and empowered to navigate intolerance and live without shame.
Our counselors at Eddins Counseling Group in Houston, TX work to create an LGBTQ+ inclusive space. Where all can feel heard, understood, and free to express themselves without fear of judgment.
We offer LGBTQ+ affirmative therapy to help you and your loved ones. Allowing you to overcome challenges without fear of encountering intolerance, narrow-mindedness, or heterosexism.
LGBTQ+ Counseling Covers a Wide Range of Issues
Identity Formation & Coming Out:
Often LGBTQ+ people are labeled based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and even within the community, based upon their sexual preferences or outer presentation. While labels can be a source of pride and power for some, for others, they can be constricting and limiting. It can sometimes feel as though others are trying to force you into a neat box, erasing everything that makes you a unique, complex, and full human being.
You may also have questions and concerns about gender identity, sexual orientation, gender dysphoria, navigating microaggressions, or questions on gender transitioning.
A trained LGBTQ+ therapist can help you navigate your feelings and concerns, and empower you on your journey.
Relationships:
Do you find yourself repeating patterns in your relationships? Are you struggling to feel connected, respected, or valued? Do you have a hard time maintaining long-term relationships in which you and your partner feel valued and equal?
You’ve heard that relationships take work, but sometimes this “work” means finding the right “tribe,” finding your voice, or discovering your own worth.
LGBTQ+ counseling can help. A professional mental healthcare provider will be a sensitive clinician, fully aware of the pitfalls of traditional heterosexual bias. There are no unique treatments for same-sex couples, and your therapist will not treat your relationship as “different” or “strange.” However, the importance of taking into consideration developmental and socio-cultural variables cannot be underestimated, and an experienced therapist will be particularly sensitive to the effects of discrimination and marginalization on relationship issues.
- Read more about our LGBTQ+ couples therapy services.
Family Dynamics:
Throughout your life, you may have struggled to approach your identity with your family. Perhaps it sometimes seems that even talking about your day-to-day experiences can spur an argument. Whether you are hesitant to come out to your family out of fear of rejection or feel you need to lead a “double life,” you likely feel the hurt and stress that comes with keeping part of yourself secret. Alternately, after coming out, you may be dealing with the fallout from an unaccepting family, and feel unsure if and how this relationship can go back to the way it was. LGBTQ+ family therapy can help you work through issues relating to your family so you can be more confident and secure in who you truly are.
Family Planning:
Maybe you’re ready to start a family or add to the one you have. As you approach LGBTQ+ family planning, you might explore adoption, IVF, surrogacy or other means or creating the family you’ve always hoped for. It’s possible you feel angry, scared, inadequate, alone and anxious about all the barriers you have to overcome. Will you ever be able to have the family you long for? No matter what your family looks like, our therapists can help you cope with your feelings and better understand which decisions will best serve you.
- Read more about Infertility Counseling Services
Aging:
As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we can feel especially impacted by the aging process and how this process impact identity. As our bodies change and things slow down, it can be difficult to feel comfortable with the body you already have spent so long learning to accept.
LGBTQ+ therapy can help you to feel comfortable in your body, cope with the aging process and reinvent yourself, should you choose to do so.
LGBTQIA+ Therapy FAQ's
An LGBTQ+ affirming therapist is trained in issues and concerns unique to the LGBTQ+ identity. They seek to improve the mental and emotional well-being of members of the LGBTQ+ community.
What this means is that when working with an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist, you can dive deep into concerns or issues that matter most to you.
You don't have to worry about awkwardness, judgment, or simply a lack of understanding or knowledge.
You can trust that you can feel seen, known, and understood. And that you can explore topics important and relevant to you and expect your therapist to help you navigate them with support, guidance, knowledge, and skill to help you grow.
There are many benefits to seeking LGBTQ+ counseling and therapy:
- Explore gender identity questions and concerns, even if it means deciding to not decide.
- Feel comfortable knowing that your therapist understands without you having to educate or explain.
- Talk about issues of gender dysphoria or sexual identity with a trained therapist.
- Find empowerment, guidance, and support for your personal life, relationships, and career.
- Feel understood and supported by a therapist who is not only non-judgmental but also understanding and skilled in helping you navigate issues that matter most to you.
- Deal with microaggressions that continue to occur in your life and relationships.
- Because life is hard enough as it is without having to repeat or deal with the same issues over and over.
- Deal with common concerns in the context of your unique experiences.
- Cope with questions and concerns around coming out, sexual orientation, and gender transition.
Yes, our LGBTQ+ friendly therapists work with adolescents, teens, young adults, and their families.
Parents may have questions or concerns about how to best support their child or navigate social and cultural-related issues.
Our LGBTQ+ affirmative therapists can work with families and parents to help you in supporting your child and navigate questions or uncertainties you may have.
You can seek therapy on your own or as a family.
Career Discovery, Management & Workplace Discrimination:
Discovering, launching and managing a career can be rewarding in so many ways. Fortunately, LGBTQ+ people have more job opportunities than ever before. Yet, there are career and work-life issues that require greater attention and balancing for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
With ever-changing laws and workplace protections—or lack thereof—for LGBTQ+ individuals, navigating workplace concerns can cause anxiety, dread and frustration. You may question whether it is safe for you to come out at work, or wonder how to best deal with a supervisor who you feel is intolerant. Others feel challenged by the “good ol’ boy” humor at the office, while others want greater flexibility to have time for family life. No matter what you’re facing, some of our therapists are also career counselors and can work with you on the practical, as well as emotional, aspects of managing your career and creating work life balance.
- Read more about our Career Counseling Services.
Body Image & Disordered Eating:
Given widespread discrimination and oppression, many in the LGBTQ+ community have a hard time developing a positive image of themselves, let alone a positive body image. If body image concerns are affecting your eating habits, your exercise habits or your daily thoughts about yourself, you may be suffering from disordered eating. Disordered eating means eating in a way that is harmful physically, emotionally or both. Click here to see if you can identify with any of the experiences often associated with disordered eating. When thoughts, feelings and behaviors around food consume a large portion of your life, they can become eating disorders.
Our LGBTQ+-friendly therapists are uniquely qualified to help you work through body image issues without perpetuating gender stereotypes or triggering feelings of dsyphoria.
- Read more about our Disordered Eating Services.
Work with LGBTQ+ Friendly Therapists in Houston, TX
LGBTQ friendly therapists understand and believe that your gender identity and sexual orientation is a natural, normal part of who you are. They also have additional training in unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community.
You’re Not Alone. Start LGBTQIA+ Therapy
We invite you to call Eddins Counseling Group at 832-559-2622 or contact us for more information about LGBTQ+ counseling and our practice in Houston, TX.
Get Help From a Specialist in LGBTQ+ Counseling
Courtney Chiles-Cloud
Courtney works with youths and their families that have experienced trauma or are struggling with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicidal ideat…
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Holly Lark
Holly specializes in working with adolescents, young adults, and women. She is passionate about helping clients work through life transitions, b…
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Jennifer Castro
With over 10 years of experience in the mental health field, Jennifer is passionate about helping you work through grief, anxiety, OCD, disorder…
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Kelsey Engdorf
Kelsey enjoys working with teens, young adults, and couples to help them build the lives they want and make meaningful changes.
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Marcie Dinkin
Marcie works with parents, young adults, and teens, together or individually, to assess what the major issues and roadblocks are, address any hu…
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Margaret Mayer
Margaret works with clients navigating grief, life transitions, anxiety, and LGBTQ/identity-related issues and LGBTQ couples. Leading with empat…
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Rebecca Perez
I’m passionate about helping people overcome life’s challenges. Whether you are struggling with a personal crisis brought on by trauma, relatio…
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Roddy Young
Roddy has been providing counseling to individuals and couples in both medical and private practice settings for over 20 years. He specializes i…
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Ron DonLevy
Your feelings matter and you deserve to be heard. Ron will join you on your journey of personal growth, healing, and change.
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Sarah Soto
Sarah’s specialties and professional interests include helping people through life changes, trauma, PTSD, abuse, anxiety, stress, depression, AD…
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Steven Serrano
Steven is a bilingual (English & Spanish) psychotherapist. Steven’s experience includes counseling individuals, couples, families and teens in t…
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Tiara Runyon
Tiara offers a collaborative approach, fit to suit your individual needs. Her experience includes working with those facing life transitions and…
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Nothing but Good Experiences
I have nothing but good experiences with Eddins. My therapist is great, and setting up appointments was easy. A client care manager actually worked with me to help me get availability with a therapist by following up after an initial consultation. I can't say enough good things.
Alabama