LGBTQIA+

Learn more about the Healing with Harmony Music Processing Group

bt_bb_section_bottom_section_coverage_image

Therapy for LGBTQ+ Clients

I am dedicated to providing affirming therapy services tailored to the unique needs of my clients who identify under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. Many LBTQ+ individuals face a complex array of added challenges in their lived experience and mental health struggles. Central to this, is continued concern of seeking help from medical professionals due to fears of stigma and judgement.

I am deeply committed to providing a nurturing, inclusive, and supportive environment for individuals of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions. I prioritize cultural competence and an intersectional lens, ensuring that no one is treated like a monolith and that their unique lived experiences are respected and seen.

LGBTQ+ Therapeutic Issues

DISCRIMINATION & STIGMA

LGBTQIA+ individuals often encounter discrimination and prejudice across different facets of their lives, spanning employment, housing, healthcare, and social interactions. These experiences can evoke a profound sense of exclusion and isolation. Even in ostensibly accepting and culturally diverse environments, LGBTQ+ individuals may find themselves contending with harmful microaggressions and enduring myths, exacerbating feelings of being stereotyped or treated as a homogeneous group.

COMING OUT

The process of coming out to family, friends, and colleagues can be emotionally challenging and may lead to anxiety, fear, and potential rejection. Therapy can be a place where we explore feelings towards coming out, along with the development of emotional and pragmatic boundaries.

FAMILY ACCEPTANCE

Some LGBTQIA+ individuals may experience rejection or lack of acceptance from their families, which can lead to family conflict and emotional distress. We work on developing added sources of resourcing and safe attachment in our chosen families, while determining the roles and boundaries that need to be established to safely relate to our families of origin. Sometimes, we are unable to reconcile with family and therapy becomes a place for processing estrangement and loss.

BULLYING & HARASSMENT

LGBTQIA+ youth, in particular, may be targets of bullying and harassment in schools, which can have long-term psychological effects. In the era of social media, it can be difficult for LGBTQ+ clients to escape harassment, particularly if they are public-facing figures, creatives or performing artists. Therapy can be a safe refuge to explore the impacts these experiences.

Two women embrace on the beach, smiling and in love.

Two people hold hands; one hand is painted with a rainbow flag.

IDENTITY & SELF-DISCOVERY

Navigating questions of gender identity and sexual orientation can be a complex and sometimes confusing process. Individuals may seek therapy to explore and understand their own identities, along with how those shifting identities impact their close relationships. Many of my clients bring in their friends, family, or partners during major transitions to identity, felt and expressed gender, and/ or sexuality to process ruptures around these changes.

RELATIONSHIPS & DATING

It’s important to recognize the rich diversity within the LGBTQ+ community, which is far from monolithic. This diversity can present social challenges as LGBTQ+ clients embark on the journey of identifying and connecting with their chosen communities. The community is also not immune to issues of bullying, harassment, judgement, or internalized biases, on top of the typical personality differences one encounters with the broader population. All of these factors can compound issues related to dating and forming close relationships.

PHYSICAL HEALTH

Some LGBTQIA+ individuals may face health disparities, including higher rates of certain health conditions, and may need guidance on accessing LGBTQIA+-friendly healthcare providers. Additionally, transgender clients often encounter additional challenges as they navigate hormonal treatment and surgery to align with their identified gender, requiring specialized support and processing.

SEXUAL HEALTH

Issues related to sexual health, safer sex practices, and access to appropriate healthcare may be relevant for some LGBTQIA+ individuals. LGBTQ+ individuals are not immune to the impacts of being raised in a country with poor sexual health education and rampant dominant myths about relationships and sex. Sex-focused therapy can be deeply helpful for clients to unpack these dominant narratives and misconceptions around sex.

How I Work with LGBTQ+ Individuals

As a Queer-identifying therapist, working with folx in the LGBTQ+ community involves amplifying my systemic and intersectional lens. There are often more layers to assess and consider when contextualizing my client’s needs, including: trauma history due to lived experience, socio-economic position, gender identity, sexuality, adverse childhood experiences, developmental trauma, cultural and ethnic heritage, lived presentation, relationship to the body, religious upbringing and beliefs, community of origin, geopolitical climate, attachment history, and issues of acculturation, to name a few.

My theoretical underpinnings are driven by a blend of post-modern & humanistic orientations. Post-modern therapy questions the idea of objective truth and reality, instead recognizing that individuals construct their own meanings and interpretations of events. Humanistic therapy brings a non-pathologizing and client-centered lens into the room, emphasizing the client’s ability to self-actualize as they wish. I acknowledge the client as the expert in the room, and I step into the role of an affirming, celebratory, and supportive collaborator working to meet the client where they are. Read more about Danielle.

If this sounds like a good fit for your needs

SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULT

Danielle Palomares sits in a well-lit office surrounded by plants in Sandoval Therapy in Pasadena.