LGBTQ+ counselling in Canterbury
A space where you do not have to explain or justify who you are before the conversation can start.
What you might want to bring
Sometimes it is about being LGBTQ+. Often it is about something else entirely, and you simply want a therapist you do not have to educate first.
- Anything at all, without your identity being treated as the problem
- Coming out, or choosing not to, and what either costs
- Family who are civil about it but not accepting of it
- Gender, including questioning, transition, and the waiting
- The wearing effect of small hostilities that individually sound like nothing
- Relationships, chosen family, and what you have built for yourself
- Faith, culture or community that has been hard to hold alongside who you are
You do not need to recognise all of these, or be able to explain why. Get in touch and we will work it out together.
What affirming actually means here
It means starting from the position that there is nothing about you to be fixed.
Affirming is a word that gets used loosely. In practice it means your identity is not the thing being examined, we will not need it explained in beginner terms, and you will not spend paid sessions managing your therapist’s comfort. If something is outside our experience we will say so rather than improvise.
- Not the subject: unless you want it to be
- No education required: you are not here to teach us vocabulary
- Your language: your words for yourself, your relationships and your body
- Minority stress taken seriously: the accumulation is real, and it is not oversensitivity
- Honesty about our limits: we will tell you if someone else would serve you better
Practical things worth knowing
The details that tend to matter when deciding whether somewhere is safe to try.
Confidentiality
What you say here stays here, within the limits we explain at the start. Being out to us does not mean being out anywhere else.
Not a gender service
We offer counselling support. We do not provide gender assessments, referrals or hormone prescribing, and we will be straight with you about that rather than vague.
Where we meet
Our Canterbury room, securely online across Kent, or walking outdoors. Online suits people who would rather not be seen going into a therapy practice locally.
Questions people ask
Practical answers about starting, what sessions are like, and what it costs.
Do I have to talk about being LGBTQ+ in sessions?
What does LGBTQ+ affirmative counselling mean in practice?
Do you provide gender assessments or referrals for transition?
I have had a bad experience with a therapist before. What is different here?
Somewhere you can arrive as you are
A first conversation is a low-cost way of finding out whether this feels like a safe place to do the work.