LGBT Issues therapists in West Hollywood, California CA
LGBT Issues
Joey Sarcoz
Therapist, MA, LMFT
I have 18 years experience working with the West Hollywood community.
19 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Dr. Ingrid Solano
Psychologist, PhD
I am a member of, and advocate for, the LGBTQIA+ community. I am proud to provide affirming therapy and I have expertise in working with the experiences of sexual and gender minority individuals, and couples using CBT, DBT, and the Unified Protocol for emotional disorders. Together we can explore the impacts of coming out, internalized stigma, minority stress, intersectionality, discriminations, difficult family-of-origin relationships, giving and receiving support, families of choice, intimacy, sex, gender/sexual fluidity, identity, transitioning, and so much more. Together we can navigate the challenges of living in an oppressingly heteronormative world in order to form a healthy and affirming queer identity. Or, we don’t explore it at all - but we remain aware that they are out there and remain mindful. I am also proud to consider and provide capacity evaluations and letters of support for my transgender clients seeking gender affirming surgery.
I practice from an affirming, feminist, and anti-racist philosophy. This means that I unconditionally accept and value my clients’ gender, sexual, racial, cultural, and other identities. My practice takes into account each person’s unique experiences within contexts of social and systemic oppression, and the impact on your relationships. I practice from a place off cultural humility and allyship to black, indigenous, and other people of colour.
I have expertise in treating relationships and individuals navigating the impact of minority stress and discrimination. I practice affirming therapy that explores greater awareness and understanding of the ways in which emotional experiences and responses to experiences contribute to what is going on for you and your relationships. Navigating these challenges in your life has promoted strength and resilience in coping, paving the way for creative and successful approaches for managing future challenges. I help clients see these strengths in themselves, and create harmony and balance in their lives. I bring a stance of genuine curiosity and cultural competence that includes your different identities and their intersectionality.
11 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Jonathan Kruger Therapy
Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT
Members of the LGBT community face unique and multifaceted challenges that add additional layers of complexity to the therapeutic process. It is vital that therapists working with LGBT clients have a deep understanding of these challenges in order to serve as an effective partner in the journey of self-discovery. My work with LGBT clients, as well as my own personal experience, have taught me that throughout each stage of life, LGBT persons are confronted with issues and prejudices that can be easily internalized, resulting in a profound struggle within themselves trying to maintain a healthy sense of self, self-confidence, and self-acceptance.
Indeed, for many LGTB persons, these issues begin early in youth: a significant portion of the LGBT community have faced down unaccepting parents and families, bullies, and, at times, a deeply prejudiced society that teaches from birth that LGBT persons are defective and unworthy. These are messages that wound at a fundamental level and, unfortunately, can reinforce an internalized message of unworthiness and defectiveness. Left unexplored, these external attacks on the self can manifest in many ways: shame which leads to substance abuse, reckless sexual behavior, an inability to sustain long-term intimate relationships.
Another unique aspect of my work with the LGBT community is the continued reverberation of the AIDS crisis that swept the community in the 80s and 90s. While we have made enormous strides in both understanding and the treatment of the HIV virus, learning of an HIV positive diagnosis remains a traumatic life event, where one’s sense of self may become gravely damaged or perhaps even destroyed. In addition, a large portion of the LGBT community directly experienced the peak of the AIDS crisis, and faced the untimely loss of beloved friends and colleagues, leading to intense bereavement, grief, and the relentless death of entire communities. The effects were and are ravaging; the trauma intense and enduring.
Furthermore another challenge facing this generation of openly gay men is that they are the first entering old age openly gay and out of the closet. How to not become invisible to the community, disappear and lose all sense of oneself becomes a vital priority. There have been few role models, no one demonstrating how to age in a successful, happy, purposeful way. So with age comes the loss of physical vitality and attributes, which for many gay men has been the leading currency of their lives. How does one reinvent oneself so as to stay vital and relevant, or risk slipping into the invisibility cloak that old age often brings upon gay men and people in general?
In treating the LGBT community, I strive toward creating and fulfilling a sense of completeness and wholeness within the self. Working empathically, slowly and deliberately to heal old wounds, and eradicate the innate sense of defectiveness. Always seeking to understand the sources from which that sense of defectiveness derived. With insights, understanding, processing and evaluating we then begin to reinstate a sense of enough-ness, perfection (even where there may be imperfection), wholeness, and completeness within and unto the self. It is a journey of self discovery which I have lived, understand and continually work on healing.
Slowly building understanding and conviction that the LGBT person is as complete and perfect as any other differently sexually identified person. The goal is to create and improve a strong, authentic sense of self, not one that needs to be propped up by the creation of a “false self” in order to be loveable or to feel adequate and enough.
11 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Michael Pezzullo
Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT
Most LGBTQ folks spend a significant portion of their lives living in secrecy, isolation and shame. As a result, empathic attunement and mirroring are completely absent from their everyday life experiences. Therefore, I take an actively affirmative stance when working with LGBTQ clients.
7 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Julie Anderson
Psychologist, Ph.D.
With over 20 years of non-profit work experience for the LGBT community, I can help you through the specific issues that arise from LGBTQI identities and those who care about someone who is LGBT.
24 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Omer Harari
Marriage and Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
I approach therapy as an anti-oppressive project. In my work supporting LGBTQ+ clients, in addition to identifying and managing the impacts of traumas, patterns, beliefs and narratives, we focus to identify the specific impacts of homophobia, transphobia, gender binaries, and other power structures that contribute to marginalization.
7 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
David Strah
Marriage and Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
I have a year-long training in LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy.
LGBT Issues
Lucy Cotter
Marriage and Family Therapist, MFT
I have many years of counseling experience in the LGBTQ community.
19 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Samer Fawaz
Marriage and Family Therapist, M.A., AMFT
As a gay man living in Los Angeles for over twenty years, I have experienced the challenges of cultivating and maintaining a genuine sense of self while being bombarded with body image issues, homophobia, gay shame, and the hyper-sexualized competitive nature of the gay community. As gay men, our sexual currency can sometimes become the focus of how we see and place value on ourselves. This can lead to addiction, self-loathing cycles, self-harm, anxiety, and depression. I am passionate about helping you dismantle what society, and the gay community has led you to believe about yourself. Together, we will get to the root of what makes you feel centered, authentic, and grounded. I am highly invested in creating a judgment-free space for you to feel safe to talk about anything you feel is relevant to your growth.
4 Years Experience
LGBT Issues
Carl H. Shubs
Therapist, Ph.D.
CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT.
Things not working the way you'd like? Find out why and change it.
Anxiety, depression, trauma, gay/lesbian/bisexual issues, addictions (substances or behaviors)? These are some of the areas where I can help.
YOU SET THE COURSE, AND I'LL HELP YOU GET THERE.
39 Years Experience