GENDER & SEXUAL DIVERSITY
It’s our specialty.
Working with a therapist who has specific training and experience in gender and sexuality - and more so if they identify as LGBTQ+ themself - can make a meaningful difference to your therapy experience. Our therapists bring a deeper understanding of the unique challenges queer folks may face, from identity exploration and coming out to navigating systemic oppression, relationship dynamics, and family acceptance.
More than just being affirming, they’re equipped to hold space without requiring you to educate them about your identity or lived experience. This allows therapy to move more quickly into meaningful work, grounded in safety, respect, and cultural competence. For queer folks, having a therapist who truly gets it can lead to a more empowering, validating, and effective therapeutic experience.
WE PRACTICE AFFIRMATIVE THERAPY.
EXPLORE.
Therapy provides you that safe, private, judgment-free, unconditionally-supportive space in which you can explore all depths of who you are and what you feel. This exploration may lead to a new discovery, clarification, or self-affirmation of what you already felt to be true about yourself.
Therapy can help you try out different labels and ways of understanding yourself with the goal of finding what reflects you fully and fits you accurately.
Or it can help you reject labels and boxes altogether and develop greater comfort living authentically in the in-between, fluid, or non-binary space.
COME OUT.
Therapy can support and help prepare you for the vulnerable, scary, and sometimes risky conversations with family, co-workers, friends, and/or partners. Whether to tell, who to tell, when to tell, and how to tell is ALWAYS up to you.
Your therapist creates the safe space to make these decisions at your pace, as well as lean in for emotional support around the outcomes.
LOVE.
Our therapists do relationship therapy (traditionally called “couples therapy”) with partnerships of all configurations: poly, non-monogamous, open, married, engaged, newly committed, straight, queer, and so on.
Relationship therapy with your partner can address a whole host of issues and challenges in your dynamic. (Read more about our general approach to couples therapy here and our approach to therapy with queer partners below.)
We can also help you navigate unique challenges that queer couples face such as:
Gender Roles Within Your Relationship ~ Fertility Issues ~ Gender Transition of One Partner ~ Parenting
Preparing to open Up a Relationship ~ Issues with Trust and/or Jealousy in Open Relationships
Challenges with External Family Relationships ~ Queer Family Planning
QUEER COUPLES THERAPY
For queer couples and partnerships—including those in nontraditional or non-monogamous relationship structures—working with a therapist who specializes in gender and sexuality offers a more affirming and informed foundation for the therapeutic process. Our therapists bring an understanding of the diverse ways people experience and express identity, intimacy, and connection, which is especially important for those navigating dynamics that fall outside of heteronormative or monogamous frameworks.
Whether you’re in a same-gender relationship, a polyamorous triad, navigating an open relationship, co-parenting within a queerplatonic partnership, or part of a chosen family structure, a therapist with this expertise can support your goals without judgment or assumption. Our therapists will approach your relationship with cultural competence, honoring the unique ways you define commitment, family, and care. This creates a safer and more effective space for all partners to explore challenges, strengthen communication, and deepen connection.
Read more about Groundwork Therapy’s approach to couples therapy & relationship counseling here.
Groundwork Therapy offers gender-affirmative and sexuality-affirmative therapy in Brooklyn, NY and is accessible to those living within the boroughs of NYC.
Our office location is conveniently located near all major Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy and Downtown Brooklyn.