lgbtq therapists & couples counseling in los angeles
be affirmed for who you are.
At Kindman & Co. in Highland Park, we practice social-justice informed, relational psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families—including affirming LGBTQ therapy in Los Angeles designed to nurture deeper connection and authenticity.
As part of this practice, we support and affirm LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, intimate relationships, and families towards increased authenticity, empowerment, and liberation. Whether you’re seeking LGBTQ therapy for personal growth or LGBTQ relationship counseling to deepen connection, our work centers compassion, self-understanding, and relational healing.
We also provide individual LGBTQIA+ counseling for clients exploring identity, self-acceptance, or life transitions. Whether you’re navigating coming out, healing from discrimination, or seeking an affirming queer therapist in Los Angeles, we’re here to walk with you.
We recognize that dominant culture has long been based on patriarchal and heteronormative values, and actively work to resist these paradigms in our practice. We’re here to help you be your most true self and to cultivate relationships that foster a deep sense of love and belonging.
lgbtqIA2s+ counseling in highland park for individuals, couples, & intimate relationships
start to feel more proud & celebrate you!
Our therapists use an intersectional and feminist approach to make space for the effects of historic and ongoing systemic oppression on LGBTQIA+ folks. The challenges you’re experiencing are not something wrong with you, instead, they may result from historic societal harm you’ve experienced or internalized narratives of queerphobia. Through our affirming LGBTQ therapy in Los Angeles, we help clients build pride, self-acceptance, and compassion for their unique experiences, so you can feel more grounded, connected, and whole.
We take our roles as allies and advocates seriously, and hold this political stance with all our clients, regardless of their identity or the identity of the therapist. If you’re interested in therapy with our team, or would like to learn more about our social-justice-informed approach, we’d love to hear from you. Keep reading to hear more about how we support queer folks.
stress in the LGBTQ community
Living can be stressful. At Kindman & Co., we hold a continual awareness that the more marginalized identities an individual holds (gender, race, class, sexuality, weight, ability, immigration status, etc.), the more this daily stress is amplified by systemic oppression. We’re also aware that systemic oppression of marginalized folks means that therapeutic care is less accessible, too. Every year, The American Psychological Association conducts a Stress in America Study, and these annual reports regularly indicate that members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community are experiencing significantly more stress than others. The 2019 study showed that only 62% of LGBTQIA+ individuals felt hopeful for the future compared with 75% of those who do not identify as members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community. We know that heteronormative culture can feel unaccepting at best and oppressive at worst for LGBTQIA+ folks, and we are actively working to dispel the dominant culture and its narratives within our practice.
In our therapeutic work with LGBTQIA+ individuals and families, we collaborate with our clients, and make space to examine and understand the ways in which systemic oppression may be impacting their mental health and wellness. We honor complexity, authenticity, and exploration. If you’re dealing with unmanageable stress or anxiety, and you’re looking for space to process, cope, or just show up—we can help.
identity & authenticity
Identity is a common focus of therapeutic work. Identity as a concept is intersectional, complex, and fluid. Who we are, who others perceive us to be, and who we want to become are often central questions for many who seek therapy. When our identities are not recognized, valued, and celebrated—by our families, partners, and society—the internalized messages of wrongness or not being enough can burrow deep into our minds and bodies.
For our LGBTQIA+ clients, questions around identity become even more important, as the trauma of discrimination, non-recognition, and non-acceptance is ongoing and multivalent. This complex trauma can motivate queer folks to self-defensively suppress aspects of their identity, relationships, or sexuality. It can manifest as feelings of isolation, loneliness, or shame. Trauma and self-protective identity suppression can lead to other mental health symptoms, like anxiety and depression.
For partners exploring identity or seeking deeper connection, our LGBTQ couples therapy provides a space to heal, cultivate more authenticity, and celebrate your relationship in all its uniqueness.
In our work, we honor these emotions and the resilience of our clients. We interpret mental health symptoms not as personal failings, but evidence of an invalidating, toxic environment. We recognize, value, and celebrate all of our clients’ intersectional identities, and work to support authenticity, identity development, and exploration.
“...having a mental healthcare provider who understands our identities and experiences, the systemic barriers we face, and how our existence is indeed resistance, well, as trans and queer people this can be literally lifesaving.”
— Dr. Alex Iantaffi
working with kindman & co.
We know that LGBTQIA+ individuals face a lot of challenges, and that they so often meet systemic oppression with strength, resistance, community, and resilience. We want to support this work with accessible, social justice-informed and queer affirming therapy. Our therapists have experience working with LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples, and families—including specialized LGBTQ couples counseling for partners who want to strengthen communication, connection, and joy. We affirm and welcome all identities; genders; intimate relationship structures including CNM, open, & poly relationships; and sexualities.
At Kindman & Co., we practice preemptive radical inclusion, starting all therapeutic relationships from a place of openness, compassion, and acceptance. We’re excited to get to know you, and ready to hold space for you—exactly as you are.