Why Queer Clients Need Queer Therapists

"As a therapist who is both queer herself and works almost exclusively with queer and trans folks, I have both firsthand experiences and have heard from hundreds of clients that past therapists didn't understand them, and in fact, pathologized them, for the ways their lives fall outside the straight norm."

"This therapist couldn't comprehend why I wouldn't be with a man other than having experienced sexual abuse at the hands of one - a take that is extremely reductive and pathologizing for queer and trans folks, but also for survivors of sexual abuse."

"When I did, I no longer had to explain myself. I no longer felt judged or misunderstood. My clients come to me because of the thing that makes me different, my queerness."

Queer and trans individuals frequently encounter misunderstanding and pathologization in therapy with straight therapists who lack cultural competency. A queer therapist shares personal experiences of being misunderstood, including a trauma therapist who conflated her lesbianism with sexual abuse and failed to understand typical relationship dynamics within queer communities. These experiences led her to seek therapy with a queer provider, where she no longer felt judged or required to explain herself. Queer clients deserve access to therapists with lived experience and understanding of their lives. Straight therapists working with queer and trans populations must actively educate themselves through immersion in queer culture and clinical supervision to provide competent, affirming care.

Read at Psychology Today