LGBTQ+ & Gender-Affirming Therapy
Aspen Therapy offers LGBTQ+ and gender-affirming therapy in San Diego and online throughout California. We work with queer, trans, nonbinary, and questioning teens, adults, couples, and families.
You won't have to explain or defend who you are here. Whether you're coming in to talk about identity, relationships, family, or something else entirely, we start from the belief that you are the expert on yourself.
Who We Work With:
Our clients include people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual, transgender, nonbinary, gender-diverse, and questioning. You don't need a label, and you don't need to have anything figured out before you start.
People often come to us for support with:
Exploring or questioning gender or sexual identity
Coming out, at any age and at your own pace
Family relationships, including rejection, distance, or repair
Dating, partnership, and intimacy
Anxiety, depression, shame, or burnout
The effects of growing up or living in non-affirming families, schools, workplaces, or faith communities
Life transitions, grief, and everyday stress that have nothing to do with identity
We also work with parents, partners, and family members who want to better support someone they love.
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Gender shapes how we experience ourselves, our bodies, our relationships, and the world. Our gender-affirming therapy is for transgender, nonbinary, gender-diverse, and gender-questioning people, at any point in the process.
We can support you with exploring identity and expression, deciding whether and how to come out, social, legal, or medical transition, and the way all of this touches family, work, and relationships. There is no right outcome we're steering you toward. Our role is to help you hear yourself more clearly.
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Sexual identity shapes how we connect, who we love, and where we feel we belong. We offer affirming, sex-positive therapy for people across the spectrum of sexuality, including those who are still questioning.
Together we can work on coming out, self-acceptance, dating and intimacy, navigating family or cultural expectations, and untangling the messages you absorbed about who you were supposed to be.
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We work with LGBTQ+ couples, partners in open or polyamorous relationships, and families. That includes couples working on communication or reconnection, and families learning how to show up for a queer or trans teen or adult child.
How We Work:
Affirming therapy means we never treat your identity as the problem to be solved. We pay attention to what you've lived through, including the families, communities, and systems that shaped you, and we help you decide what to keep and what to change.
Our approach is relational and attachment-based. In practice, that looks like:
Attachment-focused work: understanding how early relationships taught you to seek closeness, protect yourself, or hide parts of who you are.
Internal Family Systems (IFS): getting to know the different parts of you, including the ones carrying shame or fear, with curiosity instead of judgment.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): helping you and the people you love understand each other's emotions and feel safer together.
Narrative therapy: separating your own story from the ones other people wrote for you.
We move at your pace, and you set the direction.
Our Therapists Specializing In LGBTQ+ & Gender Affirming Care:
FAQs
What is LGBTQ+ affirming therapy?
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We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Does therapy have to focus on my gender of sexuality?
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Getting started is simple. Reach out through our contact form or schedule a call—we’ll walk you through the next steps and answer any questions along the way.
Do you offer online LGBTQ+ therapy in California?
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Yes. We offer secure online therapy to anyone located in California, and in-person sessions at our San Diego office. Our officers are located in Hillcrest, the perfect setting for diversity!
Do you work with transgender and nonbinary teens?
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Yes. We work with teens and young adults, and with parents and families who want to support them.
Do you write letters of support for gender-affirming medical care?
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In the state of California, only licensed level clinicians who have an established relationship with a patient (multiple sessions) can provide letters of support for gender-affirming care. At this time, the only clinician authorized to provide this is Savannah Henderson, LPCC. Reach out for more information.
