Queering Therapy: Reimagining Healing Beyond Norms
Written by Will Fairchild, LCSW
At Aspire Psychology in Portland, queering therapy is more than providing LGBTQIA+ affirming care—though that’s foundational. It’s a radical, compassionate act of reimagining what healing can look like when we move beyond clinical norms and embrace identity-affirming, trauma-informed therapy for people of all genders, sexualities, and lived experiences..
Queering therapy challenges traditional clinical models by prioritizing the lived realities of queer, trans, and nonbinary individuals, supporting polyamorous and non-monogamous clients, and centering healing approaches grounded in liberation, not just coping.
What It Looks Like in Practice
1. Centering Lived Experience
Rather than fitting people into diagnostic boxes, queered therapy centers clients’ lived truths—especially those shaped by queerness, transness, racial identity, disability, and other marginalized experiences. Our goal isn't to fix who you are, it's to affirm you and explore how you want to move through the world with clarity, confidence, and support.
2. Dismantling Internalized Norms
Many queer and trans clients carry internalized shame or trauma from living in a society that invalidates their identities. Queering therapy means naming those systems—homophobia, transphobia, racism, fatphobia, ableism. In our work together, we name these forces and create a space for healing, empowerment, and reconnection to self-worth.
3. Making Space for Fluidity
Queer lives are rarely linear. Whether you’re exploring gender identity, navigating polyamory, resisting binary labels, or redefining family, queering therapy offers space and honors your evolving identity. There's no need to arrive at a final version of yourself. You deserve space to shift, question, and reimagine—without judgment.
4. Challenging Therapist Authority
In a queered therapy space, the therapist isn’t the gatekeeper of wellness or the neutral expert. Instead, we strive to co-create a relationship where power is shared, feedback is welcome, and healing is collaborative.
5. Embracing Creative, Collective, and Cultural Approaches
Queered therapy can include nontraditional methods—storytelling, community care, somatics, art, ritual. It may blur the lines between personal and political, recognizing that healing often involves resistance, imagination, and connection to others.
Queering Therapy Is for Everyone
You don’t have to identify as queer to benefit from queered therapy. In fact, queering therapy is about expanding what therapy can be for everyone, by removing rigid expectations and embracing a wider range of human experiences. That said, for LGBTQIA+ clients, queered therapy can be especially meaningful. It offers a rare space to be fully yourself, without having to educate your therapist, defend your identity, or shrink your truth to fit a clinical mold.
At Aspire Psychology, queering therapy is a commitment. It means:
Listening deeply to the voices that have been silenced
Acknowledging the harm that mental health systems have caused, especially to marginalized communities
Creating space for joy, resistance, embodiment, and possibility
We are here to support you—not just in surviving, but in thriving, imagining, and becoming.
If you’re looking for therapy that affirms your identity and honors your wholeness, we welcome you!
Let’s Work Together
If you’re seeking LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy in Portland, telehealth trauma-informed care, or a space to explore your identity, values, and growth, I’d be honored to support you. Let’s co-create a path toward healing that’s authentic, intentional, and grounded in who you are.
Not a patient at Aspire yet? Start the journey to becoming a new patient today. Schedule with Will or another Aspire mental health provider for your specific needs. We’re here and ready to help you now!