LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy in Dallas & Online
Trauma-informed care for the LGBTQ+ community — because who you are was never the problem.
You shouldn’t have to explain or defend your identity before you can get to the actual work of healing. At Onward Therapy & Wellness, LGBTQ+ affirming care isn’t an add-on we mention once and move past — it’s built into how every therapist on our team approaches the room, from intake through the work itself.
Whether you’re exploring your identity, navigating a recent coming-out, healing from family rejection, carrying the weight of years spent masking, or just tired of explaining yourself to a therapist who “means well,” you’re welcome here exactly as you are.
What LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy Looks Like at Onward
Affirming means more than accepting — it means your therapist understands that minority stress is real, that hypervigilance around safety is a nervous system response (not an overreaction), and that healing often has to include grief for what wasn’t safe to feel earlier in life.
Our clinical approach is trauma-focused, relational, and neuroscience-informed, and we apply it to concerns that are especially common in the LGBTQ+ community, including:
- Identity exploration and self-acceptance
- Coming out — to yourself, your family, or your community
- Family estrangement, rejection, or conditional acceptance
- Religious or cultural trauma tied to identity
- Minority stress, hypervigilance, and chronic anxiety
- Relationship and attachment patterns, including in queer and non-monogamous relationships
- Grief connected to identity, transition, or loss of relationships
- Burnout from years of code-switching or masking
We use EMDR to help process specific memories tied to rejection, discrimination, or unsafe coming-out experiences. We use group therapy to rebuild something minority stress often takes away — the felt sense of not being alone. And we use somatic, nervous-system-informed work to help your body, not just your mind, learn that it’s safe to exhale.
Whether you’re exploring your identity, navigating a recent coming-out, healing from family rejection, carrying the weight of years spent masking, or just tired of explaining yourself to a therapist who “means well,” you’re welcome here exactly as you are.
For more mental health support resources, visit the Trevor Project.
If you’re an ally wanting to learn more about terminology, check out this resource from the Human Rights Campaign. Of course it’s normal to want to avoid saying the wrong thing, or offending someone. However, one thing we’ve learned in working with LGBTQ+ clients and listening to members of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s that silence is worse sometimes. Get educated so you can feel confident speaking up, rather than staying silent out of fear of getting it wrong.
Meet the Team
Every therapist at Onward is trained in trauma-informed, affirming care — but a few of our clinicians have specific experience and training working with LGBTQ+ clients on identity, family, and relationship concerns:
- Mindy Kitchens, LCSW: Specializes in trauma & EMDR with LGBTQ+ populations. Facilitates a LGBTQ+ process group.
- Erin Knebel, LCSW: Specializes in LGBTQ+ and neurodivergence exploration and skill-building
- Andrea Solomon, LMSW: Focuses on identity explorationm, stress, trauma, grief, and mental health challenges in LGBTQ+ populations
You Don’t Have to Do This Alone — Group Therapy for Community & Belonging
One of the hardest parts of minority stress is isolation — feeling like you’re the only one carrying it, or that no one fully gets it. Our LGBTQ+-inclusive process groups offer something individual therapy alone can’t: the experience of being witnessed by people who understand, in real time, without having to over-explain.
Affordability
Cost shouldn’t be the reason you don’t get support. Each of our therapists holds a limited number of sliding-scale spots, and we’re happy to talk through your insurance benefits or out-of-network reimbursement options during your free 15-minute consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is your team actually LGBTQ+ affirming, or just LGBTQ+ friendly? Affirming, not just friendly. That means our therapists don’t just tolerate or accept your identity — they understand minority stress clinically, use language you choose for yourself, and won’t ask you to educate them on the basics.
Do I have to be “out” to start therapy with you? No. Many clients start therapy specifically to figure out if, how, or when to come out — or choose not to at all. That’s entirely your process to lead.
Do you offer therapy specifically for transgender and non-binary clients? Yes. Our team supports clients at every stage of gender identity exploration and transition, including family and relationship work, without requiring you to justify your identity to receive care.
Can I do therapy online if I’m not ready to be seen coming into an office? Yes — we offer secure online therapy throughout Texas, which many LGBTQ+ clients prefer for privacy and comfort, especially early on.
What if I’ve had a bad experience with therapy before? You’re not alone in that, and it’s worth naming in your consultation. A lot of our clients come to us after a therapist minimized or misunderstood their identity — rebuilding that trust is something we take seriously from the first conversation.
You don't need to have it all figured out before reaching out. A free 15-minute consultation is a low-pressure way to ask questions and see if our team feels like the right fit.
If you are in crisis, please call 988 or go to the nearest emergency room. For LGBTQ+-specific crisis support, the Trevor Project is available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386.