Gender Affirming Therapy for Trans, Nonbinary, Genderfluid & Questioning Adults in Oakland & Online in California

Gender affirming therapy is therapy where you don’t have to defend, justify, or explain your experiences of being trans, non-binary, gender-confonforming, or gender questioning.

As your therapist, I meet you in the full truth of how you relate to your gender. I accept your reality instead of try to change it or convince you otherwise. I celebrate the ways your gender experiences offer opportunities for creativity, play, and resiliency.

In Oakland and online throughout the East Bay and California, I love being a T4T therapist. I feel passionate about working with trans, genderfluid, and non-binary adults who have been deeply harmed by the medical industrial complex and the current political administration’s attempted erasure of trans freedom.

While I do not assume the role of expert simply by virtue of being a trans therapist who works with trans clients, I do have nearly a decade of experience supporting trans people in the Bay Area and know how meaningful it can be to work with a provider who understands the fundamental challenges faced by trans individuals and their loved ones.

When working with me, you don’t have to justify or prove your experience. You don’t have to shy away from speaking truths that other people might not understand. I’m right here in it with you.

Yes, I write letters for gender affirming medical care for adults in Oakland and online throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and California. I only write letters for clients when we are in an existing therapy relationship, as opposed to one-time assessments. I can refer you to other therapists who do one-time assessments.

No, I do not charge for writing letters for gender affirming medical care.

As an integrative therapist in Oakland and online throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, I use a combination of approaches.

With relational psychodynamic therapy, we explore how we relate to each other. Some clients have never talked to a trans provider before. They notice that they can be less filtered and more direct about the language they use without having to explain. Therapy with an openly trans person can be a space where fear, ambivalence, excitement, and curiosity about being trans is shared and acknowledged.

With Internal Family Systems (IFS), I help you explore parts of you that carry certain thoughts, feelings, and ideas about gender. Some parts might feel more masculine, feminine, both, or in-between. Some parts want to change quickly or move slowly, and some are scared of change altogether. We can have parts that are excited to explore gender, and parts that feel unsure about going deeper.

With somatic therapy, I support you with connecting to your body in ways that feel safe, consensual and affirming for your gender. We may choose to focus on areas of the body where there’s dysphoria or not. You get to decide.

For trans and non-binary adults who are about to go through a gender affirming surgery or have already done so, I offer somatic therapy to help you reconnect to your body after surgery. Surgery can be validating and life-affirming for those who seek greater alignment between their physical bodies with their inner worlds.

In response to surgery, the body might need extra support with integrating medically-induced changes. Somatic therapy in Oakland and online in California can be especially helpful for trans and non-binary adults who experience numbness, nerve pain, or dissociation around their body pre- or post-surgery.

Regardless of whether or not you have surgery, gender embodiment is at the heart of my practice as an openly queer and trans therapist in Oakland. I support you in relating and connecting to your body from a place of safety, comfort, and compassion.

Gatekeeping has more to do with the disbelief of your transness, and the use of power to legitimize or invalidate your gender identity. Gatekeeping would look like me saying that I won’t write a supportive letter because I don’t believe that you’re “trans enough.” This is not a stance I take as a trans therapist who works with other trans, nonbinary, genderfluid, and questioning adults.

The stance I do take is one of care and compassion for you as a full human with health needs that extend beyond gender therapy and medical support. This means that there may be times that I choose not to write a letter because of other concerns that complicate one’s capacity and readiness to reliably and safely tend to pre-op care, post-op care, or regular maintenance of medication. If this is the case, then we would discuss these concerns together in our therapy and review the options that best support what’s realistically available to you. I see this as different than gatekeeping, in that I’m not questioning or denying your gender identity or need for gender affirming care.

Yes! My culturally responsive practice is inclusive of clients from diverse backgrounds.