• Do you accept insurance?

    We are not “in network” with any insurance plan but our services are reimbursable by most “out of network” insurance plans. Before contacting us you might want to call your insurance carrier to determine what percentage they will pay for out of network therapy. Depending on the provider, we have seen the rate of reimbursement range from 50% – 85% of the cost of individual therapy or couples counseling services. Some plans, typically HMO plans, won’t fund out-of-network care. Ask your provider, “what is your reimbursement rate for out of network procedure code 90834?” If you are looking for couples counseling ask them, “what is your reimbursement rate for out of network procedure code 90847?”  (But don’t use the term couples counseling–just use the code.)

    We are happy to provide you with receipts that include all the detailed codes required by insurers. Psychotherapy is also typically covered by pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) or Health Spending Accounts (HSAs).

    Our fees range from $185 – $250 per 50-minute session and vary a little depending upon which therapist we match you with.  (Note: if you don’t live in CA, NY or DC you won’t be able to use insurance for our services.)

  • Where can I find free LGBTQ help?

    Check out our free LGBTQ resources page.

  • How often should I see my therapist?

    Research suggests that you should see your therapist once per week and we highly recommend weekly sessions. If you see your therapist less frequently sometimes the experience can become a “check in” rather than a deep dive into permanent growth and change.

    With most clients we aim to be flexible and we will tailor the frequency of the work to meet your needs.

  • Where do Gay Therapy Center therapists get their training?

    All of our therapists are fully licensed psychologists and psychotherapists and have studied at some of the most esteemed universities and training programs in the United States including Bowdoin College, Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, UCB, UCLA, NYU, Northwestern University, Smith College, University of Chicago, and Vassar College.

  • How long does therapy take?

    Clients remain in therapy for a wide range of times. With most clients we suggest starting with an expectation of 10 weekly sessions. After 10 sessions you and your therapist together can assess if you’ve reached your goals. Research shows that most clients need 15 – 20 sessions to develop lasting change.

    Ultimately you get to decide how long you want to do therapy.  And it’s okay if you want to do just one session.

  • Do you give feedback or do you just listen?

    Our clients tell us they are grateful that they have found therapists who don’t just sit quietly and listen. We are interactive, down-to-earth psychotherapists and you can expect us to respond to you with honest feedback and guidance. We never lose sight of our goal to bring the awareness you experience in therapy to the world outside the therapy office. All of our therapists are seasoned professionals, licensed by the State.

  • Do you only work with gay people?

    No. While our primary focus is on providing a safe place for the LGBTQ community, we also enjoy working with straight people. In fact, many straight people find that a gay therapist or couples counselor is the most comfortable person for them to talk to because they know that we won’t judge them for issues surrounding sex or gender.

  • What kind of issues do you help people with?

    At the Gay Therapy Center we have well-trained LGBTQ therapists who are experts in:

    • ADHD
    • Anxiety
    • Addiction and Meth
    • Bipolar Disorder
    • Depression
    • HIV
    • Obsessions
    • Parenting
    • Panic Disorder
    • Relationships
    • Sexual Compulsivity
    • Sexual Abuse
    • Trauma
    • + more
  • What kind of individual therapy do you provide?

    A powerful way to reduce anxiety and depression is to learn how to identify your negative—and often untrue—thoughts and beliefs and to replace them with truer, realistic thoughts that bring you back to yourself with a feeling of calm. This is called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and it is known for being one the most rapid forms of therapy.

    As you practice this technique during the course of therapy and start to feel better, we can also begin to explore where these beliefs originated. This level of work, called Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, can provide even greater relief and allow you to expand your expectations of how good you can feel.

    We are good at helping clients gain new insights and then helping them apply the insights into everyday life for real, practical change.

    We have LGBTQ therapists that specialize in:

    • Couples
    • Kink
    • Multicultural Issues
    • Open Relationships and Polyamory
    • Gender
    • Spanish Speaking
    • Teens

    Many of our LGBTQ therapists have advanced training in:

    • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)
    • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
    • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
    • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
    • Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT)
    • Gottman Method Couples Therapy
    • Hypnotherapy
    • Mindfulness-Based Therapy
    • Psychodynamic Therapy
    • Sex Therapy
    • Somatic Therapy
  • What kind of couples counseling do you provide?

    We are highly interactive and we will not let you and your partner interact in the session the way you keep doing at home. Our job is to give you a new experience of relating.

    With new research and therapy techniques, the success rates of couples counseling have increased dramatically over the years. Our work is influenced by Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). EFT is one of the researched forms of couples counseling and has been proven to be one of the most effective. Several of us have completed advanced training with Sue Johnson, the founder of EFT, and we continue to do ongoing training in EFT.

  • How does therapy help me?

    I know many people are uncomfortable with the topic of therapy and that there is still some stigma about “needing help”. A common message of our culture (at least in the US) is that we should feel “everything is great all the time”. Of course that message completely denies the universal human experience.

    As much as we want to deny it, often it is hard to be a human.

    I remember how nervous I was, 35 years ago, when I saw my first therapist. I was shy about being the focus of his attention. It’s hard to hide when you are in therapy, and for obvious reasons, LGBTQ people sometimes get in the habit of hiding.

    In therapy you learn all kinds of new skills about how to manage your relationship with yourself and with others. This is a very powerful skill that most of us don’t get any formal training in when growing up. Therapy is the most personalized training in the world.

    But beyond the skill-building there is an even more powerful benefit of therapy. The relationship with your therapist is unlike any relationship on the planet. There is no other human relationship where you can reveal anything and be assured that you will be accepted. A therapist won’t shame you or reject you or tease you.

    That itself is a healing experience. It allows you to have a feeling of safety and trust that is typically unique. When we allow ourselves to experience that trust we are strengthened. It allows our confidence to grow and our shame to soften. We then take that new sense of safety out into the complex world of relationships and work and we find that we meet those challenges, and take those risks, with greater ease.

    That’s why it is so important to have a good relationship with your therapist. And a good therapist will make it easier for you to feel safer.

  • Do you accept credit cards?

    Yes. You can pay online on our website before or during each session. We also accept checks, cash, and PayPal if that is better for you.

  • How do I get started?

    You can set up a free 15-minute phone call with us by calling, emailing, or using our online scheduler, whichever is most comfortable with for you. Or, if you prefer, you can just book your first appointment online. Either way, we’ll make sure we talk for a few minutes on the phone before the first session.

    Adam D. Blum, MFT, our Founder and Director, answers the Gay Therapy Center phone and is good at matching clients to the therapist best suited for their needs. He can typically get you an appointment with one of our therapists within a day or two. And if he doesn’t think we have the best training for your issues, he will refer you to a better resource.

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