Alison Newvine
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #115158
Queer and Beyond
As a queer therapist, I welcome clients of every sexual orientation, gender expression and identity, and relationship style/status. My practice is focused on supporting people with sexual orientations and/or gender expressions that fall outside of dominant cultural norms, and folks in non-traditional relationships- i.e. non monogamous, cross-cultural, inter-racial, age-gap or any brand of queer. I work with individuals, couples and other-than-couple relationships.
Honoring Your Uniqueness
Our work together will involve learning about and honoring what is unique and awesome about you/your relationship and contextualizing your stress and struggles with an understanding of the negative impact of trauma, oppression, stigma and dominant cultural values. Often, there is religious-based trauma, or spiritual abuse that queer children (and adults) experience. Receiving messages from religious authorities that we are innately sinful and destined for hell simply is a form of spiritual abuse that can take years, if not our entire lifetime, to recover from.
I work from the understanding that identity can be fluid and may change often over the course of a lifespan (i.e. lesbian to bisexual, monogamous to polyamorous, married to single). Often these changes can feel unsettling and disorienting, but with gentle exploration and support, the movement from one identity to another can offer opportunities for increased self-knowledge, compassion and a fuller unfolding of your potential for creative change and growth.