Queer-Affirmative Therapy in India

TL;DR

• Queer-affirmative therapy treats your orientation and gender identity as natural parts of you, never as the issue to be treated.
• We work with LGBTQIA+ individuals, same-sex couples, parents of queer children and questioning teens.
• Sessions online anywhere in India or in person in Gurgaon, in English, Hindi or Punjabi.
• You don't need to be out, or to have a label, to start.
• We do not provide assessments or letters for HRT or gender-affirming surgery. In a crisis, call iCall on 9152987821.

What Is Queer-Affirmative Therapy?

Plenty of therapists describe themselves as “accepting”. Affirmative practice goes further: it means knowing how stigma and secrecy affect mental health, not making you educate your therapist about your life, and never treating your identity as a cause of your problems. Psychologists call the build-up of this stress minority stress, and working with it is a central part of affirmative therapy.

Is This You?

• You've known for years, but you've never said it out loud to anyone.
• Your parents keep sending “suitable matches” and you're running out of reasons to say no.
• You're questioning whether you're gay, bi, ace or something else, and the uncertainty itself is exhausting.
• You're in a relationship that has to stay hidden, and the secrecy is starting to hurt both of you.
• A previous therapist or doctor made you feel there was something wrong with you.
• Your child has just come out, and you love them but don't know what to say.

What We Help With

• Coming out — deciding whether, when and how to tell family, friends or colleagues, and coping with the reactions.
• Family and marriage pressure — holding your ground with parents and relatives, and the guilt that often comes with it.
• Questioning orientation or gender — space to explore without being rushed to a label.
• Shame and minority stress — internalised homophobia or transphobia, hiding, and the anxiety of always being on guard.
• Same-sex and queer couples — communication, trust, and pressures from outside the relationship. See couples therapy.
• Parents of LGBTQIA+ children — understanding your child, working through your own feelings, and staying close.
• Trans and non-binary clients — affirmative counselling around identity, family, work and dysphoria-related distress.
• Questioning teens — with parental consent. See teen therapy.
• Anxiety, depression and trauma — treated in the context of your life, not as something your identity caused. See trauma therapy.

Our Affirmative Commitment

• No conversion practices, ever. We will never try to change your orientation or gender identity. Such practices are harmful and have no place in ethical care.
• Your name and pronouns. We use the name and pronouns you share with us.
• Confidentiality. What you share stays private, in line with the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. We agree with you how we contact you, so we don't put you at risk at home.
• Ongoing learning. Queer-affirmative practice is part of our team's ongoing training and clinical supervision.
• Psychiatric support if you need it. Our consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Anubhav Katyal, provides queer- and trans-affirmative psychiatric care when medication may help.

Online Across India, or In Person in Gurgaon & Delhi NCR

If you live outside India and would prefer a therapist who understands Indian families, see online therapy for NRIs. For our Gurgaon centre, see therapists in Gurgaon.

What Your First Session Looks Like

1. Free discovery call — message us on WhatsApp. Tell us as much or as little as you like; we'll match you with a therapist suited to what you need, and agree how it's safe to contact you.
2. Your first session (50 minutes) — online or in Gurgaon. We talk about what brought you here and what you'd like to be different. You don't have to share everything at once.
3. A plan you understand — by the end you'll know how your therapist suggests working and roughly how often to meet.
4. You decide — there's no obligation to continue, and you can ask to switch therapists if the fit isn't right.

How to Know a Therapist Is Genuinely Affirming

• “Have you worked with LGBTQIA+ clients before, and how do you approach it?”
• “What would you do if my family wanted you to change my orientation?” (The only right answer is that they wouldn't.)
• “How do you handle confidentiality if my family doesn't know?”
• “Will you use my name and pronouns?”

You're welcome to ask us any of these on your discovery call.

Please Read: What We Don't Offer, and Emergencies