We provide LGBTQ+ adolescents, adults, couples, and families with quality therapy in a safe and empathetic environment.
1221 Locust Street, 2nd Fl, Philadelphia, PA
(267) 225-3905
[email protected]
Nikki (she/her), LCSW, works with people who may be struggling with their identity, unwanted feelings, or unwanted patterns of behavior. Nikki accompanies her clients on a journey of self-growth, helping them better understand and accept themselves along the way. She especially enjoys helping folks learn how to better connect with their significant others. Nikki’s experience is that therapy can help people improve their ability to identify and cope with their emotions, which may result in feeling more at ease in their body and mind. One way this happens is through talking, examining the obstacles to talking, and using what happens in sessions as a way to understand what goes on in the outside world. Nikki welcomes folks of all identities and social statuses. She believes unconditional support helps people grow, and she offers that to every person who is in therapy with her. She enjoys working with individuals of all ages as well as couples and polycules. Nikki likes to collaborate with her clients, building a trusting relationship. Most of all, Nikki provides an understanding, nonjudgmental space where clients can feel safe and comfortable exploring anything about themselves and their experiences.
Peter (they/them) M.S.S., M.A., CPT is a Therapist, Creativity and Career Coach, and Diversity and Inclusion Consultant. Peter’s clinical approach is rooted in holistic, relational and humanistic theory. They believe in a strengths-based perspective, recognizing the resiliency in their clients. They hope to always create a supportive and safe space to help clients navigate trauma, conflict, and difficult life transitions with clear and focused goals. Peter passionately believes in the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client and strives to support their clients in a myriad of ways. Their focus is to help LGBTQ+ people find strength amongst a marginalized environment, empowering them to appreciate their strongest instrument, their selves. Peter’s practice focuses on the ways in which our minds and bodies are often separated through trauma and looks for healing approaches in which to strengthen our fragmented selves. Peter’s work primarily integrates person-centered and somatic based approaches to mental health while also utilizing elements of motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy and trauma-informed expressive arts therapy. Peter hopes to support clients in addressing challenges with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, disordered eating, relationship dissonance, transition support, gender dysphoria, addiction and trauma history.
Peter’s research and Op-Eds have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Gay News, The Mighty, and others. Prior to their work in mental health and organizational dynamics, Peter worked in administration at the University of the Arts, University of Pennsylvania, and Moore College of Art. Peter received their MA as their Acting Scholar from Villanova University and their undergraduate degree from Temple University. Peter received their M.S.S. degree from Bryn Mawr College and was the L. Diane Bernard Fund for LGBTQ and Human Sexuality Scholar recipient. Peter has experience providing case management and counseling in a variety of settings including hospitals, higher education, and non-profit arts agencies.
Nakia (she/her) has more than 15 years of experience working in various mental health settings with a wide array of clients, including those with anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and trauma-related disorders. Nakia uses a person-centered approach that is based on the concept that the desire to heal and become one’s best self is universal regardless of background, income, or personal identity. Nakia works predominantly with individuals and couples in the LGBTQIA community. The primary modalities she utilizes are mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, and the Gottman method. As a woman of color, and an ally to the LGBTQIA community, Nakia prides herself on providing a welcoming, safe space where one will be listened to with empathy but challenged to move forward.
Kris (they/she), PsyD, MEd, holds her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and her Masters of Sexuality from Widener University. She specializes in providing mental healthcare for the LGBTQIA+ communities and particularly enjoys working with teens and young adults exploring aspects of diverse identity components. Kris has experience working with individuals, couples, and non-traditional relationships and has a sex and kink positive, poly-inclusive approach to practice. As a therapist, Kris believes in using an integrative approach to create a safe environment wherein her clients can be supported while exploring difficult topics including gender identity, sexuality, relationship struggles, disordered eating, trauma, familial history, and intersections of identities.
Julie (she/her) is a licensed professional counselor with fifteen years of experience. She utilizes a variety of therapeutic approaches including Internal Family Systems, EMDR, and mindfulness for anxiety-reduction and trauma. She has a special interest in working with individuals who are looking to recover from the never-ending cycle of perfectionism. She also focuses on helping those looking to heal from body shame and develop a loving relationship to their body, food, and movement. Julie utilizes a framework based in body liberation and HAES, Health at Every Size. Julie also has expertise working with individuals who are struggling with sexually compulsive and self-destructive behaviors, and extensive experience helping individuals heal and recover from substance abuse issues and other self-sabotaging behaviors. Julie is also comfortable working with couples wishing to manage compulsivity, addiction, and/or infidelity issues. Additionally, Julie enjoys working with emerging adults who are in the midst of various life transitions. By using warmth and humor, she strives to provide a safe environment for her clients to explore and understand themselves on a deeper level in an effort to access more self-compassion and acceptance.
Brian (they/them) is driven towards the cessation of suffering through self-advocacy, social justice, and collective action. They have spent over a decade working in community-health, engaging in service of the marginalized LGBTQ and BIPOC communities, working-class individuals, people living with HIV, disability, substance abuse, and the intersections therein. Brian received their master’s degree in the Counseling Psychology Master’s Program at Temple University and provides person-centered psychodynamic therapy, combining systems-analysis with mindful introspection to investigate and appreciate how an individual’s lived experiences and environmental factors directly inform their present circumstances. Utilizing harm-reduction and strength-building we create a shared space of healing and authentic validation. Together with their clients, Brian strives to cultivate empowerment and forge a path toward satisfaction and contentment.
Chimère (she/her) has an array of experience and skillsets to the realm of psychotherapy. An ordained Reverend as well as licensed counselor, Chimère likes to consider herself a theologian first and social scientist second. She obtained her first Master’s degree in Theology and Pastoral Ministry from Villanova University before obtaining a secondary Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania.
Chimère enjoys working with individuals, couples, and families, and has a heart for millennials, whom she believes are all too often misunderstood. An ally of the LGBTQ community, a significant portion of Chimère’s work is dedicated to helping people improve their self-esteem, live a life of social justice, and reconcile previous religious hurts. A session with Chimère is a personalized hour that she considers sacred—it’s all about you!
Lucas (he/they) LMFT, specializes in working with gay, nonbinary, transgender, and/or queer adults and adolescents who are struggling with depression, anxiety, grief, coming out, gender transitioning, other major life transitions, trauma-related disorders, substance use issues, and a range of challenges related to interpersonal relationships, personality styles, and queer and multiracial identity development. Lucas believes that the conversations that take place in therapy draw on the client and therapist’s respective expertise and knowledge to co-create new narratives and experience that help to reorganize the client’s thinking, behavior, and resources to better serve the client in both healing from past wounds and facilitating progress towards life goals and self-actualization. Primarily utilizing client-centered, mindfulness-based, and behavioral approaches, Lucas assists his clients in increasing self-awareness and making small changes to bring about the major changes they wish to see in their lives. Lucas also integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Internal Family Systems Therapy to help clients better understand and accept the parts of ourselves that vie for control or relief at different times and how these parts affect how we function in our lives.
Before receiving his M.S. in Mental Health Counseling from University of Massachusetts Boston, Lucas received his B.A.&Sc. in Cognitive Science with concentrations in Neuroscience and Linguistics from McGill University. Lucas is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pennsylvania and California.