LGBTQ2S+ affirming counselling in Halifax and across Nova Scotia

Counselling where your identity isn't the problem

Many LGBTQ2S+ people have had the experience of sitting with a professional and spending half the session educating them. Or feeling, even subtly, that who they are is being treated as the issue. Affirming counselling starts from a different place: your identity is a part of you, not something to fix. What we focus on is whatever you want help with.

Sometimes that's directly connected to being queer or trans. Often it isn't, and you just want a counsellor you don't have to filter yourself around.

What people bring to sessions

• Exploring or making sense of your sexual orientation or gender identity

• Deciding whether, when, and how to come out, and to whom

• Family relationships, including family who don't accept you or don't know

• Shame, self-doubt, or old messages you absorbed growing up

• Dating, relationships, and building chosen family

• Being queer and an immigrant or person of colour, and not feeling fully at home in either community

• Anxiety, low mood, or stress, even when it has nothing to do with identity

Why this matters to me

I grew up gay in China, and it wasn't always easy. For a long time I was confused about who I was, aware of the stigma around me, and quietly ashamed of something I didn't fully understand yet. Canada is a much more accepting place for queer people today, but I know many people here still carry hard experiences with family, relationships, or simply finding where they belong. Going through that myself taught me how much it matters to have somewhere you can talk without being judged.

Whatever your background, you're welcome here. Identity rarely exists on its own: it can be tangled up with family, faith, culture, or where you grew up, and I'm glad to explore all of it with you. If talking in Mandarin would make that easier, we can.

How we'll work together

I use a person-centred approach, so you lead and I follow closely, without assumptions about what your life should look like. I also draw on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which can be especially helpful for loosening the grip of shame and self-criticism, and for building a life around your own values rather than other people's expectations.

Sessions are online, so you can join from a private space anywhere in Nova Scotia. That can be helpful if you live in a smaller community, or if you'd rather not be seen walking into a counselling office.

Virtual couples counselling, informed by the Gottman Method, is coming soon and will welcome same-sex and queer couples.

Other ways I can help