LGBTQ+ Therapy in Seattle
Dr. Cascalheira is a Gay Psychologist in Seattle
I provide therapy for LGBTQ+ adults building lives that feel authentic, meaningful, and fully their own. As a gay man, this work is deeply meaningful to me. In fact, a significant proportion of my research is about the LGBTQ+ community—I’ve dedicated my career to helping and healing our community.
Being queer is a gift, despite what the current political environment tries to tell you. We are living in a world that doesn't always understand, affirm, or accommodate who you are. The problem is in the system, not your head.
In therapy, we learn how to unplug from stigma and lock into strength.
At Urban Insight, PLLC, I provide LGBTQ+ therapy in Seattle for adults who want a psychologist who understands both the complexity of LGBTQ+ life and the demands of building a fulfilling adult life.
I work with LGBTQ+ clients navigating anxiety, depression, stress, relationships, identity, career, trauma, and addiction.
Some clients come to therapy during a specific crisis. Others are functioning well on the outside but feel disconnected, stuck, or uncertain about what comes next.
Through relational-cultural, trauma-informed, and evidence-based therapy, you and I will cocreate a space where we can understand what's happening beneath the surface, and develop a clearer sense of where you want your life to go.
LGBTQ+ therapy for anxiety, stress, and Depression
LGBTQ+ clients don't experience anxiety or depression in isolation.
Stress related to identity, discrimination, family dynamics, relationships, work, and belonging can interact with the ordinary pressures of adult life to affect how we feel.
You might find yourself:
Overthinking constantly
Procrastination
Bed rotting or brain rotting all day on social media
Struggling to relax
Feeling pressure to perform or succeed
Avoiding difficult conversations
Feeling disconnected from people you care about
Experiencing chronic self-criticism
Using work, sex, substances, or other behaviors to escape difficult emotions
Feeling exhausted despite continuing to function at a high level
Therapy can help you understand what's driving these patterns rather than simply teaching you to tolerate them.
Therapy for LGBTQ+ Professionals
Many LGBTQ+ professionals have spent years learning how to navigate different environments, manage perceptions, and succeed despite uncertainty about whether they will be fully accepted.
Being a queer professional means you have developed remarkable strengths of adaptability, self-awareness, resilience, empathy, and independence. However, you may have recently noticed that being highly successful professionally has come at a cost of experiencing anxiety, loneliness, and burnout privately.
Maybe you are uncertain about what you actually want.
Perfectionism, prestige seeking, and professional power have served you well, and yet something keeps festering.
Perhaps a numbness. Resenting work. Trying your best not to think about work on your time off.
A sense of overwhelm or exhaustion that only bottomless mimosas seems to make better.
Traveling across the world and coming home to a burnout that has yet to resolve.
Or perhaps living a double life where you are technically out at work, but barriers to true connection still exist at work or in your personal.
Maybe you’re too busy for a relationship, but you don’t know how to do less.
Many LGBTQ+ professionals find acceptance in a heteronormative world by performing perfection. Acceptance and safety are contingent on success, and in the long-term, this leads to problems. When you work with me, we will look at the intersection between professional life and queer identity. I will help you understand the patterns, beliefs, relationships, and experiences affecting your life today, and together we will decide which ones still serve you.
LGBTQ+ identity and relationships
Relationships can become particularly complicated when questions of identity, intimacy, vulnerability, and belonging intersect.
I work with LGBTQ+ adults navigating:
Dating and relationships
Long-term partnerships
Intimacy and vulnerability
Infidelity
Breakups and relationship transitions
Family dynamics
Sexuality and sexual identity
Shame and self-acceptance
Boundaries
Communication
Loneliness and belonging
The goal isn't to fit your relationships into someone else's model of what they should look like.
It's to understand what you want, communicate it honestly, and build relationships that are consistent with your values.
