Therapy where your identity isn't treated as the problem.
LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy in Johnson City, TN can begin for many reasons. You may be looking for support around identity, relationships, family stress, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, or simply the strain of carrying parts of yourself carefully in different places.
You don't have to come to therapy to explain, defend, or justify who you are. You may want help with something directly related to identity, or you may want therapy for something else entirely while knowing that your identity will be respected as part of the room.
Affirming therapy can start from more than one doorway.
Some people reach out because identity is central to what they're carrying. Others reach out for anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship stress, or life transitions and need to know they won't have to educate the therapist before the real conversation can begin.
When anxiety or depression takes up more room
You may be functioning on the outside while worry, dread, numbness, sadness, shame, exhaustion, or overthinking keeps affecting daily life.
When family responses hurt
Family stress, rejection, silence, pressure, misunderstanding, or conditional acceptance can affect mood, safety, belonging, and how much of yourself you feel able to show.
When hiding has become exhausting
Moving between different versions of yourself at home, work, school, church, family gatherings, or public spaces can become emotionally tiring over time.
When identity needs room
You may be questioning, naming, exploring, integrating, or living more openly into parts of yourself that haven't always had enough room.
When relationships feel complicated
Dating, partnership, friendship, chosen family, boundaries, trust, conflict, or visibility can carry extra weight when identity and safety are part of the context.
When grief or trauma stays present
Past harm, loss, pain connected to faith or religious community, bullying, rejection, harassment, coercion, or unsafe relationships can continue to affect trust, mood, sleep, and connection. If grief or trauma is what you're most focused on, there's a more specific place to start.
When faith, culture, or community makes things complicated
You may be trying to understand where you belong, what you believe, who feels safe, or what it costs to stay connected to certain communities.
When a teen needs affirming support
A young person may need space to talk about identity, anxiety, peer stress, family pressure, school, safety, or belonging without being reduced to one part of who they are.
When you don't want identity to be the whole session
You may want therapy that respects your identity without making it the only thing that matters. Your life is allowed to be bigger than one category.
Affirming doesn't mean assuming. It means not making you argue for your own reality.
LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy at Willow & Arbor means your identity is respected, not debated. It means therapy doesn't treat being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, nonbinary, or otherwise LGBTQIA+ as a symptom, defect, phase, or problem to solve.
It also doesn't mean the therapist assumes every concern is about identity. You may want to talk about anxiety, grief, trauma, relationships, family, school, work, depression, faith, loneliness, anger, or feeling stuck. Affirming care means those conversations can happen without your identity being mishandled in the background.
The goal isn't to tell you who you are. The goal is to make room for honest conversation about what you're carrying, what feels difficult, what feels unsafe, what matters, and what kind of support may fit.
Affirming care built into the practice from the ground up.
The clinical oversight at Willow & Arbor is provided by a licensed psychologist whose LGBTQIA+ affirming work spans more than two decades, including work as an LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator at the Mountain Home VA Medical Center in Johnson City. That role involved direct clinical care, staff training, and systems-level consultation, not a credential appended after the fact, but work done inside the specific community this practice serves.
That background shapes how therapists at Willow & Arbor are supervised, what clinical standards are applied, and what "affirming" means in practice rather than in name only. It also means there's specific experience with the intersection of LGBTQIA+ identity and military or veteran service, which matters in a community where Mountain Home VA is a major employer and care system.
We don't provide or condone conversion therapy.
Willow & Arbor doesn't provide therapy aimed at changing a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or core sense of self.
Therapy may include questions, uncertainty, grief, fear, family tension, spiritual conflict, or complicated feelings. But those conversations will never be used to pressure you toward a predetermined identity, role, relationship, or outcome.
If you're looking for therapy because you feel scared, conflicted, isolated, unsure, or overwhelmed, those feelings can be taken seriously without treating your identity as something that has to be corrected.
Respect isn't optional: your identity doesn't need to be debated before therapy can begin.
Questions are allowed: uncertainty, exploration, grief, fear, and change can be part of therapy without becoming pressure.
Safety matters: if there's immediate danger, abuse, coercion, or risk of harm, safety planning and crisis resources come before the usual therapy process.
Affirming therapy can support individuals, teens, couples, and families.
The right format depends on what you're bringing in. Sometimes affirming care happens in individual therapy. Sometimes it belongs in teen therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, or parent consultation.
Couples
For relationships where identity, visibility, trust, conflict, family response, distance, or repeated patterns are affecting connection.
Families
For families trying to understand, communicate, repair, support, or navigate identity-related stress without making one person carry the whole problem.
Individuals
For adults navigating identity, anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, relationships, life transitions, family stress, or emotional overwhelm.
Teens
For young people who need affirming support around identity, school, peers, family pressure, anxiety, mood, belonging, or safety.
What starting affirming therapy looks like
The first step isn't a commitment to ongoing therapy. It's a consultation to understand what's bringing you in and whether Willow & Arbor may be an appropriate fit.
Reach out
You can contact the practice and share as much or as little as you want at first. You don't have to explain everything before asking about therapy.
Consultation
The consultation helps clarify what's been happening, what kind of therapy may fit, and whether Willow & Arbor is an appropriate place to begin.
First session
The first session begins building an understanding of your experience, your context, and what support may be useful.
Ongoing sessions
If therapy continues, sessions develop around your needs, pace, identity, relationships, safety, and what begins to become clearer over time.
LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy isn't the right fit for every situation.
Sometimes affirming therapy at Willow & Arbor is an appropriate place to begin. Sometimes a different provider, medical care, legal support, a higher level of care, crisis support, a specialty service, or another kind of resource may be more appropriate.
If there's immediate danger, active crisis, abuse, coercion, intimidation, severe risk, risk of losing housing, or concern that someone may harm themselves or someone else, a standard appointment process isn't the safest first step. In those situations, emergency or crisis resources come first.
The consultation can help determine whether Willow & Arbor is an appropriate place to start, or whether another direction would make more sense.
Fit matters: the goal isn't to turn every concern into affirming therapy at Willow & Arbor. The goal is to understand whether this is an appropriate place to begin.
Identity isn't the whole story: affirming therapy respects identity without assuming it explains everything you're carrying.
Safety comes first: if there's immediate danger or crisis, use emergency or crisis resources rather than the contact form.
Fees
The initial consultation is free. Sessions are self-pay and vary by therapist and type of appointment. Willow & Arbor doesn't bill insurance directly. Therapy is provided by associate-licensed therapists under the clinical supervision of Dr. Katherine Barteck.
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LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy is available in person in Johnson City, TN. Telehealth across Tennessee may be appropriate in some situations, depending on privacy, safety, and fit.
Learn about telehealthThis page is provided for educational purposes only. The information here is not clinical advice about your particular situation, and reading it does not establish a therapeutic relationship with any Willow & Arbor therapist. Guidance that applies to your specific circumstances can only come from a direct professional relationship with a qualified provider.
Other therapy starting points
If LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy isn't the right starting point, another kind of support may make more sense.
Child and teen therapy
For young people navigating anxiety, mood changes, school stress, identity questions, family strain, social pressure, grief, or behavior concerns.
Couples therapy
For relationships where identity, visibility, trust, conflict, family response, distance, or repeated patterns are affecting connection.
Individual therapy
For adults carrying anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, relationship patterns, identity questions, or emotional overwhelm.
You don't have to make yourself smaller to ask for help.
The consultation can help sort out whether Willow & Arbor may be an appropriate fit and where the conversation should begin.
If you or someone you care about is in crisis or immediate danger, call 911 or call or text 988. See our crisis resources.