You don’t need to water yourself down to be understood.
Virtual, trauma-informed therapy for queer, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming folks throughout New York State.
You might relate if you:
Carry the daily upkeep
Are tired of correcting people who “mean well” and still get it wrong
Feel you have to choose between being misgendered and starting a conflict
Adjust how you look, sound, or dress depending on the room, and feel what it costs
Are the only out person at work and weigh every conversation
Are exhausted by forms, doctors’ offices, and spaces built for two boxes
Carry it in your family and relationships
Have family who use your name and pronouns “most of the time,” or only when it’s easy
Are the family’s educator, buffer, or reason for every difficult conversation
Hear “I support you, but...” more than you’d like
Were raised as the “good girl,” the “easy one,” or the responsible one, and still play the part
Are tired of dating where you explain yourself before anyone knows you
Feel anger or grief about what you’ve put up with, and aren’t sure you’re allowed to
Carry it in your community and body
Are burned out from being the advocate, the organizer, or the friend everyone calls
You find yourself havign to sus out who and where is safe to unmask
Feel “not queer enough” or “not trans enough” in the very spaces that should feel like home
Are worn down by the news and what it means for your safety, rights, and health care
Live with chronic stress, pain, or illness, or are neurodivergent, and feel it’s all tangled together
Carry something you’ve never talked about, or don’t think counts
Want your life to be about more than your gender
I’m Gina Sacino, MS, LCAT, a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in Rochester, NY, providing virtual therapy throughout New York State.
Therapy isn’t a crisis service. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988 at any hour.
Therapy for nonbinary and genderqueer folks
Your gender isn’t a phase, a debate, or a puzzle. We spend our time on the rest of your life.
Therapy for gender-nonconforming folks
You express yourself the way that feels like you, in every room. We talk about what that costs and what it gives you, whether you’re trans or cis.
Therapy for family acceptance and boundaries
Family can hold love and harm at the same time. We work on what you need, whether that’s closeness, distance, or something in between, and on the guilt that comes with it.
Therapy for the weight of being the educator
You’ve explained it a hundred times. We look at where you can set it down and how to choose which conversations are worth your energy.
Therapy for queer relationships and chosen family
Patterns from your family follow you into partnerships and friendships. We work on saying what you want, handling conflict, and staying close without disappearing.
Therapy for burnout and minority stress
You’ve been holding a lot, for yourself and others. We make room to rest.
What we do in session
I’m warm, direct, and relational, with a little humor, and we go at your pace. Together we:
Use your name and pronouns without asking you to justify them
Take your identity as a given and spend our time on everything else
Look at the roles you learned in your family and how they show up now
Practice boundaries with family, work, and community, and handle the guilt
Make room for anger, grief, and exhaustion, including what you don’t think you’re allowed to feel
Work with the body as well as the story, using a trauma-informed and creative approach
Build self-trust, rest, and a community that supports you
What feeling better can look like
You walk into a room without translating yourself. You choose which conversations are worth having, and the rest can wait. Your family can handle the real you, or you have what you need without them. You stop looking for ways to be more palatable.