At Bryant West Psychology, we offer caring and welcoming mental health support for LGBTQ+ people, their allies, and anyone exploring their identity. Our team provides safe and affirming services to help you cope with challenges, build strength, and grow into your best self. We offer individual therapy, psychiatric medication, group and couples’ counseling, and evaluations for gender-affirming medical care. Many of our clinicians are LGBTQ+ themselves, and all are dedicated to creating a space where you feel seen and understood. We are here in Midtown West and online across New York State to make sure you feel supported and accepted.
At Bryant West Psychology it is our mission to create an embracing, inclusive, and affi rming space for LGBTQ+ people, their allies, and and anyone navigating desires or identities that may feel alternative, unlabeled, or undefi nable We are here to address your mental health needs, as well as to support your resilience, your fi ght to stand up for yourself and those you love, as well as to explore with you normal reactions, sometime troubling, to an all too real socio-political climate that is increasingly attacking and threatening to LGBTQ+ people, most particularly those of us who are Trans. We provide supportive, inclusive, and gender affi rmative comprehensive mental health services to support healing and growth into the unique person that you are. Every team member is committed to creating a space where you’re welcomed, validated and advocated for, no matter your sexual and gender orientation, identity or expression. Many of us have specialized training in this area, or may be part of the LGBTQ+ community. If so, we have put “LGBTQ+ Affirming” (as well as “Sex Affirming ” and “Kink Positive” as those labels may apply) on our profiles under our respective specialties: Psychotherapists –  Psychiatrists – Assessment Specialists
Our diverse team of experienced and compassionate clinicians brings deep understanding of the complexities of human sexuality and gender identity, and is eager to openly learn about who you are, who you strive to be, as well as the complex matrix of social forces (intersecting familial, cultural, class, socio-political, religious) that you are embedded in and grappling with. We understand your need for safety, support, self-expression, and the burdens of code switching or hiding you have had to do to psychically and physically survive in this world. It’s not easy!
We are here in person in Midtown West and online (throughout New York State, with some clinicians in New Jersey and other states, indicated on our profiles) to be with you at every step, from the initial consultation to the day you no longer need our help – and beyond that even if just in spirit. We invite you to view our Psychotherapists –  Psychiatrists – Assessment Specialists to find a clinician who resonates with you and reach out to them directly by phone or email. Or, if you need assistance in this process, please use our Contact Form to reach out to our Clinical Director, Stephen Schneider, Ph.D., who will be happy to help you find the right fit given your needs and preferences.
What Are Our Core Values in Delivering LGBTQ+ Mental Health Service, and How Do We Incorporate Them Into Our Practice?
LGBTQ+ mental health services must be delivered in an environment that respects and embraces who you are – and your unique expressions of self. We are not interested in putting you into a box or attaching a label to you. An embracing, inclusive and collaborative approach builds trust and honors your unique experience and expression of gender and sexuality. We embrace who you are as well as who you wish to be in this world – and accompany you on your journey with care and support.
At Bryant West Psychology, we incorporate the following verbal and nonverbal approaches in our work and extend these principles to all persons no matter how they identify:
- Use of Inclusive, non-assumptive language during intake, documentation, and throughout your experience with us.
- Attunement to the unique stress faced by sexual/gender minorities such as macroaggressions, microaggressions, family/religious rejection and condemnation.
- Intersectional understanding that respects your lived experiences and the complexities of your unique identity in its cultural and socio-economic context.
- Collaborative goal-setting centered on safety, agency, authenticity, empowerment and healing from social, religious and familial wounds.
- An openness to being called out or “called in” when you are feeling misunderstood by your clinician, or you experience a failure in emotional attunement.
Services That Integrate the Needs and Concerns LGBTQ+ Persons
Our LGBTQ+ mental health is both heartfelt and evidence-based practices meant to help you feel comfortable and validated by your clinician (partner in understanding healing and growth). At Bryant West Psychology, we integrate these principles to create a space where you can explore life transitions while feeling fully heard and understood. All of our services are based on affirmative therapy, including:
- Individual psychotherapy with therapists who honor your unique experiences and journey, recognizing the impact of homo-, bi-, and trans-phobia, social, familial and religious ostracism, and bullying among other factors that may contribute to anxiety, depression, substance use and maladaptive coping, such as self-harm
- Couples and family therapy with therapists who recognize and value your families and relationships, in their various forms, who are not distracted from the main tasks of repair and healing and finding satisfying paths forward, without imposing traditional or normative values and expectations on how you live
- Psychiatric consultation and medication management with practitioners who see your pain as deeply human and incorporate into care plans that affirm your goals, identities and needs in their care plans.
- Assessment delivered with cultural humility and respect for your lived experiences, as well as recognition in of the complex social factors which may have aff ected not only your journey through life, but also your responses to standardized tests normed on persons who are not refl ective of you
- Group Psychotherapy that is LGBTQ+ focused, such as our Queer Resilience Psychotherapy Group for young adults. All of our other groups, however, are open and inclusive so that your being LGBTQ+ is welcomed, affirmed by therapists whose mission is to create safe space for all – and know how to address challenges to safety
Choose Bryant West for LGBTQ+ Inclusive Care
You deserve to feel truly seen, supported and empowered by clinicians who are eager to understand you, standby you and provide personal and professional help, in a respectful, caring and deeply personal manner, whether in person in our offices at 40th Street and Broadway, or online throughout New York State (as well as by some providers throughout New Jersey and beyond). Our goal is to help you live fully, authentically and proud and out-loud (even if you do it quietly).
Again, we invite you to view our  Psychotherapists –  Psychiatrists – Assessment Specialists to find a clinician who resonates with you and reach out to them directly by phone or email. Or, if you need assistance in this process, please use our Contact Form to reach out to our Clinical Director, Stephen Schneider, Ph.D., who will be happy to help you find the right fit given your needs and preferences.