It did happen. It was abuse. It was real.

If you have gone through sexual abuse, domestic violence, or any other type of trauma, you may feel invisible and hopeless.

If you are part of the LGBTQ+ community…you feel even more alone, confused, and isolated.

If you experienced intimate partner violence or sexual abuse as a member of the LGBTQ community, this may have crossed your mind:

• I can’t tell anyone – they will think I’m lying.  They will say “how could abuse happen between two women?” 
• I can’t share I was sexually abused as a child. They will say that’s why I’m gay/bi/queer/trans.
• Cishet people don’t get it.  Who could understand my partner threatening to out me or misgender me as a way to control me?
• If I told my family I needed help, they would say I’m being abused because my relationship, sexuality, or gender is ‘unnatural’ or ‘wrong’.

So you didn’t tell anyone. 

“Others have been through worse.”

“They only hit me once.”

“It’s in the past.  I should be over it by now.”

Yet…you can’t stop thinking about what happened to you. 

Your identity, sexuality, and gender may be intertwined with your trauma, but who you are is so much more than what’s happened to you.

You can learn to let go of your pain and abuse so that you can step even more confidently into who you are, love yourself and others fully, and not be afraid of being close to others. 

I specialize in working with LGBTQ+ folx who have survived abuse, trauma, or intimate partner violence.

For a free consultation, please email me at arianna@quietmooncounseling.com 

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