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Heated Rivalry, Body Image, and Sexual Intimacy | ATC

Heated Rivalry, Body Image, and Sexual Intimacy | ATC

by Lauren Canonico | Nov 9, 2026 | Body Image, Sex Therapy, Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

Heated Rivalry, Body Image, and Sexual Intimacy Heated Rivalry Got Us Thinking About Sex and Body Image Heated Rivalry has people talking about sex and desire. Explore how body image and shame can affect intimacy with Sophie Talmadge Silleck at Affirmative Therapy...
Rebuilding Your Relationship With Your Body as a Trans Person

Rebuilding Your Relationship With Your Body as a Trans Person

by Lauren Canonico | Sep 28, 2026 | Body Image, Sophie Kuhn Bedaña, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

Rebuilding Your Relationship With Your Body as a Trans Person 5 Real Steps Written in collaboration with Lauren Canonico, LCSW, Founding Director, and Sophie Kuhn Bedaña, LCSW, facilitator of Coming Home to You. Your body doesn’t have to feel like someone...
Feeling Lonely in a Relationship? Queer Affirming Sex Therapy | ATC

Feeling Lonely in a Relationship? Queer Affirming Sex Therapy | ATC

by Lauren Canonico | Aug 31, 2026 | Sex Therapy, Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW

Feeling Lonely in a Relationship? Queer Affirming Sex Therapy | ATC Nobody in Your Life Gets It. That’s Not a You Problem. That’s a Gap Problem. On the specific loneliness of feeling unknown in your own relationships — and what it actually takes to...
Queer Stigma and Mental Health: What LGBTQ+ People Face

Queer Stigma and Mental Health: What LGBTQ+ People Face

by Lauren Canonico | Jul 1, 2026 | Thoughts & News from ATC

Queer Stigma and Mental Health: What LGBTQ+ People Face | ATC Queer stigma is a documented health crisis, not a personal failing. Lauren Canonico, LCSW, explores how minority stress affects LGBTQ+ mental health. For those of us who’ve spent years editing...
Therapy for Neurodivergent and Trans People | ATC

Therapy for Neurodivergent and Trans People | ATC

by Lauren Canonico | Jun 10, 2026 | Coming Home to You Group, Sophie Kuhn Bedaña, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

Therapy for Neurodivergent and Trans People: What to Know  What research says about therapy for neurodivergent and trans people, how it affects your mental health experience, and why finding the right therapist matters. Therapy for neurodivergent and trans people is...
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Recent Posts

  • Heated Rivalry, Body Image, and Sexual Intimacy | ATC
  • Rebuilding Your Relationship With Your Body as a Trans Person
  • Feeling Lonely in a Relationship? Queer Affirming Sex Therapy | ATC
  • Queer Stigma and Mental Health: What LGBTQ+ People Face
  • Therapy for Neurodivergent and Trans People | ATC

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    LGBTQIA+ affirmative therapy🌈
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    A queer therapist hears this excuse constantly: "I A queer therapist hears this excuse constantly: "I'll start therapy once I've figured myself out." That's backwards.⚠️ All of you is welcome here, including the parts you haven't named yet. Our therapists lead with lived experience, not a checklist for how put-together you show up. ✨️The goal was never a tidy identity✨️ It's a grounded, authentic, connected life, on your terms. Fill out our screening form and start exactly as you are.🤍💻 #QueerTherapist #LGBTQTherapy #QuestioningIdentity #QueerAffirmingCare #StartTherapy
    If you're queer and neurodivergent, you've probabl If you're queer and neurodivergent, you've probably been masking in two directions 🎭at once and never had a word for it, costume season or not. Holding your voice in a certain register AND stopping your hands from stimming AND scanning the room for who's safe AND tracking whether you said the "normal" amount of words in a "normal" enough way. That's two full time jobs running before you've even reached the actual task in front of you.🫠 Every mask started as protection, and it made sense at the time. Get matched with a therapist who lets you take every mask off.✨️ Fill out our screening form to get started 💻 #QueerAndNeurodivergent #AutisticAndQueer #ADHDandLGBTQ #DoubleMasking #NeurodivergentAffirming
    As therapists who work with neurodivergent and que As therapists who work with neurodivergent and queer clients every day, we can tell you for sure: ✨️🦄 That exhaustion isn't laziness.☕️ It's the cost of running two operating systems at once.✨️ Unmasking doesn't happen all at once. It usually starts with one room, one person, one version of you that finally gets to be off duty. That finally figures out what you need. That starts to ask for it. You don't owe anyone "normal."⚠️ You just deserve somewhere to put it down.🤍 Follow us if this resonated. Fill out our screening form to get matched with a therapist who can explore this with you. #ADHDMasking #AutisticMasking #NeurodivergentAffirming #ADHDTherapist #AutisticAdults
    This queer affirming therapist wants you to know s This queer affirming therapist wants you to know something about that exhausted feeling after family dinner... ...before the invites start piling up for the season. That flatness you feel walking back to your car? It can be the cost of code-switching for three hours straight. ✨️Softening your voice. ✨️Swallowing your reaction to the wrong pronouns being used... again. ✨️Laughing at a joke that wasn't funny. ✨️Figuring out which body and food commentary to call out and what to let slide. ✨️Watching the door to prepare yourself for who is coming in next. All of that is labor, and the invites are about to get more frequent, not less. Fill out our screening form to get matched with a therapist who doesn't need family dinner explained, even though they always want to hear about your experience of it anyway. #QueerAffirmingTherapist #CodeSwitching #QueerMentalHealth #ChosenFamily #LGBTQTherapy
    The therapist who built the practice she wished ex The therapist who built the practice she wished existed. Meet Lauren Canonico, LCSW — Founding Director of Affirmative Therapy Collective. Lauren started ATC because most therapy wasn't built for marginalized, fat, and/or LGBTQIA+ bodies, identities, or histories. So she built something different. A practice that truly understands what it means to work with people for whom treatment has historically fallen so short. And one that recognizes something equally important: when therapists are supported, respected, and paid equitably, when their identities and lived experiences are honored rather than flattened, they show up better for the people they serve. At ATC, therapist wellbeing and patient care aren't separate values. They're the same value. ATC was built because EVERY patient deserves a therapist that is able to be present and show up with their full breadth of skills and knowledge. Our focus at Affirmative Therapy Collective: 🧡 Trauma 💛 Eating disorders / disordered eating 💚 Body image 💙 LGBTQIA+ identity 💜 Relationships of all shapes and sizes 🤎 Neurodivergence 🖤 HAES® and fat liberation aligned approach Harm reduction grounded. Trauma-informed. No gatekeeping your identity at the door. Follow @affirmativetherapycollective to meet the rest of the team. · · · #AffirmativeTherapist #QueerTherapist #NYCTherapist #LGBTQTherapist #haestherapist
    The pain you feel around your body image. The dif The pain you feel around your body image. The difficulties you notice being present and connecting during intimacy. ✨️These don't require two different therapists✨️ Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW, specializes in eating disorders and is currently pursuing her AASECT therapy certification. Her goal is to bring these two areas together in order to have more open and honest conversations about the body and pleasure. Sophie finds joy in working with clients who are looking to understand their inner world, let go of shame and stigma, and explore the old patterns that no longer serve them. She believes in a holistic framework where clients can examine the context and narratives that inform how they show up today. The work starts from where you actually are. One-on-one or couples therapy in person in Manhattan or virtually throughout New York, New Jersey, and Florida. Baring It All: An Exploration of Intimacy and Body Image Group therapy, virtual, all genders, 18+, US-wide. $90 per 90-minute session. ✨️The room where you stop being the only one ✨️ Fill out our screening form to get matched with Sophie TS 🌷 #queermentalhealth #affirmativetherapy #intimacyhealing #shamefree
    There is a version of therapy where you do not spe There is a version of therapy where you do not spend the first three sessions explaining and educating about the facts of your identity. Where your relationship structure is not a surprise. Where your body story does not require a disclaimer. Where the person across from you already understands the context and the work starts from there. Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW is a queer-identified sex therapist specializing in body image, eating disorders, intimacy, and relationships of every configuration. Monogamous. Polyamorous. Open. Kinky. Undefined. Figuring it all out. All of you, and all of your relationships, have a place in the room. If you want to do this work alongside others who already get the context, Baring It All: An Exploration of Sex, Food, and Body Image is a virtual weekly group open to all genders, 18+, across the US. Individual and couples therapy for people who are done starting over every time they try to talk about something real. In person in Manhattan. Virtually throughout Florida, New York and New Jersey. Fill out our screening form to get matched with Sophie TS 🌷 #queermentalhealth #sextherapy #affirmativetherapy #intimacyhealing #shamefree
    Where's the therapist who knows when to lay off? Where's the therapist who knows when to lay off? Sophie B works with autistic and AuDHD young adults who already know what helps them regulate. What's usually missing isn't more advice. It's a therapist who isn't going to lecture you back into masking just to seem "regulated enough." Sophie is gentle, curious, and flexible with however you actually communicate: music, art, chat features, non verbal days included. If you're tired of therapists who need you to perform "fine" to be taken seriously, this is 1:1 work built for you. Fill out our screening form to get matched with Sophie B. #NeurodivergentAffirming #AuDHD #TransAffirming #QueerTherapy #AffirmativeTherapy
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        Built with Kit
        Affirmative Therapy Collective LCSW LLC

        Body, Sex, Trauma, Neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychotherapy

        Eating disorder and trauma treatment done differently

         

        80 University Pl, Suite 2G, New York, NY 10003

        admin@affirmativetherapycollective.com

        (646) 504-1615