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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...
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...
Sex Worker Affirming Therapy NYC | ATC

Sex Worker Affirming Therapy NYC | ATC

by Lauren Canonico | May 6, 2026 | Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

You Are More Than Your Job: Navigating Intimacy as a Current or Former Sex Worker by Lauren Canonico, LCSW and Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW Sex work is work. And like any work, it doesn’t define the whole of who you are. But try telling that to a culture that...
What’s (Romantic) Love Got to do with It? | ATC

What’s (Romantic) Love Got to do with It? | ATC

by Lauren Canonico | Feb 18, 2026 | Lee Warwick, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

February is often a month focused on romantic love, but what about other forms of love? How important are they, and what role can they play in our lives? Join Associate Therapist Lee Warwick, LMSW to explore the different forms that love can come in, and the value...
Heated Rivalry and Sexual Intimacy | Affirmative Therapy

Heated Rivalry and Sexual Intimacy | Affirmative Therapy

by Lauren Canonico | Feb 11, 2026 | ATC in the Media, Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW, Thoughts & News from ATC

The new TV hit, Heated Rivalry, offers an intimate look into a budding sexual relationship between two male hockey players. Viewers of all genders and sexualities have swooned over the couple, lauding the focus on consent and emotional safety in sexual intimacy. Join...
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Recent Posts

  • 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
  • Sex Worker Affirming Therapy NYC | ATC

Recent Comments

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    Connect With Us on Instagram

    affirmativetherapycollective

    LGBTQIA+ affirmative therapy🌈
    Client Screening Form ⬇️
    Queer therapists who get stigma🫂🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️
    NYC + telehealth: NY NJ CO CT FL MI MN PA WI

    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.
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#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 sex.

✨️These don't require two different therapists✨️ 

Sophie Talmadge Silleck, LMSW, specializes in eating disorders and is currently pursuing her AASECT sex 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 Sex and Body Image

Group therapy, virtual, all genders, 18+, US-wide. $90 per 90-minute session. $50 screening 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
    All of us at ATC are so excited to read Healing th All of us at ATC are so excited to read Healing the Oppressed Body by Andrea Gutiérrez-Glik. A book on trauma healing that actually includes queer and trans folks? AND acknowledges the traumas of oppression?  Sign us up. 

Best mail in a while! 

Thanks for all you do @somaticwitch. I am so excited that this work is in the world. We need it!
    Hate to report it, but "bring awareness to your co Hate to report it, but "bring awareness to your coping skills" is annoyingly vague advice when no one is there to tell you what neurodivergent-friendly strategies or coping skills actually look like.

✨️Meet Sophie Kuhn Bedaña, LCSW✨️
(she/her) Associate Therapist
Queer-identified 🍃 Friendly

Sophie’s therapeutic approach integrates creative, expressive, and experiential techniques alongside others.

She has extensive experience working with LGBTQ+ children, teens, and adults ✨️ including those who are socially and medically transitioning 🏳️‍⚧️

For Sophie B and her clients, regulation can look like:

🎧 Listening to music.

"We do a lot of mood-matching and mood-shifting music in sessions, and I will encourage clients to sing, hum, dance, draw, or just listen and breathe."

Crafts! 🎨

"I encourage clients to draw, knit, or craft in session, aiming to find something that keeps hands busy (like fidgeting) but feels more creative and fulfilling than fidgets."

And the best part is none of it needs an explanation to anyone.🤍

If traditional talk therapy has fallen short or you’d benefit from a more creative, integrative approach, Sophie B is taking new patients. 

✨️ Connect with Sophie B by visiting our bio links or sending us a DM✨️ 
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#Neurodivergent #SensoryRegulation #AuDHD #AffirmativeTherapists
    🍃Friendly ✨️ Queer-identified 🌈 Jewish Asher spec 🍃Friendly ✨️ Queer-identified 🌈 Jewish

Asher specializes in eating disorders, neurodivergence, OCD, ADHD, Autism, Jewish trauma, and complex intergenerational trauma.

All through an affirming, anti-oppressive lens 🧐

And best yet, they thrive working in the intersections between 🙏🏼

Follow @affirmativetherapycollective for queer therapists who get the stigma.

Ready to connect? DM us START to get the conversation started.
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#AffirmativeTherapist #QueerTherapist #NYCTherapist #NeurodivergentAffirming #EatingDisorderRecovery
    You've been doing the research. Googling therapist You've been doing the research. Googling therapists at midnight.🌙

Clicking on bios and closing the tab because nothing quite fits.✋️

You need someone who gets the gender piece and the neurodivergent piece and the body image piece, all at once, without making you explain why they're not separate.✨️

🏡 Coming Home to You is a virtual group facilitated by Sophie Kuhn Bedaña, LCSW, for trans and nonbinary people who are done starting over with providers who only get half of it.

DM us "HOME" and we'll send you the screening form link.
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#transtherapy #neurodivergentqueer #cominghometoyou #affirmativetherapy #transandnonbinary
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      Body, Sex, Trauma, Neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychotherapy

      Eating disorder and trauma treatment done differently

       

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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