Telehealth Appointments Available
Our licensed therapists provide LGBTQ+ affirming therapy for adults, teens, and families. We offer care in person at our Coralville and North Liberty offices near Iowa City, as well as through secure online therapy. Our clinicians are committed to creating a respectful, affirming space and to working collaboratively with you on goals, boundaries, and what support looks like for you.
Support and growth are possible. Our therapists offer affirming, collaborative care focused on understanding your experiences, strengthening self-trust, and helping you move forward in ways that feel right for you. 👉Request LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy or Contact Us today.
In-person: Iowa City area, with offices in Coralville and North Liberty
Online: Secure telehealth sessions available statewide in Iowa
Alli Center has been open since 2018, working with LGBTQ+ folks that entire time. Collectively, our therapists have decades of experience supporting LGBTQ+ clients. We take pride in being a safe place for you to receive caring and confidential support.Â
Yes, our therapists affirm all identities, expressions, and experiences of gender and sexuality. We believe therapy works best when it is a safe space for folks to explore their identity and build skills while being cared for in a supportive and empowering manner.
We respect each client’s name and pronouns and follow your lead in how they are used in therapy, communication, and records. Your therapist will invite (not require) you to share this information and will work with you to ensure your preferences are honored in ways that feel safe, respectful, and affirming.
Our therapists are trained to identify and address the individual needs of LGBTQ+ clients. Training for our therapists includes a graduate degree (most often a master’s in social work, marriage and family therapy, or mental health counseling), supervision and consultation with experienced practitioners, and continuing education. Each of our therapists pursues continuing education in topics that most interest them, with some recent examples including writing gender affirming care letters, improving cultural competency, and supporting sexuality and gender diversity in therapy.
Yes, we do. Your therapist will work with you where you are. Alli Center’s therapists have experience supporting clients who are questioning their gender and sexuality, exploring their identity, coming out to their loved ones and community, and celebrating every part of themselves. We know that each journey is unique and that your needs for support will be different at different times. Our approach to gender-affirming care is broad and inclusive, from helping you with referrals and advocacy to writing letters in support of your ongoing care when appropriate. We are proud to be part of your journey.
Yes, we are familiar with the WPATH Standards of Care, which can be viewed here. Part of our commitment to providing excellent care to you, and all of our clients, is keeping up to date on the latest expert advice on treating transgender and gender diverse clients.
We have experience writing letters for gender-affirming care for clients. As we know, receiving gender-affirming care is essential to overall health and well-being. If this is a need you have, your therapist will talk to you about it and collaborate on a plan that works for you.
We know minority stress can take a terrible toll. Arising from intersectional discrimination and marginalization, it can lead to depression, self-harm, and even suicide. Your therapist will work with you to identify when and how this kind of stress, stigma, and discrimination is showing up in your life and the effects it is having on you. Together, you’ll work on a plan to support your health and wellness while understanding that it is no sign of failure to feel unwell in a diseased system.
Our therapists have experience with clients coming to us with all kinds of family and relationship structures, such as polyamory, open relationships, chosen family, blended families, and more. When you meet with your therapist, one of the things they’ll ask you about is what family looks like to you. They will also talk to you about your romantic and sexual history, seeking to understand what you value most in relationships and what, if any, goals you have for the important relationships in your life.
Yes. We know that while allyship is important, so is representation. It can feel scary talking to a new person about the most important issues in your life. Please reach out to our intake team (scheduling@alli-center.com) to talk about getting connected with one of our therapists, and let us know if you’re looking for a queer therapist to support you.
Part of feeling safe and ready to engage in the sometimes challenging work of therapy means feeling welcome in a new environment. Some of the ways we go about making our office as welcoming as possible include posted signage (Trans Rights Are Human Rights), displaying pride flags, and using inclusive language in our intake forms. While we take these things seriously and do our best, we know that sometimes we miss the mark. We hope that if there is something missing that would make you feel more welcome, you’ll let your therapist or one of our administrative staff know.
Yes, our systems are designed to be inclusive so that you can indicate the name you want to be known by, your gender, and your sexuality if you choose to share this information. One of the limitations of the insurance payment model is that your insurance carrier requires us to bill services with your legal name and gender assigned at birth on your record. This is the reason why our staff collects this information.
Every client we work with is protected by our firm commitment to protecting their privacy and confidentiality. When you first meet with your therapist, they will talk to you about this, including opening up discussion about any specific concerns you have. Your therapist will collaborate with you to document your work together in a way that fulfills the requirements for record-keeping (including what’s necessary for billing insurance) and protects your information.
Our therapists have experience working with people whose lived experience includes intersecting identities that have been marginalized. We know that the positionality these intersections create influences all the work we do in therapy. We are also aware of the critiques of the “culturally competent” framework, preferring for ourselves to practice from a lens of cultural humility while engaging with the ever-present and ongoing work of anti-racism, decolonizing therapy, and radical liberation.
Yes, we do. Most often our therapists work with individuals, but we know that engaging the whole family can be vital to support our clients. Sometimes that can look like family therapy, and sometimes that can look like helping a client take the lead for themselves. Our approach is always identity affirming and strengths-based. We are eager to lend our support wherever you are on your journey.
We are well-versed in supporting clients who have experienced discrimination in the community and within the healthcare system. Our approach is collaborative, strengths-based, and empowering. We support self-advocacy with the understanding that our clients know themselves and their needs best. Sometimes this means they need us to listen to their story and collaborate with them on modifying our treatment, and sometimes this means they are looking for someone to help advocate for them. Whatever approach is right for you and your therapist, at Alli Center our team is committed to working towards changing discriminatory systems through advocacy inside and outside of the therapy office.
Yes, part of our approach includes collaborating with other members of your treatment team. When you start working with one of our therapists at Alli Center, they will ask about other medical providers you are seeing. We approach our work holistically, treating clients as complete people because we know that therapy is just one part of your well-being. We can also talk to you about establishing specialty care, such as with Planned Parenthood or UIHC, if that’s what you are looking for.
Community, resilience, and relationship building are essential parts of therapy treatment. When you get started with one of our therapists, they will talk to you about each of these domains. We know that healing often needs community and that community connection is a vital part of our work with LGBTQ+ folks. While each person’s needs are different, there are some common starting points, such as addressing fear and anxiety, self-worth and hope, as well as making suggestions for community connections with other supportive organizations like UAY and Compeer.
The approach we take at Alli Center is primarily affirming, trauma-informed, and strengths-based. While each of our therapists has their own style, we are all committed to the idea that our clients are experts on their own lives. We are here to provide support, encouragement, and the right amount of challenge to help you make a change in your life.
You can request to work with an LGBTQ+ affirming therapist online or call us at 319-804-9312. We’ll connect you with the right therapist for your needs and help you get started quickly.
Whether you’re in Coralville, Iowa City, North Liberty, or anywhere in Iowa connecting through telehealth, we’re here to support you.
👉Request an LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy appointment or Contact Us today.