The Affirmative Couch

The Affirmative Couch is a committed advocate for the mental health of LGBTQIA+, consensually non-monogamous, and kink communities, working with both groups and individual providers. The Affirmative Couch was founded in 2018 in response to the paucity of affirmative mental health care providers able to meet the needs of sexuality-, gender-, and/or relationship-expansive communities. We witnessed the resistance of LGBTQIA+, consensually non-monogamous, and kink community members in accessing services due to their (realistic) concerns that services aimed at supporting them would instead further traumatize them, erasing their identities and experiences. To address this problem, The Affirmative Couch provides continuing education for affirmative psychotherapists, empower beginner affirmative therapists with information, and create visibility of affirmative mental health professionals.