Plano Texas
Gay Male Couple’s Counseling
Repair, reconnect, and build a stronger relationship.
Request a Free 15-Minute Consultation
* By clicking Submit, you permit us to contact you by email, phone, or text. Don’t worry – we won’t send you junk. It’s just to schedule a consultation and see if we can help you!
Sage Finch Counseling
Plano & Frisco Male Same-Sex Relationship Therapy
We can help with a variety of challenges, including:
Internalized Homophobia & Shame
Internalized homophobia can impact how you view yourself or your partner. It may show up as shame or not being able to feel fully open and vulnerable with your partner.
Stage Discrepancy
You and your partner may be in different levels of “outness.” One might be newly out (or out to select people), while the other may have been out for longer, and possibly more comfortable with their identity.
Negotiating Open Relationships
Gay men may face unique expectations and pressures around open relationships, and navigating these conversations can bring up issues of trust, jealousy, or differing needs and desires.
Gender Roles
Traditional gender roles and expectations may not apply to gay male couples, but you may still face challenges around navigating masculinity, emotional expression, the division of labor, and power dynamics.
Intimacy and Sexual Challenges
Same-sex couples may struggle with differing sexual desires or issues with sexual intimacy and performance. These challenges are far more common than you probably realize.
Body Dysmorphia
Gay men can experience heightened pressure to meet specific beauty or body standards within the LGBTQIA+ community, leading to body image issues or body dysmorphia,
Family of Origin Conflicts
Your or your partner’s family of origin may not know about or be supportive of your gay identity or your partner. Navigating holidays, social media, and family drama can be a challenge.
Intersectionality
Race, ethnicity, class, disability, and religious differences may be just as important and impactful as your gay identity, or they may introduce additional dynamics into your relationship.
Intergenerational Relationships
It’s very common for gay male relationships to span a wide age range, which can impact your relationship in various ways.
HIV Status
HIV is not the devastation that it once was. It can be largely prevented through PrEP/PEP, and many HIV-positive individuals have undetectable levels, which makes it non-transmittable. Therefore, there are a lot of partners with differing HIV status’.
CONTEMPLATING Marriage
Marriage is not for everyone. Before diving in, it is worth a thoughtful exploration of each of your expectations, external pressure, what marriage means, finances, having children, monogamy vs. ethical non-monogamy, and more.
Family Planning
Together, we can explore your hopes, dreams, expectations, and worries, as well as how starting a family might impact your relationship, finances, division of labor, and more.
Infidelity & Broken Trust
Infidelity, broken trust, and boundary violations are common causes of relationship ruptures. It’s hard to fix these on your own, but therapy can help you reconnect, heal, and build a stronger relationship.
Gridlocked Issues
Therapy can help gay male couples talk through gridlocked issues in a new way, so that you are not having the same conflicts over and over, which can damage your relationship.
Conflict Resolution
Every relationship requires communication and compromise. Conflicts will inevitably arise so it is very important to learn how to communicate and resolve conflicts in a way that does not harm your relationship.
What to Expect
How Does Couple’s Therapy Work?
First Session
In our first session, we’ll go over the history of your relationship and what brings you to therapy.
Second Session
I’ll meet with each of you individually to get to know you better, learn more about your background, and better understand your perspective on your relationship.
Third Session & Beyond
After the individual sessions, we’ll all meet together to discuss therapy goals and begin working on the challenges that brought you in. This and future sessions will be with the three of us.
What to Expect
Gay Male Couple’s Counseling FAQs
Do you also work with other genders and orientations?
Yes! This page is focused on gay males for search engine optimization, but we work with the entire LGBTQIA+ umbrella of identities. We also work with couples, troubles, and ethical non-monogamous partnerships.
What if we are not sure if we want to stay together?
That’s okay. We can help you explore:
- What is and isn’t working for each of you?
- Can your gridlocked issues be overcome?
- Can you establish new ways of interacting?
- Can you heal from the pain of past regrettable incidences?
- What do each of you want for yourselves and your futures?
- Are there alternatives to breaking up (such as opening the relationship)?
- What are your hopes and dreams?
- What might life look like apart?
If you do decide to break up, you may be able to do it in a way that brings closure and peace, so each of you can move forward without bitterness.
Can you change my partner (after all, they are the real problem)?
The cycles of interaction in your relationship involve both of you. Let’s identify these cycles, see how each of you contributes to the negative interaction, and discuss what can be changed to alter this pattern.
Can you help us end on a good note and stay friends?
We can help couples navigate the breaking-up process in a way that helps both of you say goodbye to the negative aspects of your relationship while appreciating and expressing gratitude for the good times. This process helps you navigate this painful process in a healthy way that optimizes your chance of being friends on the other side.
What is your success rate?
I do not judge the success of therapy based on whether or not a couple stays together. There are many outcomes for couples therapy. Many couples find relationship therapy hugely beneficial, even if they initially feel skeptical or hopeless. Despite their love and commitment, others discover they fundamentally want different things in life or their relationship.
Couple’s therapy is a dedicated space to explore how each of you is experiencing your relationship, understand the dynamics that keep you stuck in negative patterns, heal old wounds, explore what each of you wants and needs (and if/how you can meet each other needs), deepen emotional and physical intimacy, resolve conflict, build better communication skills, and more.
COLLIN COUNTY TEXAS
Take the First Step
Frisco LGBTQ+ therapy: Your dedicated space for healing and growth in Plano, Texas (just south of Frisco).
Sage Finch Counseling
8105 Rasor Blvd, Suite 225
Plano, TX 75075
Most of our clients come from Collin County and surrounding areas:
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Request a Free 15-Minute Consultation
* By clicking Submit, you permit us to contact you by email, phone, or text. Don’t worry – we won’t send you junk. It’s just to schedule a consultation and see if we can help you!