LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy in Ann Arbor

You shouldn't have to explain yourself before you can get help.

Plenty of therapists will say they're LGBTQ+ friendly. Fewer have done the work to be affirming, and fewer still are queer themselves. Forest Ferns was founded and is led by a nonbinary psychologist, and affirming care here means you spend your sessions on what you came for, not on educating your therapist.

What affirming means here

Your identity isn't the presenting problem.

Unless you want it to be. Coming out, transition, and questioning are welcome topics. So is anxiety that has nothing to do with any of it.

No gatekeeping, no debate.

We don't require you to prove anything about who you are.

Your name and pronouns, from the first message.

Because intake happens in writing, you tell us once and it's right every time.

What we work with

Coming out, at any age

Including later in life, after a marriage, after kids, after decades.

Transition and gender exploration

Social, medical, or neither. Grief and joy in the same week.

We provide assessment letters for gender-affirming medical care using an informed-consent approach.

Minority stress

The exhaustion of scanning every room. Family rejection. Faith communities. Workplaces that are "fine" until they aren't.

Relationships

Queer couples, polyamorous relationships, and chosen family. Structures that most couples therapy wasn't built for.

Queer and trans youth

Kids and teens, with parents who are trying to get it right. More on our Child & Teen Therapy page.

Intersections

Being queer and Deaf, queer and neurodivergent, queer and disabled, queer and religious. You don't have to pick one identity to bring to therapy.

Trauma-informed, always

Many LGBTQ+ people carry trauma that came from the people and institutions that were supposed to protect them. Our clinicians work with complex trauma as a core specialty, and that lens is part of affirming care here, not separate from it.

Who provides this

Libby Farren, TLLP works with LGBTQ+ adults navigating trauma, identity and life transitions. Corin Magee, TLLP works with queer, trans and neurodivergent teens and young adults. The practice is founded and led by Dr. Mel Whalen, a nonbinary psychologist.