Therapy that delivers clarity you can act on. Chicago-based psychotherapy for queer, questioning, and allied adults who want incisive, outcome-driven care.
Sessions that cut through static and hand you the truth you can actually use.
QUEER- CENTRIC THERAPY FOR CHICAGO
THERAPY BUILT FOR DEPTH AND PROGRESS
This is direct, affirming psychotherapy for queer, questioning, and allied adults who want therapy that actually moves. Every session is a live exchange; thoughtful, grounded, and outcome-driven. I work from a depth orientation that values real insight over repetition, blending evidence-based methods with the kind of cultural fluency that makes conversation feel alive. The goal isn’t to manage symptoms; it’s to create momentum and lasting change.
Therapy at Queer Talk is for people who’ve already done the self-work — therapy veterans, overthinkers, queer professionals, people navigating anxiety, burnout, or identity fatigue who are ready for therapy that actually works.
Most therapy circles around the same old patterns — polite nodding, tired platitudes, and endless “how does that make you feel?” loops. That’s not me.
I built Queer Talk Therapy for people who are fed up with therapy-as-usual and want a sharp, human connection that leaves them different every single time they walk out.
I bring nearly two decades of trenches-level clinical experience and queer cultural leadership, but also my wit, my irreverence, and my refusal to let you waste your time.
Whether you’re carrying depression, anxiety, burnout, or the quiet exhaustion of living inside scripts that were never meant for you, this is where we cut through the static and get real. My approach is direct, strategic, and infused with humor when it helps — clarity you can act on, not someday, but today.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE ROOM?
When you sit down with me, you’re not getting a polite listener who lets you spin in circles. You’re getting someone who will call it out, laugh with you when it’s absurd, and hand you language sharp enough to cut through the mess.
I don’t hide behind clinical distance. I bring my full self, my queer cultural lens, and nearly twenty years of watching people come alive when they finally tell the truth. Therapy here is not soft-focus affirmation; it’s clarity with teeth. You’ll leave sessions lighter not because you vented, but because you actually see what’s happening and what to do next.
WHY DO PEOPLE CHOOSE QUEER TALK THERAPY?
I’ve worked with clients who are questioning identity, tangled in fundamentalist guilt, stuck in compulsive cycles, or simply exhausted by burnout. I know the terrain because I’ve lived it, studied it, and built a method around it.
Clients come to me for burnout therapy, LGBTQ relationship counseling, and anxiety treatment that’s affirming and direct. We use evidence-based tools like ACT and Schema Therapy to find the patterns fast , so every session moves you closer to clarity and relief.
Some days I’ll lean on CBT’s surgical precision, other days I’ll pull from Narrative Therapy to help you rewrite the story you inherited, and sometimes we’ll sprint with Motivational Interviewing to get you unstuck fast. It’s never jargon for jargon’s sake. It’s whatever works to move you forward with humor, honesty, and respect. My clients describe it as life-changing and sometimes lifesaving. That’s because it is.
Every session is designed to deliver a shift, whether subtle or seismic, that keeps you moving toward a life you actually want to live.
WHO IS QUEER THERAPY FOR?
Chicago draws people who are remaking themselves. We are artists, professionals, transplants chasing energy and possibility. It’s a city built on movement, yet it can be hard to land. Finding community, dating with intention, or feeling fully present in your own life often takes more work than anyone admits. Holding onto your values in a city that’s always shifting can feel like a full-time job.
This work is for people who are done circling the same questions and ready to do the hard, clarifying work of transformation. It’s not endless processing or another spin through your history. It’s for clients who want to name what keeps them stuck, face it with honesty, and start living differently. Sometimes that looks like small deliberate steps, sometimes bold moves, but always purposeful.
If you’re searching for a queer-affirming therapist in Chicago who specializes in overthinking, self-doubt, or creative burnout, you’re in the right place.
WHY THE QUEER TALK METHOD WORKS — FOR EVERYBODY
The Queer Talk Method was built from the queer experience, but its truth runs deeper than identity. It’s therapy that honors difference and still reaches anyone hungry for real movement. The method works because it’s rooted in what makes change happen: clarity, honesty, and action. It strips away jargon and performance to get to what’s actually blocking you.
People walk in with different stories like burnout, identity questions, relationship friction, the quiet ache of not feeling fully alive, but the process stays the same. We trace patterns, name what’s true, and build something you can stand on. QTM isn’t just for queer clients; it’s for anyone who’s ready to stop circling and start choosing with intention.
MEET THE PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE QUEER THERAPY
The work here spans the full spectrum of queer experience. Trans and nonbinary people navigating transition fatigue or identity shifts. Cis gay men wrestling with perfectionism, grief, or the quiet drag of isolation. Queer women redefining connection and purpose. Bi and pan clients reclaiming fluidity after years of invisibility. Allies learning to hold space without apology.
Across all of them run familiar currents of mood and mind: persistent sadness that isn’t quite depression, the steady hum of anxiety, the exhaustion of imposter syndrome. Every story reflects the human desire to find balance between effort and ease, to reach a point where identity, values, and daily life can move together in rhythm with one’s highest and best self.
These are not abstract case studies or composite sketches. They are real patterns lived out by the people who come through my door: high achievers capped by invisible ceilings, allies who feel like outsiders in their own hometowns, restless professionals who can’t stop circling options, poly folks redesigning love on their own terms, and identity rebuilders tired of living someone else’s script.
Their stories show the depth of what brings clients here and the clarity that comes when therapy finally speaks their language.
Ari came in fluent in pleasing, exhausted from living everyone else’s script. Years of family rules and church teaching left a reflexive yes that erased their own needs. In therapy we treated guilt like a detox, noticing the loyalty underneath, tolerating the discomfort, and choosing differently. Boundaries began small: skipping a weekly obligation, correcting a pronoun mix up without apologizing, slowly reclaiming space. The voice that once trembled now lands steady; life is stitched to values instead of fear.
Michael is a straight ally who never found footing in his conservative hometown. Liberal, empathetic, he has often felt like an outsider in his own world. He wasn’t depressed, he was unrealized. In our work he didn’t have to translate himself. We named the ways he disappeared and experimented with small risks: saying what he actually felt, asking directly, allowing support without shame. He stopped carrying the weight of other people’s discomfort, made peace with their smallness, and felt light enough to like himself for the first time.
Rafa was educated and successful, but after transitioning, he was restless. He lived in constant conflict with his own reality, caught in loops of possible next moves that never brought relief. Self sabotage began to feel inevitable. Together we slowed the static with mindfulness and reframed his story through a present focused lens. Conflict shifted into a mantra: freedom lives in choosing what serves me now. He realized the career he had built was the wrong fit, and the ripple effects strained his connections. Beneath it all was a childhood truth he had spent years outrunning. Naming it and holding it allowed the restless child to finally grow into an adult with direction.
Priya was a high achiever who looked successful on paper but felt capped at 70 percent. She delivered results, earned respect, yet couldn’t break through an invisible ceiling. Patterns of self sabotage repeated. She was overcommitting, second guessing, circling choices until the noise drowned out action. Together we named the core belief that kept her running in place. Saying it out loud was the shift. From there, she started making small, deliberate decisions like clearer boundaries, fewer yeses, one purposeful next step. It wasn’t flashy, but it unlocked the rest of her potential and finally moved her beyond the ceiling.
Jon wasn’t tired of love, he was tired of being blamed for it. Every curious glance, every friendship that felt intimate was turned into evidence of betrayal for his partner. He always knew he loved big, that he had room for more than one connection at a time, but the old templates for relationships had him doubting himself. In therapy he reconsidered everything he’d been taught about love, and decided it all had to go. We named slutdom without shame, reframed curiosity as a strength, and built agreements that honored his expansive heart and liberated libido. What once felt like defect or danger became the design of a life that could finally hold both desire and dignity at the same time.
Therapy in a City That Never Stops Rewriting Itself
Across every story runs a common thread — the hunger for therapy that actually works. Many of my clients come searching for LGBTQ-centric therapy in Chicago that doesn’t feel watered down or performative. They’re not looking for vague affirmation; they want sharp, affirming therapy that meets them where they are without explanation.
The people who find their way here are often fluent in therapy-speak already. They’ve tried traditional sessions, read the books, listened to the podcasts. What they want now is movement. They are seeking a kind of queer-affirming therapy that understands the depth of queer identity, resilience burnout, and the way ambition can become both drive and defense.
Real affirming therapy in a city like Chicago (restless, ambitious, and constantly rewriting itself) isn’t just about being seen; it’s about being understood. It’s sitting across from someone who gets the exhaustion of code-switching, the ache of high-functioning anxiety, and the loneliness of being the one everyone leans on. It’s where clarity finally outweighs performance. That’s what happens when therapy starts to speak your language again, and when you stop translating yourself and start hearing your own truth clearly.
Many clients also find their way here for expansive relationship counseling that can actually hold the complexity of their love, relational, erotic, and sexual templates. Some are reimagining intimacy within polyamory or ENM; others are trying to reconnect after distance and burnout. Relationship work here isn’t a lecture on communication. No, it’s a collaborative re-design of how you relate, love, and repair. Liberatory relationship therapy is about building intimate connections that fit the life you’re really living, not the ones you were told to want.
The same is true for individual therapy. Whether someone arrives struggling with anxiety, overthinking, people-pleasing, or the quiet pressure of perfectionism, the work stays the same: clarity and forward motion. This is inclusive, culturally fluent psychotherapy that blends ACT, CBT, and Schema Therapy with conversation that’s alive, direct, and human.
The goal isn’t endless processing. It’s momentum. You are seeking the feeling of finally being able to see yourself clearly and move like it matters. Movement like that happens at Queer Talk Therapy.
Affirming therapy accepts and supports queer identity; queer-centric therapy starts from it. My work centers queer experience as the lens, not the exception, integrating cultural fluency with evidence-based methods.
It’s a structured, collaborative approach that combines ACT, CBT, and Schema Therapy with lived queer insight. Every session aims for clarity and forward movement instead of endless processing.
If you are interested in a deeper exploration of the Queer Talk Method, visit the QTM page.
Yes. The framework applies directly to mood disorders like persistent depression, generalized anxiety, and burnout by addressing both pattern and mindset, not just symptom relief.
Absolutely. The Queer Talk Method was born from queer experience but benefits anyone seeking sharper insight and meaningful change.
Most clients meet weekly or biweekly at first, then taper as progress stabilizes. Therapy continues as long as it provides movement and value.
We focus on language, patterns, and goals rather than backstory alone. You’ll leave early sessions with clarity about direction and what real progress will look like.
Progress is tracked through lived shifts, like less rumination, stronger boundaries, more ease in daily life. We name and evaluate those markers together as the work unfolds.
The space is ADA-compliant, elevator-equipped, and steps from major transit. More importantly, accessibility here means emotional safety and cultural fluency for every client who walks in.
To see exactly your route to therapy, check out Queer Talk’s location.
Yes. The value comes from measurable insight and momentum—sessions designed to create change you can feel, not just discuss.
Queer Talk’s private pay rates are still modest compared to many of Chicago’s specialized therapy practice. Take a look at our fees and how to use your out-of-network benefits on our Payment page.
It means every session has intention, direction, and follow-through. You’ll always know why we’re doing something and what it’s meant to shift.
We go deep enough to find the root, then act on it. Insight matters only if it creates movement in the real world.
Yes. I draw from each model for structure, but always adapt them to lived experience and real-time needs.
Then you already know what doesn’t work. This approach moves past passive reflection into targeted, culturally fluent action.
Both. I offer telehealth sessions across licensed states and in-person therapy at my downtown Chicago office.
All sessions follow strict HIPAA standards. Beyond compliance, confidentiality here also means respect for the nuances of identity, community, and privacy within queer life.
The Queer Talk Method begins with conversation. The vibe check is your first experience of that process. It’s a half-hour of real dialogue where you get a sense of how we work: curious, candid, and built for movement. You’ll feel how clarity happens here, not by performing insight, but by being met exactly where you are.
This isn’t a sales call. It’s a brief, human moment that mirrors the therapy itself: grounded, incisive, and unexpectedly energizing. Whether we end up working together or not, you’ll leave with a sharper sense of what kind of work actually fits you.
If you have a quick question about Queer Talk’s approach to LGBT therapy in Chicago, you can reach out a number of ways.
Troy Johnson, LCSW • Licensed Clinical Social Worker (ID, IL, KY, MA, PA, UT, VA) • MSW, University of Kentucky • Founder, Queer Talk Therapy
All sessions and chemistry calls are scheduled by availability only.
Week Days
If you are experiencing a crisis please call the Suicide Hotline at 988 or local Emergency Services at 911.
LET’S START WITH A CONVERSATION
Questions. Curiosity. Logistics. Nerves. All of it is welcome here.
Send a message and we’ll reply by email within one business day.
Start where you are. We’ll take it from there.
If talking feels easier, you can schedule a free 30 minute phone consult anytime.