I’m Troy Johnson, LCSW, and I built Queer Talk Therapy to be the kind of space I once needed. Therapy with me isn’t about playing it safe; it’s about cutting through the noise, shame, and gatekeeping so you can finally move forward with clarity.
I’m Troy Johnson, LCSW, and I built Queer Talk Therapy to be the kind of space I once needed.
“Every client I’ve worked with wants the same thing: to feel more alive, more connected, and more themselves. That doesn’t come from soothing or polite reflection. It comes from change. It comes from saying the hard thing in the room, and then helping you act on it.” – Troy Johnson, LCSW
“Every client I’ve worked with wants the same thing: to feel more alive, more connected, and more themselves. That doesn’t come from soothing or polite reflection. It comes from change. It comes from saying the hard thing in the room, and then helping you act on it.” – Troy Johnson, LCSW
How I Work
When you sit down with me, you get a therapist who shows up fully. I don’t hide behind a blank slate. I won’t sit across from you nodding silently and calling it therapy. I talk with you. I challenge you. I hand you a new way of seeing yourself that you cannot unsee. The struggles I work with most often show up in thinking, choices, behavior and relationships. In our work I connect the dots, trace the patterns and name the lies. From there we shape the choices that make a different life possible. I will not let you stay cemented in a life you did not choose.
My Story
I know what it means to wrestle with identity. I came out late. I fought through faith and sexuality. And I’ve sat in the client chair more than once. Therapy didn’t just influence my work, it saved my life.
Margaret, my first therapist, showed me I could be okay as I am. Hank, my second, held me accountable until I found my footing and became a social worker.
I carry both experiences with me: the vulnerability of being a client and the responsibility of being a provider. That duality shapes everything about how I practice today.
My Experience
Fifteen years later, I carry not just clinical expertise but the perspective of someone who has been in the chair across cities and contexts, from Chattanooga, to Gettysburg, to Chicago. Each place shaped how I see people, culture, and the ways we heal. That breadth helps me meet clients with more nuance and more imagination.
I’ve also trained interns to bring queer literacy into this field and sat with leaders and professionals as they dismantled the cages they built around themselves. The letters, the recognition, the professional milestones, they matter less than what my clients tell me: “Every time I leave, I know something new about myself.”
Who I Work Best With
I work best with people who want more than comfort, people willing to disrupt their patterns and break the cultural scripts holding them back.
Whether you’re navigating gender transition, rethinking relationships, or reconnecting with a buried part of yourself, my role is the same: I cut through the noise, bring clarity, and walk with you as you practice something new.
Why It Matters
I’m not here to soothe you into tolerating a broken system. I’m here to help you build a life that feels like yours, one that reflects your values, your identity, and your courage to live differently.
Troy Johnson, LCSW
I grew up in the South, raised on mixtapes, grit, and chosen family. Those roots taught me resilience and the necessity of finding spaces where you can finally breathe. I know what it feels like to wrestle with identity, to push against expectations that never fit, and to search for belonging when the given paths offered none.
I have sat in both chairs. I have been the client who arrived scared but hopeful, and the client who performed for well-meaning but distant clinicians who never pushed me further. I have also been the one who found clarity in therapy so sharp it changed my life.
Those experiences convinced me that therapy should never be neutral wallpaper. It should be alive, engaged, and honest enough to move you somewhere new. That is why I practice the way I do: to meet you in the middle of your life and walk with you toward something bigger.
The person behind the work is more than a therapist. I am a queer man who has fought for belonging and built chosen family when the given one could not hold me. I am a writer who puts language to experience, a teacher who invests in the next generation of healers, and a friend who knows the power of laughter in hard seasons. Each identity is part of the lens I bring into the room.
Outside of session, my life carries the same rhythm of growth and adventure. I chase new paths with my dog, Betty—some easy and restorative, others demanding enough to test us both. I have been knocked down, literally and figuratively, but each year I rise again and set a new aspiration.
Earning my DSW is one of them, a step toward anchoring Queer Talk Therapy not only in practice but in research and culture. My aim is impact and legacy: to build what has been missing, to codify queer-centered therapy into the field’s language, and to leave a framework that makes it easier for the next person to step forward.
My life, like my work, is about refusing to settle for less and creating something meant to last.
Nearly two decades of clarity, advocacy, and unapologetic care.
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.