LGBTQIA+ Affirming Counselling — Melbourne & Online
You deserve a space where you don't have to explain yourself first.
Walking into a counsellor's office or opening a video session takes courage. It takes even more when you're not sure if the person across from you will actually understand your life, your relationships, or what it cost you to get here.
This is a space where you won't have to educate me. You can just get to work.
What LGBTQ+ affirming counselling actually means
"Affirming" isn't just a word on a website. It means your identity is not a problem to be solved. It means we don't spend sessions unpacking whether your attraction or gender is valid, we start from the position that it is, and we work on what you actually came here for.
It also means I understand that being LGBTQIA+ is not the cause of your mental health struggles, but the world's response to it often is. Minority stress, discrimination, family rejection, the pressure to perform straightness or cisgender identity, these are real, they accumulate, and they have real psychological weight.
What affirming counselling does is hold all of that without judgment, and help you separate what's genuinely yours, your values, your identity, your way of being in the world, from what was put there by people and systems that didn't see you clearly.
This is not conversion therapy. This is the opposite of it.
You might be here because
People come to me for LGBTQIA+ affirming counselling for a wide range of reasons. Sometimes it's directly about identity. Sometimes identity is just the backdrop to something else going on. Either way, you're welcome here.
You might be dealing with:
Internalised shame, the feeling that something about you is fundamentally wrong, even when you intellectually know that's not true
Anxiety or depression that's been shaped by years of hiding, performing, or not feeling accepted
The particular exhaustion of growing up queer in a family or community that didn't affirm you
Internalised queerphobia or homophobia, messages you absorbed from religion, culture, or family that are still running in the background
Identity questions that feel urgent, confusing, or hard to talk about, including gender identity, sexual orientation, or both
Relationship challenges unique to LGBTQIA+ experience, non-traditional relationship structures, navigating disclosure, or community dynamics
The aftermath of religious or faith-based harm, being told who you are is sinful, disordered, or in need of fixing
Coming out later in life, and everything that comes with it
Isolation, the particular kind that comes from not feeling seen or accepted, even within LGBTQIA+ spaces
You don't need to arrive with a clear sense of what you are or what you need. We figure that out together.
What LGBTQ+ affirming counselling actually means
"Affirming" isn't just a word on a website. It means your identity is not a problem to be solved. It means we don't spend sessions unpacking whether your attraction or gender is valid; we start from the position that it is, and we work on what you actually came here for.
It also means I understand that being LGBTQIA+ is not the cause of your mental health struggles, but the world's response to it often is. Minority stress, discrimination, family rejection, the pressure to perform straightness or cisgender identity, these are real, they accumulate, and they have real psychological weight.
What affirming counselling does is hold all of that without judgment, and help you separate what's genuinely yours, 1your values, your identity, your way of being in the world, from what was put there by people and systems that didn't see you clearly.
This is not conversion therapy. This is the opposite of it.
A bit about me
I'm David Denoux, a licensed counsellor based in Caulfield, Melbourne, and available online across Australia.
I've worked with LGBTQIA+ clients navigating identity, shame, internalised queerphobia, and the specific kind of isolation that comes from not feeling fully seen, in their family, their community, or even within LGBTQIA+ spaces themselves.
I'm familiar with the territory. Not because I can claim your experience, but because I've done my own work around identity and shame, and because I approach this work without an agenda about who you should be or how you should live.
My approach is based on Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), a collaborative, relational framework that's particularly well suited to unpacking the patterns left by shame and rejection. We work as a team, at your pace, and you stay in control of where we go.
I'm a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), currently completing a Master of Counselling at Edith Cowan University (graduating 2027).
Please note: I am a counsellor, not a psychologist. If you're unsure whether counselling is the right fit for your situation, I'm happy to talk it through on our first call.
If religion is part of your story
For many of us, the most complicated layer isn't family or community, it's faith. Being told that who you are is incompatible with something you genuinely believed in, or still believe in, is its own kind of harm. It leaves a particular kind of grief, confusion, and shame that mainstream counselling often doesn't know how to hold.
I have experience working with people navigating religious and moral trauma, including those who are decoupling harmful religious messages from a faith they don't want to entirely leave behind. This is nuanced, personal work, and there's no predetermined destination. We follow what's true for you.
Practical details
Location: Face-to-face sessions at 223 North Road, Caulfield, VIC 3162 (available Saturdays)
Online: Secure video sessions available on evenings and Thursdays, from anywhere in Australia
Session length: 50 minutes
Fee: $150 per session
First step: A free 15-minute phone call. No pressure, no commitment, just an honest conversation about what you're dealing with and whether I can help.
Ready when you are
You don't need to have everything figured out before you reach out. That's what the work is for. The first step is a free 15-minute call.