How I Support LGBTQIA+ NDIS Clients with Compassion and Care
Finding the right support when you live with a disability can be life-changing. But when you also identify as LGBTQIA+, navigating that support can come with additional layers: layers of identity, history, trauma, resilience, and often, silence. At Bent Couch Counselling, I offer something many LGBTQIA+ people are still searching for: a place to land that feels safe, affirming, and human.
Whether you are working through anxiety, grief, life transitions, isolation, gender identity, or simply trying to make sense of your world, counselling can offer more than just coping skills; it can offer connection, growth, and a space to be truly seen.
Let’s explore the benefits of inclusive counselling for LGBTQIA+ people accessing the NDIS and how it might support you, wherever you are on your journey.
Why LGBTQIA+ Affirming Counselling Matters
Counselling can be incredibly powerful. But not all counselling spaces feel safe for LGBTQIA+ clients. For those of us who have had to explain our pronouns, educate professionals about our lived realities, or sit through sessions that felt clinical rather than compassionate, the idea of therapy can feel exhausting before it even begins.
Inclusive counselling means you do not have to do that work.
It means walking into a space where you are not judged, questioned, or pathologised for who you are. It means being met with warmth, respect, and curiosity, not confusion.
You are not just a set of symptoms or a funding category on the NDIS. You are a whole person with strengths, complexity, culture, and stories. Affirming counselling helps you explore those stories in your own time and in your own way.
The Benefits of Counselling for LGBTQIA+ NDIS Clients
1. You Do Not Have to Edit Yourself
Many LGBTQIA+ people become skilled at self-editing, holding back parts of themselves to feel safer or more accepted. In therapy, that mask can come off. You are allowed to talk about your life openly. Whether that is navigating dating as a person with a disability, dealing with gender dysphoria, unpacking family rejection, or figuring out how to feel comfortable in your body, nothing is off limits.
Counselling gives you a space to speak without filtering. That in itself is healing.
2. We Work With the NDIS, Not Around It
The NDIS can feel complex, but it exists to support your goals, including your emotional wellbeing. Your funding may already cover therapy to support your mental health and social participation, whether you are under plan management or self-managed.
Together, we can identify what you want out of your support. That might include:
Building your emotional resilience
Working through trauma
Improving your communication or confidence
Strengthening your sense of identity
Feeling more connected to community
Navigating transitions, like coming out or gender affirmation
Everything is shaped around you. You are not expected to fit into a box and you do not need to explain why mental health support matters. It just does.
3. You Set the Pace
Therapy should never feel rushed, forced, or performative. If you are working through grief, shame, dysphoria, or disconnection, those things take time. In our sessions, you are in control of how much you share, what topics we explore, and how deep we go.
Some weeks might be about managing daily stress. Some weeks may focus on unravelling years of silence. All of it is welcome.
There is no pressure to get better quickly or tick boxes to prove progress. Your growth is not linear, and your worth is not measured by milestones. This is a space where showing up as you are is enough.
4. Support Without Judgment
Some clients come to therapy carrying deep shame about their identity, their past, their relationships, or simply the fact they need help. In LGBTQIA+ communities, especially for those living with disability, shame can take root in silence. Maybe you have felt different your whole life, or you have been told explicitly or subtly that you do not belong.
Counselling allows you to untangle those messages and make sense of your own story. It is not about blaming the past, but about understanding how it shaped you, and what you want to carry forward.
There is no right way to be LGBTQIA+, no one way to live with a disability, and no single path to healing. But you do not have to walk it alone.
5. It Is About Connection — Not Just Coping
Sometimes therapy is about learning tools to manage anxiety, depression, or emotional overwhelm. But it is also about connection. Feeling heard. Feeling seen. Feeling like your life matters exactly as it is, without needing to change to be worthy of care.
For many LGBTQIA+ people, especially those isolated by mobility, health, or geography, this connection can be vital. Therapy becomes more than just an appointment, it becomes a steady, grounding relationship in a world that often feels chaotic or unsafe.
6. We Centre Your Identity and Lived Experience
Your identity is not a side note; it is central to how you experience the world. That is why inclusive therapy must reflect your identity and lived experience.
Here is what that looks like:
Using your chosen name and pronouns without hesitation
Acknowledging the impact of homophobia, transphobia, and ableism
Understanding that trauma can come from systems, not just individuals
Recognising cultural and family dynamics without stereotyping
Supporting your autonomy, expression, and goals
Respecting your intersectional experiences, including race, culture, class, and neurodivergence
This is not one-size-fits-all therapy. It is human-to-human support, designed with your real life in mind.
7. You Can Be Both a Work in Progress and Already Enough
Therapy is not about fixing you, because you are not broken. Even when life feels overwhelming or you are stuck in patterns that no longer serve you, there is strength in simply showing up.
Together, we explore who you are beneath the noise. The part of you that knows it deserves love, respect, and freedom, even if buried.
You can want to grow and still be enough right now. That is the paradox of healing, and it is something we honour here.
Counselling That Meets You Where You Are
You might be:
Still figuring things out
Tired of hiding
Feeling disconnected or burnt out
Recovering from trauma or loss
Learning to set boundaries
Navigating relationships or sexuality
Exploring your gender identity
Wanting to connect with community
Hoping to feel better, even if you do not know how
Whatever brings you here is valid. You do not need to have the perfect words or the right issue to begin. Therapy doesn't have to be your final option; it can serve as your initial step towards a more authentic self.
Why It Helps to Talk to Someone Who Gets It
As a gay man, a father, and someone who came out later in life, I understand what it feels like to live with unspoken stories. I also know how powerful it can be to finally speak them.
That lived experience shapes how I support others, not from a place of knowing better, but from walking alongside. You won't have to start explaining everything from the beginning. I have been there too.
You Are Not Alone
There is strength in seeking support, not weakness.
There is power in naming what hurts, not pretending you are fine.
And there is hope in connection, not just surface-level conversations, but real, grounded support that meets you where you are.
If you are an LGBTQIA+ person accessing the NDIS and looking for a counsellor who understands your life, your challenges, and your worth, you're in the right place.
Let Us Take the Next Step Together
I provide counselling support for LGBTQIA+ people across Australia through online sessions, and for those local to Melbourne, in person. While I am not a registered NDIS provider, I work closely with both self-managed and plan-managed participants.
Many of my clients use their NDIS plans to support their mental health goals, social and emotional wellbeing, and increased community connection. I can provide documentation, progress updates, and support letters as needed, tailored to your plan requirements and outcomes.
If you are a support coordinator or plan manager looking for a counsellor who understands the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ clients, including those navigating trauma, identity, and systemic discrimination, I'd be happy to connect. I welcome referrals and am open to collaborative care with allied professionals.
And if you are someone just looking for a safe place to talk, to feel heard, and to begin your next chapter, you do not have to do that alone.
Call 0499 487 492 or visit www.bentcouch.com.au. Alternatively book a Free Discovery Call at a time that suits you.
