LGBTQ Affirming Therapy

in Pleasant Hill and Alamo, CA

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Explore Our Specializations

Queer and trans experiences can hold joy, connection, complexity, and resilience all at once. There is room here for your full self. Your questions, your values, your way of loving and moving through the world all belong.

Navigating identity in a world full of assumptions and oversimplifications can take a quiet toll. Even with a strong sense of self, the way others respond to you can shape how thoughts settle and how anxiety takes hold. OCD can make this even more complex, especially when it involves thoughts or fears that feel taboo or hard to talk about. That includes worries about sexuality, relationships, or identity that often go misunderstood. Therapy is informed by a deep understanding of how OCD and anxiety can interact with shame and marginalization, and is designed to help you feel both understood and empowered.

At Alamo Counseling, BriAnna Webb Almanza, LMFT offers thoughtful, affirming support for LGBTQ+ clients across California, with a focus on OCD, anxiety, and identity exploration. Her approach is warm and steady, helping you feel less alone with the thoughts and feelings you have been carrying. With her support, you can begin to reconnect with the parts of yourself that have been quieted and move toward a life that feels open, clear, and aligned with who you truly are. Whether you are exploring gender or sexuality, navigating an ethical non-monogamous (ENM) relationship, or managing OCD, anxiety, trauma, processing family dynamics, or simply needing support from someone who gets the nuances of queer experience, BriAnna can help.

Explore and affirm your gender or sexuality
Navigate coming out at any stage
Process shame and cultural messaging
Cope with family or community rejection
Build confidence in queer and ENM relationships
Navigate challenges unique to ethical non-monogamy
Work through identity-related OCD themes
Manage anxiety, depression, or trauma
Feel supported in fluid identities and relationship styles
Heal from mislabeling, misgendering, or invalidation
Strengthen trust in yourself and your path
Move through life transitions with clarity
Recover from non-affirming therapy experiences

We Help With:

obsessive compulsive spectrum - alamo counseling - shalini mongia mft

What we help with:

Explore and affirm your gender or sexuality
Navigate coming out at any stage
Process shame and cultural messaging
Cope with family or community rejection
Build confidence in queer and ENM relationships
Navigate challenges unique to ethical non-monogamy
Work through identity-related OCD themes
Manage anxiety, depression, or trauma
Feel supported in fluid identities and relationship styles
Heal from mislabeling, misgendering, or invalidation
Strengthen trust in yourself and your path
Move through life transitions with clarity
Recover from non-affirming therapy experiences

Our Preferred Evidence-Based Treatments

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an empirically supported treatment that helps change distressing thought patterns that contribute to anxiety and depression. Through CBT, you'll learn to identify and challenge negative thoughts, reframe irrational beliefs, and replace them with healthier, more realistic perspectives. CBT also focuses on breaking patterns of self-doubt and worry by learning how to re-evaluate situations and adopt more constructive thinking. These tools empower you to make lasting changes in how you think and respond.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness principles to help individuals manage emotions, navigate challenges, and improve relationships. It focuses on four key areas: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. By building these skills, DBT empowers individuals to replace destructive patterns with practical, lasting strategies that promote resilience, balance, and a greater sense of control in daily life.
TF-CBT helps by combining practical coping skills with gradual exposure to difficult memories. It starts by teaching relaxation techniques, emotional regulation, and ways to challenge unhelpful thoughts. Once a strong foundation is built, individuals slowly and safely process their trauma with the support of a therapist. This approach reduces fear and distress, strengthens personal resilience, and fosters healthier ways of thinking and relating to others.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a proven, client-centered approach designed to help individuals overcome ambivalence and create lasting change. It focuses on exploring personal motivations and values, guiding clients to take actionable steps toward their goals. MI is highly effective in treating issues like addiction, unhealthy behaviors, and low motivation by strengthening confidence and commitment, empowering clients to drive their own positive transformations.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a proven approach that that helps couples break negative cycles and strengthen emotional bonds. In therapy, partners identify patterns of conflict and learn techniques like emotional validation and replacing reactive behaviors with empathetic responses. EFT targets underlying emotional triggers, promoting healthier attachment while deepening intimacy. It’s particularly effective for couples facing disconnection, insecurity, and trust issues, leading to genuine understanding and lasting change. This therapy is effective with treating emotional withdrawal, fear of abandonment, and attachment wounds, creating stronger, more secure relationships.
EMDR helps your brain reprocess stuck memories so they no longer feel overwhelming or intense. Unprocessed experiences can trigger or worsen anxiety, shame, distress, and physiological reactions. After EMDR, difficult experiences often feel neutral, distant, or easier to manage. We use techniques like eye movements or handheld tappers to activate both sides of the brain, supporting your brain’s natural ability to heal and make sense of the distressing experiences. Sessions follow a structured 8-phase protocol to help you build resilience and process memories, while fully awake and alert. EMDR is effective for distress related to loss, illness, trauma, childhood wounds, and relationship pain.
ERP is a structured therapy that helps reduce distress from obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. It involves gradual, guided exposure to feared situations or thoughts without doing the habits or rituals you usually do to feel better. This process helps decrease anxiety over time and breaks the cycle of obsessions and rituals. You remain fully present and supported throughout, learning new ways to tolerate discomfort and regain control. ERP is especially effective for OCD, skin picking, hair pulling, and related anxiety challenges. Sessions are available in person and via telehealth throughout California.