LGBTQIA+ Affirming Sex Therapy in Plano & Frisco, TX
help that fully sees you as you are.
You shouldn't have to spend your therapy session educating your therapist.
You shouldn't have to explain what your identity means, defend your relationship structure, or wonder whether the person across from you is silently judging something fundamental about who you are. You shouldn't have to translate yourself.
You deserve a therapist who already gets it. Who doesn't need a primer on queer relationships, gender identity, or the specific ways that growing up LGBTQIA+ in a world that wasn't built for you shapes everything.
That's what you'll find here. I'm Shanna Wilder, a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and Certified Holistic Sex Therapist with over 20 years of experience working with LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples. My practice is genuinely, actively affirming- not as a marketing statement, but as a reflection of how I actually work and who I am as a clinician and in my life.
You are not a specialty case here. You are just a person who deserves excellent care.
Who I work with:
My practice welcomes people across the full spectrum of sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationship structure, including but not limited to:
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals and couples
Transgender and non-binary individuals
Queer and questioning individuals
Pansexual and asexual individuals
Intersex individuals
Same-sex couples navigating intimacy, desire, and relationship challenges
Polyamorous and ethically non-monogamous individuals and relationship configurations
Kink-identified individuals and couples
People exploring their sexual or gender identity at any stage of life
What brings LGBTQIA+ clients to therapy:
The reasons LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples seek therapy are as varied as the community itself. Some of the most common include:
Navigating coming out- to family, to a partner, to a workplace, or to yourself
Processing the impact of growing up in an environment that was not affirming of your identity
Religious trauma and the untangling of shame that was taught rather than earned
Relationship and intimacy issues specific to same-sex or queer relationships
Desire discrepancy and sexual communication within LGBTQIA+ partnerships
The impact of minority stress on mental health, relationships, and sexuality
Body image and gender dysphoria
Sexual trauma and its impact on intimacy
Navigating open relationships, polyamory, or other ethical non-monogamy structures
The specific relational dynamics of long-term same-sex partnerships
Parenting as an LGBTQIA+ family
A note on minority stress:
Living as an LGBTQIA+ person in a world that still, in many places and in many ways, does not fully accept you creates a specific kind of chronic stress. Minority stress- the accumulated weight of discrimination, invisibility, microaggressions, and the constant navigation of spaces that weren't designed for you- has real, documented effects on mental health, physical health, and relationships.
This is not weakness. It is the entirely predictable result of being a marginalized person in a society that has not yet caught up to the full humanity of every person in it. Therapy that doesn't acknowledge this reality isn't really affirming therapy: it's just regular therapy with a rainbow on the website.
I see you. I understand the specific weight you carry. And I know how to help.
On religious and cultural background:
Many of my LGBTQIA+ clients grew up in religious or culturally conservative environments where their identity was explicitly or implicitly condemned. The untangling of internalized shame- shame that was taught to you before you were old enough to question it- is some of the most important and most liberating work we can do together.
You did not choose to absorb those messages. You do not have to keep carrying them.
My approach:
My work with LGBTQIA+ clients is grounded in genuine affirmation, cultural humility, and twenty years of clinical experience. I approach each person's identity and experience with curiosity and respect, not assumptions.
I don't impose heteronormative frameworks on queer relationships. I don't treat non-monogamy as a problem to be solved. I don't assume your gender, your pronouns, your relationship structure, or what your sexuality means to you. I ask. I listen. And I work from within your actual reality rather than a template that was never designed for you.
My practice is a genuinely safe space- not just in the sense that I won't say something harmful, but in the deeper sense that you can bring your whole self into this room without editing, translating, or protecting me from who you are.
Location and availability:
I see clients in person in Plano and Frisco, TX and virtually with clients anywhere in Texas. Virtual sessions are particularly valuable for LGBTQIA+ clients in smaller or more conservative communities where local affirming care may be limited.
Other Areas I Serve:
Issues I Work With:
You deserve care that sees all of you. Come as you are, exactly as you are.