Individual Therapy for Queer and LGBTQ+ Individuals in Vancouver
A space to explore who you are, what you want, and what might be getting in the way, with a therapist who understands your community from the inside.
What Is Individual Therapy?
Individual therapy is a one-on-one process between you and your therapist, focused on understanding your patterns, navigating what you’re carrying, and building the self-awareness and skills to move forward. It’s relevant across a wide range of experiences: anxiety, depression, identity questions, relationship dynamics, trauma, life transitions, and more.
At Here We Are Therapy, individual therapy is explicitly affirming of queer and LGBTQ+ identities. This means your sexuality, gender identity, relationship structure, and community context are understood as part of who you are, not as topics that need to be introduced, explained, or navigated around. You arrive as yourself.
Individual therapy here draws from several evidence-based approaches, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and attachment-informed work.
How phil Approaches Individual Therapy
phil di Loreto, RCC, brings both professional training and lived experience within Vancouver's queer community to this work. That combination matters: you do not need to spend session time explaining what it means to navigate identity, community, or relationships as a queer or LGBTQ+ person. phil already understands the context.
phil holds a Master of Counselling from City University of Seattle and is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors.
Sessions are collaborative and grounded in curiosity. The goal is not to fix or reframe you toward a predetermined outcome, but to help you understand yourself more clearly and build toward what you actually want.
What to Expect from Individual Therapy
The first few sessions focus on getting to know your story: what brings you to therapy, what you want to move toward, and what might be in the way. There’s no pressure to arrive with a clear agenda. You get to bring your true self and all of your messiness, and we navigate it all together.
Sessions develop at a pace that works for you. Some people come with a specific issue to work through; others use therapy as a longer-term space for self-understanding and growth.
Sessions are 50 minutes. Telehealth is available across BC and Ontario for clients who prefer virtual therapy.
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Therapy helps you identify the patterns, beliefs, and experiences shaping how you think, feel, and relate, so you can make more intentional choices.
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You build practical tools alongside the deeper insight work.
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For many queer and LGBTQ+ clients, therapy becomes a space to clarify what they actually want, separate from what they have been told to want or who they have been expected to be.
What Individual Therapy Can Help You Work Toward
Common Questions
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No. While Here We Are Therapy has a specific focus on queer, LGBTQ+, and ENM communities, phil works with anyone who feels the practice is a good fit. The affirming framing means queer clients do not have to explain their identities, but the work itself is relevant to anyone navigating the experiences listed above.
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phil draws from Internal Family Systems (IFS), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and attachment-informed approaches. The specific blend depends on what is most useful for you and what you’re working on.
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There’s no fixed timeline. Some people work through a specific issue in eight to twelve sessions; others find ongoing support valuable over a longer period. phil will discuss what might be a reasonable approach after your first few sessions together.
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As a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), phil's services are covered by many extended health benefit plans. Coverage varies by provider and plan. We recommend checking your policy directly. Direct billing may be available for eligible plans.
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Yes. Telehealth sessions are available across BC and Ontario for clients who prefer to work remotely or cannot access in-person sessions in Vancouver.
Check out our FAQ for more info!
Book an Individual Therapy Consultation in Vancouver
phil di Loreto, RCC, is currently accepting new individual therapy clients in Vancouver, with telehealth available across BC and Ontario. The first step is a free 20-minute consultation to discuss what you are looking for and whether working together is a good fit.
Here We Are Therapy serves clients across Vancouver, including the West End, Kitsilano, and Commercial Drive.