Individual Therapy NYC & NY
Individual Therapy for Relationship Issues and Trauma, Focused on the Latinx and LGBTQIA+ Communities
Evidence-based, collaborative individual therapy online with a social justice lens, to help you overcome the effects of childhood neglect or abandonment, sexual abuse, and trauma.
We take insurance and are committed to providing long-term individual therapy to our clients.
Trauma is a painful and confusing experience that can affect your relationships with family, friends, coworkers, romantic partners…and yourself.
You may be seeking individual therapy because…
At times, your reactions seem to come out of nowhere
Shame feels like a constant
You struggle to be compassionate towards yourself
You feel undeserving of love
You feel guilty when you stand up for yourself
You avoid tasks that are stressful
You notice that you push people away, even though you want so badly to connect
Romantic relationships are anxiety provoking
You’re easily consumed with self-loathing
You feel intense, unresolved anger
You struggle with concentration
You gravitate towards people that mistreat you
You turn to drugs, porn, and/or sex for distraction, or to feel better about yourself
You avoid people and things that remind you of something painful that happened in the past
It’s hard for you to trust others and open up
You notice that you tend to repeat painful and self-destructive patterns in relationships
You feel intense loneliness
The worrying never seems to stop
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
therapy can make a difference.
Hi, I’m Rene Gonzalez, LMHc
(he/him)
A Queer, bicultural, Latino trauma therapist based in NYC, with 10+ years of experience helping clients shed shame, heal trauma, and reclaim their lives.
I provide individual therapy online primarily to Latinx, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ adults in NYC and New York who have experienced childhood emotional neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, or other early trauma, and are seeking to build healthier relationships and heal from their past.
I’ve been there, I understand, I’m qualified to help, and I’m here to support you.
Specialties
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Online Trauma Therapy
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Childhood Emotional Neglect
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Sexual Trauma Therapy
WHAT TO EXPECT
Getting individual therapy for relationship issues can help you resolve the pain from your past, and feel better in the present.
Heal Shame
If you’re experiencing shame, having a therapist who accepts you no matter what can in itself be healing. But if that’s not enough, I’ll help you learn self-compassion, and how to use this in your everyday life to cultivate a better relationship with your inner critic.
Feel More In Control of Your Reactions
If you’re depressed and anxious, we’ll help you identify limiting beliefs that keep you “stuck” and explore the roots of your experience, together. You’ll learn thought, behavioral, and body-based techniques aimed at helping you live a better life.
Move Forward With Your Life
If you’re experiencing confusing or intense reactions, you’ll learn body-based approaches to help you regulate your nervous system, which in turn will help you become less reactive in the face of overwhelming stress.
I’ll help you understand how and why traumatic experiences can lead to intense and seemingly uncontrollable reactions in the first place.
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I use the evidence-based Internal Family Systems (IFS) method to help you deepen your awareness of the confusing parts of your personality; I’ll also help you understand how these parts are ultimately there to protect you.
From there, we’ll work together to improve your relationship with these parts, and you’ll walk away feeling more in control.
Get Clear on Big Life Decisions
If you’re embarking on a new adventure, I will help you identify your values so that you can ensure you’re living life in accordance with them. You’ll learn coping skills so that you don’t get stuck in the hard parts of your transition.
My Approach to Individual Therapy
Justice, growth, and curiosity drive how I work, and I keep my skill set sharpened so I can help my clients overcome the consequences of abuse and neglect, and also to help others who are going through big life changes.
“Felt Sense” refers to how we experience emotions in our bodies. And if you’ve experienced trauma you probably know it’s about more than emotions; it’s also about tense muscles, rapid heart rate, physical pain, and more. My approaches go beyond the mind because you can’t out-logic your feelings.
My practices are evidence-based, and we’ll collaborate to make sure we’re focusing on what’s most important to you. I’m warm, compassionate, nonjudgmental, and straight-forward when appropriate. We’ll always move at your pace.
FAQ
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Navigating the world as someone who’s both Queer and Latinx gives me some degree of insight, but more importantly, I do the work of examining my own implicit biases, and I maintain an awareness of how they might come into my relationships with my clients.
I’ve taken coursework to educate myself about how best to help the communities I serve, such as:
In-Depth Work With Trans Patients – Institute For Contemporary Psychotherapy
Race, Racism, and Psychotherapy with Dr. Beverly Greene – International Psychotherapy Institute
Intersectional Clinical Practice With Diverse LGBTQ+ Communities – Columbia University School of Social Work
Counseling Diverse Communities – Southern Methodist University (SMU)
Sex, Gender, and HIV – AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA)
Culturally Sensitive Counseling With Latinos - Psychotherapy.net
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Yes. If you’re looking for help in your relationship to your partner or a significant other, but not looking for couples therapy, you’re in the right place. I can help you improve your relationship to your partner and yourself.
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Because I understand that when we’ve experienced abandonment and/or abuse, a safe and trusting relationship is a crucial requirement for us to heal.
Elements of this kind of relationship include clear boundaries, respect, and “unconditional positive regard,” which means that my stance towards you remains positive regardless of what you share, so it’s a judgment free space.
In addition to understanding the necessity of a safe relationship, I also have the relevant experience and training to make sure you move toward your therapy goals.
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Sometimes, having a confidential space where we can be honest about our hopes and dreams can be enough to help us clarify what we want or need out of life.
But sometimes it’s less clear, and we need help figuring out what matters to us most.
That’s why I help my clients figure out what they value most. From there, the path tends to become a lot more clear.
I have years of experience helping people figure out what kind of career they want, what they want their relationships to look like, where they’d like to live, and more. I use a combination of career assessment tools, and activities grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to get you where you want to go.
And if you’ve experienced trauma, you may find it challenging to tune into what your gut is telling you, making it harder for us to trust our perception. Making decisions is that much harder for us if we’ve lived through trauma, so seeing a trauma therapist when struggling with transitions and making major life choices can make a lot of sense.
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Yes. I’m an in-network provider with Aetna, United, Oxford, Oscar, Fidelis, Cigna, Optum, and Anthem BCBS.
Visit the Fees & Insurance page for more information.
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There are a lot of variables at play when determining this, including the nature of the issue(s) bringing you to therapy, and your specific goals.
Therapy for adjustments and transitions tends to be more short-term.
For those who are looking for trauma therapy specifically, it can take time to build a trusting relationship, and the therapeutic relationship is fundamental before doing deeper work. Some clients may also benefit from a long-term, ongoing relationship with a supportive therapist.
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I do not currently offer psychotherapy in Spanish, but I do have referrals to people who do.