Therapy for Queer Outsiders
Therapy for LGBTQIA+ humans, neurodivergent folks, and black sheep who feel like the world was never built with them in mind — and are tired of trying to force themselves to fit.
Offering Virtual Therapy Sessions in North Carolina and South Carolina
Chelsea Sokolow (she/they) MSW, LCSW
Get Braver. Feel Safer.
You’ve spent your life making sense of your outsiderness - adapting, translating, pushing through. Maybe you’ve been called “too much,” “too sensitive,” “too different.” Or maybe you’ve just always felt it: the world wasn’t built for people like you. And yet, here you are. Still feeling. Still asking. Still desiring. Still dreaming of something more honest, more spacious, more you. You may not even name yourself as queer, but you know what it feels like to be an outsider, a black sheep, always a little (or a lot) at odds with the world around you.
Queerness isn’t just about sexuality. It’s about honoring the creativity, sensitivity, resistance, and curiosity required to live as someone different - and not only survive, but thrive. Whether or not you use the word “queer,” if you’ve ever wondered:
“Is this really all there is?”
“What if I could stop fighting so hard and start living differently?”
...you’re in the right place.
The people I work with often come to me because they feel:
🐏 Like they’re the black sheep in their family, community, or culture - struggling to feel a deep sense of belonging
🎭 Confused about how much is “them” and how much is trauma, masking, or survival mode
🌀 Emotionally burned out and stuck in cycles of shame, anxiety, over-functioning, overthinking, and persistent self-doubt
😵💫 Frustrated in their relationships and connections
❤️🩹 Disconnected from their own joy, creativity, or sense of self
When the people I work with first arrive at therapy,
they are often trying to figure out why they feel so different from people around them. They question if they’re “just burnt out” and/or if their “symptoms” are normal side effects of being a human in the world. A lot of the time they are wrestling with a life they didn’t quite choose — one that doesn’t reflect who they really are. They often find themselves avoiding things they used to love, detached from family and friends, disconnected from their own sense of self and the world around them, caught in patterns of overthinking, constant worrying, and persistent self-doubt. A lot of times they feel adrift, like they’ve lost trust in their own perception, judgment, or capabilities. They grapple with the friction caused in their lives by swimming against the current of mainstream society.
If any of that resonates with you - I get it.
And you don’t have to figure it out alone.
I help therapy-seekers whose life experiences are defined by being on the margins of the mainstream, whether that’s through queerness, neurodivergence, unconventional relationship structures, or some other aspect of who they are and what they desire. The people I work with aren’t just looking for help managing symptoms — they’re looking for
meaning, belonging, and freedom to exist as they are.
Let’s get started.
Click here to schedule a 20 min goodness of fit consultation call!
Chelsea Sokolow
MSW, LCSW
(she/they)
I’m a queer therapist who helps queer outsiders who feel a little (or a lot) at odds with the world around them work through shame and stigma to feel safer, and be braver, more resilient, and more deeply connected to themselves and the people around them. I’ll help you find ways to navigate the state of the world while still finding joy, ease, love, belonging, and meaningful resistance to harmful systems.
You’re ready for something to shift.
Here’s what we’ll build together:
🧠 Clarity – untangle what’s yours from what the world projected onto you
💜 Compassion – turn down the volume on the inner critic and untangle shame from your sense of self and your inner narratives
🌱 Resilience – tools for nervous system healing and emotional capacity building, even in the face of systemic bullshit
🔥 Agency – reclaim your power in a world that often tries to take it — rekindle your connection to joy, creativity, and a sense of purpose
🌈 Authenticity – embrace your difference as a source of wisdom and power
💫 Belonging – cultivate relationships and community and a connection to yourself that makes you feel at home
“Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”
― bell hooks
It’s enough to take the next right step. Reach out. I’m Here for you.
Practice Values
My practice is explicitly trauma-informed, collaborative, client-centered, neurodiversity-affirming, LGBTQIA+ affirming, liberation-focused, and centers anti-oppressive praxis.