Honoring the LGBTQ+ Community: Pride, Pain, and the Power of Living Your Truth
By Audrey Reyes, LCSW | The Practice Counseling Services
June marks Pride Month—a time to celebrate the beauty, resilience, and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. It is a month rooted in both resistance and joy, born from the fight for basic human rights, and sustained by the courage of individuals who dare to live openly and authentically.
At The Practice Counseling Services, we proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community not only during Pride but all year long. As a trauma-informed mental health provider, I witness the strength it takes to live your truth in a world that too often meets authenticity with rejection, and love with hate.
This month is more than rainbow flags and parades—it’s a reminder of the pain this community has endured: the names that have been called, the laws that have denied basic rights, the families who’ve turned away, and the violence that has claimed far too many lives.
Why? Simply for being who they are. For loving who they love. For existing.
Let’s be clear: someone else’s truth does not harm anyone. Love is not dangerous. Identity is not an attack. Self-expression is not a threat.
What is harmful is the fear, misinformation, and hate that continue to target LGBTQ+ individuals—particularly transgender youth. Lately, there has been an alarming rise in false narratives accusing therapists of “persuading” children to become transgender or encouraging irreversible decisions.
Let me be clear:
That is not what happens in my practice. That is not what ethical mental health care looks like.
At The Practice Counseling Services, we meet every client exactly where they are—with compassion, curiosity, and respect. We do not tell anyone who they are. We do not guide them toward any identity or outcome. We walk beside them as they explore their own truth—at their own pace, in their own time.
Therapy is a process, not a destination predetermined by a therapist. Our role is not to decide for someone—but to hold space for their self-discovery, to help them navigate their inner landscape with safety and support, and to honor the complexity of their experiences.
To those who are out, questioning, closeted, healing, celebrating, grieving, or somewhere in between:
You are worthy. You are powerful. You are not alone.
This Pride Month, let us celebrate with deeper intention. Let us challenge falsehoods. Support mental health. Defend truth. And commit to radical love—not just in theory, but in how we care for one another.
💛 In solidarity,
Audrey Reyes, LCSW
Founder, The Practice Counseling Services
