Jumanah Younis

I have worked with LGBTQ+ clients from different backgrounds in voluntary sectory organisations and in my private practice. Prior to starting in private practice I was a volunteer counsellor at the LGBTQ mental health charity MindOut for two years. I have supported trans, cis and non binary clients with issues including sex and sexuality, poly relationships, gender dysphoria, experiences of transitioning, abuse in intimate partner and family relationships, anxiety, depression and ADHD.

Humanistic therapy is based on a philosophy of the mind: what it feels like to be you, in all the specific and unique ways you see the world, and to be with others. We are all born into relationships – in fact, we are dependent on them as children in order to get our needs met. How we navigate the world is often based on some of the adaptations we might have made early on in our lives in order to maintain those relationships and stay alive. Usually it’s when part of that adaptation is no longer working for us that we enter into therapy; this might feel like ‘something’s not right’ or ‘why does this keep happening?’

I believe that the norms of the family, community and wider society we live in also come into play, affecting our caregivers and other adults, and shaping what we feel is possible. For people who may have experienced discrimination or abuse on the basis of race, gender, sexuality or a disability, this may manifest from an early point in how we feel in our bodies, about our bodies, by ourselves and with others. These can be difficult and painful experiences, and may not feel immediately accessible through language. As a therapist I also pay attention to information we can understand through the body, a ‘felt sense’ of how things are.

In therapy, we explore the problems you are facing through a collaborative conversation. I pay attention specifically to the therapy relationship and how it could be reflecting some of the adaptations that have helped you to survive. Sometimes because these are ways we have learned to behave since we were young, they don’t feel like a choice we are making but rather just the way things are or have to be. I will ask open questions but also may reflect on my own felt sense or ask how you are feeling in your body. As your awareness increases around the choices you do have, new possibilities might come into view that make change happen.