Affirming Counselling at inMYND® is a specialised therapeutic approach built on the principle of “by community for community”. As a Counselling Psychotherapist and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Penny offers a space where your identity is genuinely seen and validated—a critical foundation for identity and mental health work.

Penny’s lived experience allows her to meet you with authentic empathy and deep respect, ensuring you don’t spend valuable time educating your therapist. This focus allows for a therapeutic environment where:

• Safety and comfort are paramount: The therapeutic space is safe and comfortable, providing the necessary foundation for you to explore your reasons for therapy at your own pace.

• Shared context guides understanding: Penny draws upon specialised knowledge and lived experience to meet you where you are at, helping you to navigate challenges unique to LGBTQIA+ individuals and those in Sex-Positive/ENM relationships.

• Stigma is addressed from Within: We actively confront and dismantle the impacts of societal stigma and marginalisation with an informed perspective, supporting your journey toward genuine self-acceptance and healing.

This framework is focused entirely on honouring your authentic self. Penny’s commitment is to help you address mental health concerns, relationship issues, or life transitions in a therapeutic setting where you feel safe, deeply heard, and fully supported.

Why Clients Choose Affirming Counselling

People choose Affirming Counselling because it is a therapeutic framework built on the principles of validation, non-pathologising care, and deep respect for diverse identities. We don’t want to spend valuable time in therapy educating or defending their fundamental identity. Instead, they seek a specialised therapeutic space where they can focus entirely on growth and healing, not on justifying who they are. This approach creates the essential safety needed to explore mental health concerns, relationship issues, or life transitions with a professional who understands that the client's pain is often external, not internal.Clients who are LGBTQIA+ or involved in Sex-Positive/ENM relationships come to Penny because they hope to achieve the following:

• Validation and authentic self-acceptance: Clients hope to move past shame and societal pressures to genuinely accept and celebrate their authentic self, recognising that their identity is valid and deserving of happiness.

• Healing from stigma and trauma: They seek to process trauma and mental health challenges that are often rooted in experiences of discrimination, marginalisation, and systemic oppression. They want a therapist who understands that their pain is often external, not internal.

• Relational confidence and safety: Clients hope to gain the tools to navigate relationships, set strong boundaries, and communicate their needs clearly and confidently in a world that often pressures them to conform or hide.

• A Foundation of belonging: The primary hope is to find a sanctuary—a safe and comfortable environment where they can finally relax, knowing their therapist possesses the specialised and personal knowledge needed to support them without judgment.

By working with a therapist like Penny, who operates from a place of community for community, clients gain more than just coping skills; they gain a pathway toward thriving with confidence as their whole, authentic selves.

“I don’t use the word inclusion or inclusive practice in my work. It comes down to language: if someone holds the power to include or invite you, they inherently hold the power to exclude. I believe inclusion is merely disempowerment worded as a positive practice that still holds the oppression of others at its core, whether that be colonisation, bigotry, or anything else. When we replace inclusion with belonging—recognising that we all have the right to belong, and everyone should feel belonging in our organisation—we achieve the true empowerment of every member of the community, as none holds the door open or closed.”

– Penelope Johnson