East Bay Trans & Queer Counseling
Sliding Scale Counseling for Trans, Queer, and Neurodivergent Teens and Adults
Sam Davis, LCSW #28231
gender specialist therapist
eastbaytranscounseling@gmail.com
(781) 775-7802
Hello! I am a nonbinary transmasculine gender specialist and neurodivergence specialist therapist. I have been helping transgender, nonbinary, autistic, plural, and nonconforming teens and adults manage anxiety, process trauma, and heal for over 22 years.
I offer individual therapy using Internal Family Systems, somatic techniques, mindfulness, DBT grounding, anxiety reduction, guided visualization, and nature-based therapy. I provide gender assessments and letters of support for medical transition. I see clients ages 13 through adulthood, in my office, on video, or outdoors hiking in nature depending on individual access needs and interests.​
The core of my work with trans, gender-nonconforming, and neurodivergent clients addresses anxiety, depression, and relationship challenges stemming from past trauma and ongoing marginalization. I have a humanist, cultural difference, anti-pathologizing approach, using empathy and kindness to recognize strengths and provide support in dealing with systemic societal oppression.
I support clients struggling with gender dysphoria, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, abuse, rejection sensitivity, and chronic trauma related to being transgender and/or neurodivergent. I offer Internal Family Systems, somatic practices, and anxiety reduction techniques, each adapted to accommodate individual sensory and social differences.​
​
I have advanced training in:
- Internal Family Systems (IFS).
- Somatic IFS.
- Guided visualization and mindfulness practices.
- WPATH gender assessments and letters of support for medical transition.
- Adapting IFS and somatic techniques for autistic clients, plural systems, and trans and nonbinary folks with body and gender dysphoria.​​​​​
​​​​I have several peer-reviewed research publications on the mental health effects of hormones and surgery on transgender and nonbinary people.
​
Consultation sessions also available for therapists and other providers.
​
Current Openings:
Sliding scale, full fee, outdoor nature therapy, telehealth, and office sessions.
Daytime, weekend, and evening slots available.
​As an autistic trans person, I have found that a meaningful goal in therapy is recognizing one's own journey and struggles in an empowering light. I have been a Bay Area activist fighting for transgender rights since the late 1990's. I work with clients on developing new, more empowering stories that paint us as heroes rather than victims.
My aim is to help empower clients to identify ways to develop a positive self-image, despite the negative media that surround us, and to create a new narrative of survival, self-love, and capability. We should not have to feel as though we are helpless victims, struggling under the burden of internalized shame about who we are.
I work from a social justice framework, seeking to understand and validate the ways in which systemic societal oppression impacts each of us with our particular intersectional identities.