LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy in Barrie, Ontario

• Gender identity exploration and support — including questioning, non-binary, and transgender identities
• Gender transition support — social, medical, and psychological dimensions of transition
• Sexual orientation and identity — coming out, self-acceptance, and navigating identity in relationships and community
• LGBTQ+-specific trauma — including experiences of rejection, conversion practices, homophobia, transphobia, and violence
• Family and relational challenges — including family rejection, chosen family dynamics, and LGBTQ+ relationship issues
• Mental health concerns with LGBTQ+-specific dimensions — including depression, anxiety, and suicidality
• Spiritual and religious dimensions of LGBTQ+ identity — including navigating faith communities, religious trauma, and spiritual reconciliation
• Aging as an LGBTQ+ person — including the particular challenges of later life, health care, and community

Much of what brings LGBTQ+ people to therapy is not identity itself, but the weight of carrying it in a world that does not always affirm it. Some of what you may recognize:

• Rehearsing how to describe yourself before a first appointment, in case the therapist gets it wrong
• Being tolerated rather than welcomed — and knowing the difference in your body
• Coming out, again and again, in every new room
• A family that turned away, or one that stayed but never quite arrived
• A chosen family that holds you, and grief for the one that did not
• A faith that once held you and now seems to have no room for you
• Questioning your gender or orientation and not yet having the words
• Being in the middle of a transition, or on the other side of one, and finding that the challenges did not end there
• Growing older as an LGBTQ+ person and wondering who will see you clearly in a hospital, a care home, a community

None of this is a problem with who you are. It is the cost of being asked to carry who you are alone — and that is what therapy can change.

Every session is with Wanda herself. The approach is chosen with you rather than applied to you, and it begins from a simple position: your identity is not the work.

Genuinely affirming, not neutral. Wanda’s practice does not treat LGBTQ+ identities as neutral variables or as clinical categories requiring explanation. LGBTQ+ identities are affirmed, respected, and celebrated as valid and whole expressions of human experience. The work of therapy in this space is never about identity itself — but about supporting the full flourishing of the person who holds it.

Room for what happened to you. Rejection, conversion practices, homophobia, transphobia and violence leave real wounds. Wanda’s 39 years of trauma-informed practice mean those experiences can be worked with at the depth they require, at your pace.

Family, chosen family, and relationship. Family rejection, chosen family dynamics, and the particular pressures on LGBTQ+ relationships all have a place in this room.

The spiritual and religious dimension. For many LGBTQ+ people, faith communities have been a source of both belonging and harm. Wanda makes space for navigating faith communities, religious trauma, and spiritual reconciliation — on your terms, within your own tradition, outside of any, or not at all.

The first consultation is free. It is a conversation, not an intake interview — a chance to say some of it out loud and to see whether this feels like the right fit. There is no obligation to continue.

Sessions are available in person in Barrie at 80 Bradford Street, Suite 801 (Entrance Door 3), and by secure video or telephone across Canada and internationally. For anyone who is not yet out at home, or not yet ready to be seen, a telephone session can be a quieter place to begin. Current rates are on the fees page.

This page is educational and is not a substitute for emergency care. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department. In Canada, the Suicide Crisis Helpline can be reached by calling or texting 988, at any hour.

• Trauma and PTSD therapyAfter rejection, conversion practices, or violence directed at who you are.
• Anxiety counsellingWhen vigilance about how you will be received has become constant.
• Depression therapyWhen the weight of not being affirmed has settled into something heavier.
• Relationship and attachment counsellingFor LGBTQ+ relationships, in all their shapes — one partner at a time.
• Therapy for older adultsAging as an LGBTQ+ person — health care, community, and later life.
• Spiritual directionWhen faith and identity have been set against each other, and you want them reconciled.

Wanda’s office is centrally located in Barrie and is used by clients from across Simcoe County, including Orillia, Midland, Innisfil, Angus, Bradford, Bracebridge and Gravenhurst. For those further out, or for anyone who would rather not drive after a difficult hour, secure virtual sessions are available throughout Canada and internationally.

If you are ready, the first conversation is free. You can reach Wanda at 705-321-4297, by email at wandanayduk@gmail.com, or through the contact page. There is no need to have the words ready first.

The first conversation is free and there is no obligation. Call 705-321-4297, email wandanayduk@gmail.com, or use the contact form — Wanda replies personally.