LGBTQ+ and Anxious? Find Hope with Anxiety Therapy in Portland Today
The steps taken toward self-trust and healing may be steep, but it’s not one you have to take alone. You can find support in LGBTQ+ affiming, anxiety counseling in Portland.
Anxiety therapy in Portland might not be the first thing you thought you needed. Maybe you’ve been trying to push through, holding it together just enough to get by, but there’s a whisper under the surface saying: this isn’t sustainable. For those of us in the Queer community, that whisper often comes layered with experiences of rejection, invisibility, and a lifelong tug-of-war between self-protection and self-expression. I’m Eric Goodwin, a LGBTQ+ therapist in Portland, and I help thoughtful, caring people struggling with anxiety and self-doubt reconnect with their strength, tenderness, and sense of possibility.
If you’re here, something inside you is already reaching for more. That spark matters. Let’s begin by slowing down and taking a closer look at what might be happening beneath the surface.
The Invisible Weight of Queer Anxiety
You might not call it anxiety, exactly. It may feel more like restlessness, like always needing to do more, like needing to prove you deserve your space. It might feel like moving through the world on high alert. For many LGBTQ+ people, especially those who have spent years adapting to meet others’ expectations, this can be the norm.
You’ve probably internalized the pressure to be “easy” to be around, to not take up too much space. Over time, that pressure builds. Maybe you find yourself second-guessing what you said in a conversation, waking up at 3 a.m. wondering if you’re doing this whole “life” thing right, or retreating into your mind when things get too overwhelming.
Anxiety for Queer people doesn’t always look like panic attacks. Sometimes it’s the long, quiet hum of self-surveillance. The inner critic that sounds like you but was actually shaped by years of societal and familial messaging. The spiral of thoughts that say, Don’t mess this up. Don’t be too much. Don’t be too queer.
And often, beneath that anxiety, is shame. Quiet, sticky, persistent shame.
Shame and It’s Relationship with Anxiety
Shame is a universal emotion, but because of how it can be so intertwined with our memories, experiences, and identities, it’s not always the easiest emotion to notice and name. It might show up as perfectionism, as people-pleasing, as isolation. You might think you’re just being practical or self-aware, but often you’re responding to old scripts you didn’t write. For Queer people, shame is often handed down not just through personal experiences, but cultural ones.
Therapy becomes a place where we name that shame not as a personal flaw but as a learned response to a world that has too often asked you to shrink.
You don’t have to stay small. Anxiety therapy in Portland can help you find your way of showing up in the world around you.
What Anxiety Therapy in Portland Can Look Like
Psychotherapy, especially when shaped by your lived experience, can become a place where you learn to hear yourself differently. In our work, we gently untangle the noise: the alerts your mind keeps firing off, the self-criticism that used to feel like truth, and the questions you’ve never had space to ask out loud.
We get curious, not about “what’s wrong,” but about how your body and thoughts have been working double shifts to keep you safe. We wonder together: What was this inner alarm trying to protect you from? When did you start bracing, and what would it feel like to breathe instead?
As understanding grows, the relationship you have with anxiety can shift. It stops being the loudest voice in the room. You begin to notice patterns earlier, feel space where there used to be spirals, and sometimes (surprisingly) you pause without panic.
This isn’t about becoming fearless. It’s about recognizing when fear is driving and gently offering yourself the keys.
Reclaiming Queer Joy, Curiosity, and Self-Trust
So often, LGBTQ+ clients come to therapy looking for relief from anxiety, and they leave with something much richer: a reclaimed sense of self. Not a self that meets outside expectations, but one that can move freely, feel deeply, and live with less fear.
This is where Queer joy and connection begins to rise, not as a performance, but as a lived truth. You might rediscover how good it feels to laugh without watching yourself. You may start building relationships where you don’t feel like you’re performing worthiness. You learn to soften around the parts of you that have been armored for years.
This kind of healing isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about becoming more you.
Recognizing the Quiet Shifts That Mean You’re Healing
There’s a moment in anxiety therapy in Portland (sometimes early, sometimes further in) when something quiet but powerful begins to shift. It might be the first time you pause before spiraling. Or a day where you catch your inner critic mid-sentence and soften instead of scold. These aren’t dramatic breakthroughs, but they are deeply meaningful ones.
You might notice yourself becoming a little more curious about the thoughts that used to shut you down. Or you start to see old patterns for what they are: habits born from survival, not truths about who you are. That’s when healing begins to take root, not as a single event, but as a series of small moments where you choose to trust yourself just a bit more.
And with every one of those moments, the shame that once felt so permanent begins to soften and, perhaps, even shift itself.
When Therapy Hasn’t Felt Like a Safe Place to Be Vulnerable
Maybe you’ve sat across from someone before, trying to describe something that didn’t have tidy language, but knowing it mattered. Maybe you watched their expression carefully, searching for signs they truly understood, only to feel a subtle gap you couldn’t quite name.
It’s exhausting to wonder if you’re being too much or not enough, even in a space that’s supposed to welcome all of you. To shrink parts of yourself out of habit. To interpret silence as discomfort.
Here, you don’t have to explain why certain moments hit harder, or why the tension you carry isn’t just about what’s happening today. That’s already known. What we get to do together is gently sort through the noise and help you hear yourself more clearly.
This Isn’t Just Pyschotherapy. This Is Liberation Work.
Portland counseling for anxiety, especially when rooted in LGBTQ+ experience, isn’t just about symptom relief. It’s about reclamation. It’s about creating a relationship with yourself that is spacious, grounded, and alive.
Whether you’ve been spiraling for years or just recently noticed the patterns, therapy can help you see that you’ve always been whole, you’ve just been responding to a world that didn’t always make room for your full self.
Together, we begin to imagine something more.
You Deserve to Feel Like Yourself Again
Eric Goodwin, LPC, offers anxiety therapy in Portland for LGBTQ+ clients seeking a grounded, affirming space to reconnect with themselves.
If you’ve been caught in the loop of anxious thoughts, if shame has kept you from reaching out for anxiety therapy in Portland, if you’ve felt like no one really gets the weight you carry…I want you to know this: you don’t have to keep doing this alone.
Let’s help you come back to yourself.
You deserve relief, clarity, and connection. And it starts right here.
I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation so you can get a feel for what it’s like to talk with me and to connect. Whether we meet online or in person, therapy can be a place to land, to exhale, and to begin again.
Contact me here or call (971) 533-5590 to take your next step.
Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety Therapy Portland
1. What if I’m not sure whether anxiety is the issue?
You’re not alone. Anxiety can show up in so many ways (subtle and…not-so-subtle). Some examples are overthinking, catastrophic thinking, restlessness, inner criticism, and trouble making decisions. You don’t need a diagnosis to benefit from therapy. If life feels harder than it needs to be, that’s reason enough to reach out.
2. I don’t know if what I’m experiencing is shame. Can therapy still help?
Absolutely. Shame often operates under our awareness and can be come through as avoidance, numbing, perfectionism, or self-doubt. Even if you don’t name it as shame, therapy can help you get curious about the beliefs that keep you stuck and gently guide you toward something freer.
3. I’m LGBTQ+ but my struggles feel "normal" or "not queer-specific." Does that matter?
It does. Even "normal" struggles are often shaped by the lens of identity. Working with someone who sees your full context helps you feel less alone and more empowered, even when the issues themselves feel common. Long way of saying, we don’t have to fixate on Queerness to let it be in the room with us.
4. What if I’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t help?
That’s okay. Not every therapy relationship is the right fit. If you’re still struggling, it doesn’t mean therapy failed, it means you haven’t found your person yet or you’re ready for a new type of counseling. This experience can be different.
5. Is talk therapy only about talking?
Nope. Our work can include mindfulness, nervous system awareness, experiential exercises, and body-based practices; whatever is going to help you connect with yourself in a way that feels authentic and safe.
6. I live outside of Portland, can I still work with you if I want an LGBTQ+ therapist?
Absolutely. I offer online anxiety therapy throughout Oregon, which means we can meet virtually whether you're in Eugene, Bend, Medford, or a small town where affirming care feels harder to find. I know that for many LGBTQ+ people in rural or isolated areas, finding a therapist who truly understands your experience can feel nearly impossible.
Online sessions are just as effective, and they give you the chance to receive support in a familiar, private space. Some clients may find it easier to open up from home. Whether you're navigating anxiety, shame, or the weight of not quite feeling seen where you live, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
7. How will I be able to tell if therapy is helping?
Great question! And one many people ask quietly, even if they don’t say it out loud. Therapy isn’t always about big “aha” moments (though those sometimes happen). Instead, it often feels like a gradual shift (or series of shifts). You might start noticing more pauses between thoughts, less urgency when the spiral begins, or even small sparks of self-compassion where there used to be only self-criticism.
Some clients say things like, “I handled that situation so differently than I would have a few months ago,” or “I actually noticed what I needed instead of pushing it away.”
If you're someone who tends to track progress by achievement, counseling can be a powerful space to relearn how to measure change, not by perfection, but by increased choice, capacity, and gentleness with yourself.