“Finding a unicorn”: LGBTQ+ individuals’ experiences seeking affirming counselors in the southeastern U.S

Introduction LGBTQ+ individuals experience higher rates of mental health distress compared to their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts, resulting in the population seeking mental health care at higher rates as well. However, previous research has highlighted the challenges LGBTQ+ people face in accessing and securing LGBTQ+-affirming mental health care and providers, especially in the Southeastern U.S.Method Through community-engaged qualitative methods, the authors examined how LGBTQ+ people in the Southeastern U.S. navigated seeking LGBTQ+-affirming mental health care.Findings Findings yielded six themes: preferred treatment modality, intersectionality and counselor characteristics, seeking affirming care through signals, affirming and disaffirming language, tokenization and pathologizing LGBTQ+ identities, and counselor LGBTQ+ competencies.Conclusions Implications for LGBTQ+ affirming counseling practice and research are provided.