How does Dr. Crawford think about LGBTQIA+ mental health
Many LGBTQIA+ people arrive in treatment having been told that their symptoms are the problem. In our work, we are equally interested in how those symptoms make sense in the context of your life, relationships, and history. Below is how I hold these questions clinically, in a psychodynamic and relationship-based frame.

Symptoms usually make sense in context

Anxiety, shame, irritability, numbness, and self-criticism often develop in response to real experiences: rejection, invisibility, conditional acceptance, or the feeling of needing to manage other people’s reactions.

Minority stress can become internal

We think in terms of minority stress: the chronic pressure of scanning the room, editing your words, or anticipating how your gender or sexuality will be received. Over time, that pressure can shape mood, sleep, attention, intimacy, and self-regard.

Intersectionality changes the lived experience

Being queer or trans is one part of a whole person. Race, ethnicity, class, disability, immigration history, religion, and family culture all shape how gender and sexuality are lived. We integrate these realities into diagnosis and treatment planning without reducing you to any single identity.

My approach

My work is psychodynamic and relationship-based. I pay attention to patterns that repeat in relationships, including the one you have with yourself. Medication, when used, is woven into a larger conversation rather than treated as the whole story.