Meet Jesse Proia | LGBTQ+ Specialized Therapist and Queer Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jesse Proia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jesse, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?

Oooooh, I love this question!

First and foremost, I see LGBTQ+ Specialized Psychotherapy as an essential form of social justice.

Specifically, in my therapy practice, I see my role working with LGBTQ+ clients as taking on the role of an elder (regardless of age). This rile is to share powering information that LGBTQ+ folks are not given through their upbringing, at school, in their community, or through the media. Straight and cisgender people are socialized and provided so many tools that don’t simply meet the needs of Queer youth.

From this perspective, therapy as social justice takes a few steps:

1. Through a healthy and curated Queer therapeutic experience, effective LGBTQ+ Specialized psychotherapy provided affirming and validating information to empower individual clients. This information sharing helps those clients to shape healthy self-images and positive relationships with Queerness.
2. Ideally, those clients move out into their communities, sharing and disseminating LGBTQ+ liberation-based information I share with them.
3. Over time, those strong LGBTQ+ individuals create strong, healthy Queer connections and build affirming community.
4. Strong, empowered, and affirmed Queer communities create confidence in response to anti-LGBTQ+ oppression. Just having a strong, positive community image creates resistance to oppression.

My goal as an LGBTQ+ specialized therapist is to be a planter of seeds for change by validating and affirming my clients. Ideally, In the future, oppressive forces like heteronormativity and cis-centrism won’t have as much control or impact as they do today.

Alright, so let’s jump right in! The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there a person, group, organization, book, etc that you want to dedicate your shoutout to? Who else deserves a little credit and recognition in your story?

Equal credit is due to both my mom and my husband. I am very grateful for the support I have. Both have always supported me and cheered me on. They also provide healthy criticism and authentic reflections to help me navigate my career and my voice. I can really let my metaphorical hair down ( cause I’m bald, lol) with them and trust that they respect me and their feedback is honest and with love.

Please tell us more about your business. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

I absolutely love what I do. I feel like my career as a Queer therapists harnesses many of my personal interests and strengths. Being a therapist feels incredibly authentic and is a lifestyle that I am happy to uphold. As a therapist, I love supporting people and connecting with people. It’s impactful to see the growth and change my clients make over time. I believe that the field of psychotherapy can be transformative. Being a therapist is a conduit for a lot of my personal values and interests. These days it feels easy to do my work itself, in sessions with clients. Over the past ten years, I’ve had to gain confidence in being my own boss, running my own business, and trusting that I will have clients. The biggest hurdle was trusting myself as a quality provider and that those word-of-mouth referrals would come through over time. After ten years, it worked

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc. In your view what are some of the most fun, interesting, exciting people, places or things to check out?

I have a pretty good go-to list when my Queer friends come to visit Denver.

I love taking folks to Town Hall Collaborative on Santa Fe for coffee, cocktails or mocktails. (FYI, they have an incredible list of non-alcoholic options.) The back of the space is their Mercantile space with incredible local vendors and shops. Town Hall’s Queer events are great too, always the best in the city.

Some of my other go-to spots are:

Awakening Boutique on Broadway for gender-inclusive/ expansive pleasure resources.

My friends tend to have a diverse range of food limitations or values, so I love taking them to Hornet (especially for my gluten-free girlies), Somebody People, and City-oh-City.

If it’s summer, Jazz in The Park is a must on a Sunday afternoon with a picnic and our dogs.

I also try to get friends to come for Pride Week because Denver Pride is like none other. I’ve lived in New York City and Los Angeles, and Denver Pride is exceptional. The balance of community and fun is at the next level. Bigger cities have turned pride into just a really expensive party that is not accessible or interesting to the diverse range of people who identify as LGBTQ+. I’m very impressed with how the Center on Colfax produces Pride and how other organizations and businesses get involved.

Website: https://www.jesseproia.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holistic.homosexual?igsh=MTJ6ODRobjE0MmQ1Mw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Other: My OUTFront Magazine articles:
https://www.outfrontmagazine.com/author/jesse-proia/