LGBTQ+ affirming counsellor in manchester
Welcome to my counselling services. I’m Gavin Reid BA (Hons), MBACP, a registered member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). I offer a warm, compassionate and professional space for you to explore what’s going on, whether that’s online or in person from my city centre practice.
Personal Statement
I know that reaching out for counselling can feel daunting, especially if you’ve spent years feeling misunderstood, emotionally overwhelmed, or like you’ve had to navigate difficult experiences alone.
One of the things that matters most to me as a counsellor is creating a space where people feel able to show up more openly, without fear of judgement or needing to minimise parts of themselves in order to feel accepted.
As a gay man, I understand some of the emotional impact that shame, rejection, bullying, invisibility, or not feeling fully accepted can have on mental health and relationships. Those experiences, alongside both my personal and professional experiences, deeply shape the way I work with clients and how I understand emotional wellbeing, identity, and belonging.
I believe therapy works best when people feel genuinely heard, respected, and safe enough to explore themselves honestly at their own pace.
Community involvement
Outside of counselling, community, connection, and visibility are important parts of my life. I’m actively involved in LGBTQ+ community spaces in Manchester and believe strongly in the importance of belonging, representation, and creating environments where people can feel safer to exist openly as themselves.
I volunteer within the LGBTQ+ community and understand how powerful affirming spaces can be, particularly for people who may have spent years feeling isolated, rejected, or disconnected. I also sing with an LGBTQ+ choir in Manchester, which has been an important source of connection, friendship, joy, and community for me personally.
Experiences like these continually remind me that healing doesn’t only happen in therapy rooms. It can also happen through visibility, acceptance, creativity, friendship, laughter, and finding spaces where we no longer feel alone.
Social Justice & LGBTQ+ Affirming therapy
I believe therapy doesn’t exist in isolation from the wider social and political world. LGBTQ+ mental health is often shaped not only by personal experiences, but also by discrimination, stigma, prejudice, and the ongoing impact of living within systems that haven’t always treated LGBTQ+ people equally or safely.
In recent years, many LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans and non binary people, have found themselves facing increasing hostility within political discourse, media narratives, and public debate. In the UK, the Supreme Court ruling and recent EHRC guidance relating to the legal definition of sex has left many trans people feeling frightened, invalidated, and uncertain about what the future may hold. Across the United States, increasing restrictions affecting LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare, education, and visibility have also created understandable fear and distress for many within the community.
As a counsellor, I believe LGBTQ+ affirming therapy means more than simply being “accepting.” It means understanding the emotional impact that shame, marginalisation, rejection, minority stress, and social hostility can have on mental health, relationships, identity, and sense of safety in the world.
My aim is to offer a therapeutic space where LGBTQ+ people feel genuinely respected, affirmed, and understood without needing to justify, minimise, or defend who they are.
How about booking in for a free 15-minute online introduction session to see if we are the right fit?
Inspiration
I want to share with you a quote by Christina Richards which I find inspiring.
“This one is for all of the kids on their own in the corner of the playground. Scuffed knees, purple bruises, and other pains less visible. The lonely; the ‘strange’; and the ‘weird’. For those who are ‘different’ or ‘odd’ or other, less kind, terms—maybe different in gender, maybe so in other ways. Stay strong. You are more beautiful than you know. It’s hard to understand when the world keeps beating you down, but inside of you is the fire of change that allowed us to rise up over millennia, away from the blood and terror of prehistory and towards the stars. You see, change absolutely requires the difference which is inside of you—for if we all think the same, all act the same, we will be the same. With difference comes the possibility of change, and so hope, and so every moment of progress. The difference inside of you is every revolution that felled a dictator; every cure for disease found where no one else was looking; every new word that allowed connection between separate souls; and every beautiful, profound, new idea. As you huddle in the corner with your saviour book, or your sparkling dreams, or your talisman (they come in different forms); And the cold in your stomach twists again from the loneliness or the fear; My arm is around you, my heart is with you—and so are those of a thousand, a million, others who have been there too. Look up. The world is waiting for us. It is awash with beauty and there is still much to do”.