LGBTQ+ COUPLES THERAPY · CALIFORNIA
Every relationship deserves a space where both partners feel seen and understood.
I provide inclusive, compassionate care for couples across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, helping you navigate communication, intimacy, family systems, and external pressures in a safe and affirming environment.
LGBTQ+ COUPLES THERAPY · CALIFORNIA
Every relationship deserves a space where both partners feel seen and understood.
I provide inclusive, compassionate care for couples across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, helping you navigate communication, intimacy, family systems, and external pressures in a safe and affirming environment.
GOTTMAN LEVEL III
LMFT #51009
20+ YEARS PRIVATE PRACTICE
FORTUNE 500 BACKGROUND
HIPAA TELEHEALTH · CA-WIDE
About LGBTQ+ Couples Therapy
Strengthen trust, and explore how internal and external factors shape your relationship dynamic.
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Navigating coming out and identity development within the relationship
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Managing family rejection or cultural pressures
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Supporting one partner through gender transition or expression changes
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Repairing trust after conflict or miscommunication
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Deepening emotional and physical intimacy
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Strengthening communication and shared values
“Really great experience here. Everyone is kind, professional, and genuinely cares. Therapy actually feels helpful and not awkward—highly recommend!”
“Marina is great! Very comfortable to talk to and has help me a lot since I’ve started seeing her. Highly recommend”
SPECIALTIES
What I Do Best
Personalized therapy to help you heal, strengthen relationships, and improve your emotional well-being.
01
Couples & Marriage Therapy
- Evidence-based work for couples at any stage — from chronic conflict to disconnection to the brink of separation.
Learn more →
02
Affair Recovery & Infidelity Therapy
- Structured recovery from betrayal. Whether you’re deciding to stay or leave, the process is supported and clear.
Learn more →
03
Emotional and Physical Intimacy
- Rebuilding closeness and connection when distance has settled in — emotionally, mentally, physically, or both.
Learn more →
FOR LGBTQ+ COUPLES
Built for relationships that deserve to be understood on their own terms.
Whether you are in a same-gender relationship, exploring a gender transition, navigating differences in identity or visibility, or building a relationship beyond traditional labels, I offer affirming support that meets you where you are. My approach centers acceptance, curiosity, and emotional attunement—without treating your sexual orientation, gender identity, or relationship structure as the problem.
Therapy becomes a space to communicate more openly, strengthen trust, deepen emotional and physical intimacy, and work through recurring conflict. Together, we can explore how coming-out experiences, discrimination, family acceptance, chosen family, cultural expectations, and internalized messages may shape your relationship. The goal is to help you build a secure, authentic partnership in which each person feels understood, respected, and free to be fully themselves.
What sets this work apart
Affirming care that respects each partner’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and lived experience
Attention to both relationship patterns and the external pressures affecting the couple
Structured sessions with clear therapeutic direction
Direct feedback without blame, vague advice, or performative vulnerability
Support for conversations involving identity, intimacy, boundaries, family, and commitment
Confidential telehealth throughout California—no waiting rooms
SERVICES
How I Do It
The steps I take to make sure that you are getting the support you need.
01
Understand Your Relationship in Context
- I help each partner explore how identity, coming-out experiences, discrimination, family acceptance, gender expectations, and past relationships may influence the present.
- Together, we identify recurring patterns without treating sexual orientation, gender identity, or relationship structure as the problem.
02
Strengthen Connection and Trust
- We develop practical ways to express needs, establish boundaries, repair conflict, and navigate differences in identity, visibility, intimacy, or life goals.
- When trust has been damaged, I provide a structured process for addressing the hurt, rebuilding emotional safety, and deciding what comes next.
03
Build an Authentic Life Together
- I support couples navigating commitment, marriage, parenting, family boundaries, gender transitions, chosen family, and decisions about being out in different settings.
- Together, we create a relationship that reflects your shared values while honoring each partner’s identity, safety, and individuality.
ABOUT ME
Marina Edelman, LMFT
Couples Therapist in California
Marina Edelman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the founder of TrueMe® Counseling, a couples and relationship therapy practice serving clients in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, and throughout California.
Marina specializes in couples therapy, affair recovery, and relationship repair, drawing on a carefully integrated set of evidence-based approaches:
- Gottman Method — Research-based tools for reducing conflict and building friendship and intimacy
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) — Healing attachment injuries and rebuilding emotional safety
- Attachment-Based Therapy — Understanding how early relational patterns shape adult love
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — Identifying and shifting the thought patterns that fuel disconnection
- AEDP — Processing deep emotional wounds with compassion and precision
Her counseling is best suited for couples and individuals seeking structured, research-backed support for relationship repair, affair recovery, anxiety, communication challenges, and premarital or marriage counseling — in person or via telehealth across California.
FAQ
About LGBTQ+ Couples Therapy
Here are some of the most frequent questions we receive about this page.
What is LGBTQ+ affirming couples therapy?
LGBTQ+ affirming couples therapy provides relationship care that respects and supports each partner’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationship structure. It addresses the same concerns that bring many couples to therapy while also understanding how minority stress, discrimination, family reactions, identity development, and social expectations may affect the relationship.
Will therapy focus on our LGBTQ+ identities?
Only when those identities are relevant to what you want to address. Your sexual orientation or gender identity will never automatically be treated as the cause of your relationship concerns. Therapy focuses on your goals while leaving room to discuss identity, culture, discrimination, or family experiences when they meaningfully affect the relationship.
Can therapy help if one partner is questioning their gender or sexuality?
Yes — therapy offers a safe space for both partners to explore identity changes together with compassion and understanding.
Can you help with family rejection or faith-based trauma?
Absolutely. Therapy can help you heal from past rejection, rebuild self-worth, and strengthen relational security.
Do you work with couples in nontraditional relationship structures?
Marina works with couples whose agreements and relationship structures may not follow traditional expectations. Therapy does not impose a predetermined model of partnership. Sessions focus on consent, honesty, communication, boundaries, trust, emotional safety, and the agreements established within your relationship.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
About LGBTQ+ Couples Therapy
Here are some of the most frequent questions we receive about this page.
What is LGBTQ+ affirming couples therapy?
LGBTQ+ affirming couples therapy provides relationship care that respects and supports each partner’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationship structure. It addresses the same concerns that bring many
couples to therapy while also understanding how minority stress, discrimination, family reactions, identity development, and social expectations may affect the relationship.
Will therapy focus on our LGBTQ+ identities?
Only when those identities are relevant to what you want to address. Your sexual orientation or gender identity will never automatically be treated as the cause of your relationship concerns. Therapy focuses on your
goals while leaving room to discuss identity, culture, discrimination, or family experiences when they meaningfully affect the relationship.
Can therapy help if one partner is questioning their gender or sexuality?
Yes -therapy offers a safe space for both partners to explore identity changes together with compassion and understanding.
Can you help with family rejection or faith-based trauma?
Absolutely. Therapy can help you heal from past rejection, rebuild self-worth, and strengthen relational security.
Do you work with couples in nontraditional relationship structures?
Marina works with couples whose agreements and relationship structures may not follow traditional expectations. Therapy does not impose a predetermined model of partnership. Sessions focus on consent, honesty,
communication, boundaries, trust, emotional safety, and the agreements established within your relationship.
Take the first step toward healing and connection
Not sure where to start? Let’s talk.