COVID’s End as Trauma Recovery in Gay Men

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COVID-19 As a Traumatic Experience At the time of this writing in early June, 2021, my local community of Los Angeles/West Hollywood (California) is gearing up for the broader grand re-opening of California by order of Governor Gavin Newsom on June 15th (according to a Los Angeles Times article of May 21, 2021, here). The new guidelines basically … Read more

Gay Men’s Goals: How Do You Define Success in the New Year?

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With a few weeks into the new year, I’ve been talking with a lot of my clients about their goals for 2021.  I have often done this with clients at the start of a new year throughout my long career (29 years) as a gay men’s specialist therapist and coach, but this year is so very … Read more

Gay Men, COVID-19, and Avoiding the Pitfalls: Substances, Lethargy, and Despair

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Gay Men, COVID-19, and Avoiding the Pitfalls: Substances, Lethargy, and Despair   Identifying and Coping with the “Pitfalls” in COVID-19 As I continue online therapy and coaching sessions in my practice at GayTherapyLA as a gay men’s specialist for individuals and couples (over 28 years in 2020), I’m seeing the effects of COVID-19 on guys … Read more

Gay Men and Sex During COVID-19

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As I continue to see clients online during this “COVID Era” as I call it, I notice patterns of how “my guys” are coping.  Of course, dealing with the whole COVID-19 pandemic and its many stressors about the economy, work, housing during quarantine, relationships, and dating manifest in different ways, depending on where you live (where … Read more

Coping with COVID-19 for Gay Men: What Type Are You?

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Coping with COVID-19 for Gay Men: What Type Are You? Now that many weeks (months) are going by since the initial “lockdown” or “quarantine” conditions due to novel coronavirus/COVID-19, I’m seeing a number of patterns emerge among my clients of my therapy and coaching practice, as a long-term (28 years!) gay men’s specialist.  Whether it’s … Read more

The New COVID-19 Coping: Balancing “Toxic Positivity” with “Adaptive Coping”

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The New COVID-19 Coping: Balancing “Toxic Positivity” with “Adaptive Coping” This week (April 13, 2020), as we enter further into global “stay at home orders”, I’m noticing several mental health providers do some push-back to the more positive messages about coping with the current COVID-19 crisis and working from home.  My last three blog articles … Read more

Gay Men’s Mental Health During COVID-19:  Next to Normal

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Mental Health During COVID-19: Next to Normal Those who know me well know that I have a life-long obsession with Broadway musicals, recently having completed writing the book, music, and lyrics for a musical of my own, “On the Boulevard,” which takes place in my own very home of West Hollywood, California, a modern re-telling … Read more

Gay Men and the Mental Health Aspects of Working from Home

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Gay Men and the Mental Health Aspects of Working from Home If you do a Google search on “tips on working from home,” you find almost too many returns.  It’s overwhelming.  I did a survey of them informally, and tried to find the “best of” those lists.  But what’s missing from them is where I … Read more

Gay Men and Coronavirus/COVID-19:  A Special Kind of Coping

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[DISCLAIMER:  THIS WAS WRITTEN ON MARCH 10, 2020, AND THE PANDEMIC HAS WORSENED SINCE.  THIS IS SUBJECT TO THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE VERY EARLIEST SIGNS OF TROUBLE IN THE UNITED STATES…] Gay Men and Coronavirus/COVID-19:  A Special Kind of Coping I wanted to provide my regular readers of the GayTherapyLA blog some thoughts as the … Read more