LGBTQIA+ therapy in Sydney
Jerico Mandybur offers identity-affirming, arts-based psychotherapy for women and LGBTQIA+ people.
Sessions are creative, trauma-informed, and affirming, in Sydney or online. You don't need to be out, certain, or articulate to begin.
I'm Jerico Mandybur, a queer registered arts-based therapist and counsellor, supporting adults and young people in the LGBTQIA+ community across identity issues, trauma, depression, anxiety, and relationships of all kinds.
Let me guess…
You check the mood of the room before you check your own. And you mask to the point of exhaustion. You feel wrung out, and the person you actually are seems like someone you'll get to know later. Underneath the uneasy feeling sits a significant question: who would I be if I didn't have to mould myself into an ill-fitting costume?
You are not alone
Many LGBTQIA+ people spend years adapting to spaces that weren't built with them in mind. You might seem confident from the outside, but on the inside, is strong sense of hyper-vigilance. And it's lonely when nobody sees the work involved.
Feeling at home in yourself is possible
Coming home to yourself rarely happens through willpower or insight alone. Masking, people-pleasing, and self-abandonment are smart ways the nervous system has learned to stay safe. They manifest in the body as much as the mind, and they tend to soften when they're met through the body and its senses.
Over time, my clients describe feeling more grounded, expressive, and more trusting of their own read on things. More room to be unfinished. That's the direction we move in, at a gentle pace that suits you. My job is just to support you at the threshold between who you were and who you're becoming.
Why arts-based therapy for LGBTQIA+ people?
Talk therapy is wonderful. I’m a big fan. And some things live beyond the reach of clean explanations.
Some experiences are held deep in the body. Some inner information arrives as a sensation before finding words. This is the realm of pre-verbal knowledge.
If you've ever thought "I get it intellectually, so why am I still stuck?", you're in good company. Insight is a significant start.
Imagine what might emerge if you allowed your hands to make something, your body need to feel something, and your mind to receive new input from outside the thought-loop.
This is where arts psychotherapy comes in. It offers more than one way in.
What does art therapy for LGBTQIA+ people look like?
All sessions are centre around you: exploring your identities, curiosities, values, and moment-to-moment experience. One week might be a conversation and a drawing. Another might be movement, clay, writing, or dialoguing with an image. I draw on parts work, Gestalt, depth psychology, and somatic practices, and together, we move at the pace of trust.
FAQs
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No. You can arrive curious, questioning, half-out, fully out, or really unsure what to call any of it. Not knowing is a perfectly good place to start.
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No. As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, I have an in-depth knowledge of queer culture. Anything I don’t know is not your job to educate me on. Your hour is for you, and for what's actually weighing on you.
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Yes. I will only ever be affirming and inclusive to all LGBTQIA+ clients, and I’m proudly poly/ENM, kink, and SW’er-friendly. Your whole self is welcome here.
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Not at all. Despite the name, “art therapy” focuses solely on the process, not the product. Art materials are simply tools to help you express and explore your experience, where words might not be enough. And often, using unfamiliar arts materials can yield the most meaningful process.
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Online or teleheath sessions work just as they would in person. Held via Zoom, you’re invited to use any form of art materials you have on hand; pencils, markers, paper, objects found around the house etc. Nothing is lost in the therapeutic process by meeting online, and in fact, it offers clients an accessible way to work with me no matter their location and access needs.
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No, I will never analyse or interpret your art for hidden meanings. In creative arts therapy, we stay descriptive; exploring what sensations the colours, shapes, or textures of your materials and art evoke for you. In this way, I offer a supportive container in which you can notice and explore what your art process feels like, without having it dissected. Here, you’re always in control of what you share and how.
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Yes. I work with self-managed and plan-managed NDIS participants to provide arts therapy under Capacity Building. Please mention your NDIS participant status in your email enquiry or exploratory call. Referrals welcome.
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Medicare does not currently fund counselling and psychotherapy sessions, including creative arts therapy.
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No. Unlike an art class, creative arts therapy is a form of psychotherapy guided by a trained arts-based therapist, focused on emotional growth and wellbeing rather than skills and aesthetics.
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Creativity can take many forms. Sometimes it’s colour and image; other times, it’s language, silence, mindfulness, or the simple act of being witnessed. You are never under any obligation to engage with art materials in our sessions, despite it being named “creative arts therapy”. As a registered therapist, I can hold space for you as we weave the verbal, the somatic, and relational presence into our sessions—as well as any other holistic tools you’re drawn to, such as a Jungian approach to the tarot. It’s completely up to you.
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That’s never a problem. It’s a perfectly understandable nervous system response and it’s welcome here. The wonderful thing about arts therapy is that you never have to over-explain or behave in any supposedly “normal” way. The arts are here to support you when you lose your words, want to stim, or would rather hug a squishy than talk.
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While creative arts therapy is a form of psychotherapy focusing on emotional integration, self-understanding, and growth; my creative coaching services support creative small business or self-employed professionals take positive action and acheive their goals. As such, these two services support different groups using very different approaches and paradigms. Creative coaching clients should not be seeking arts therapy, or have an established therapeutic relationship elsewhere.
Thresholds
A newsletter.
Thresholds is the Substack of Jerico Mandybur. A place where she offers personal reflections, regular essays, and creative practices exploring the art of inner life. Subscribe now for your FREE 20-min somatic centering practice.
