720.560.3551
6825 E Hampden Ave Suite 202, Denver, CO 80224
Telehealth for Colorado
All appointments are virtual only
Adam Stanford, LPC, LAC
Find a therapist who really gets you
Who I specialize in working with
Adults 18 years or older in Colorado
All genders and sexual orientations including heterosexual, pansexual, homosexual, bisexual, queer, questioning, cisgender, transgender, and gender-nonconforming
People living with type 1 Autism (Asperger's)
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Couples in all types of relationship dynamics including monogamous, polyamorous, and sexually open.
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Sex positive and kink-aware
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People who are leaving or have left oppressive/conservative backgrounds
LGBTQ+
The thing about queer people is that we're just people like everyone else. But we live in a society that typically marginalizes us and attacks us for political gain. While there has been much improvement in recent years, we continue to face senseless stigma and discrimination ranging from a personal/individual level all the way up to a national and even global level. We can have trouble finding therapists who understand what it is like to live this way and how our various sub-cultures operate.
I am a gay, cisgender man who has been working with the queer community since well before becoming a therapist. I've been working in human services in various capacities since 2010 and have helped numerous queer folks during that time. When I was working for agencies, I spent several years in an LGBTQ+ specific program and attended several in-house trainings on working with queer clients. My additional training includes, "How to Support your Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Clients," at Sandstone Care. In private practice, roughly 1/3 of my clients have identified as LGBTQ+.
Much of my personal life has also been spent with the queer community. I've had the pleasure of many close personal relationships with folks who identify as trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming. The same goes for friends and loved ones who are lesbian, bisexual, gay, and questioning. My queer clients often report feeling much more comfortable and understood when working with me than they have with other therapists in the past. Several have said their other therapists were nice, well meaning, and helpful to a point but they still held things back in therapy because they didn't trust the therapist to truly get this aspect of their life and identity.
Autism
Helping neurodiverse folks runs in the family because both of my parents specialized in it- my father as a psychologist and my mother as an educator. I took a particular interest in working with autism in grad school and worked at a behavioral health agency specifically for this population. Autism was the focus of most of my research and projects in school. The agency where I was working provided several in-house trainings during that time on how to best support these clients. I have successfully helped many autistic clients in private practice.
I understand the mindsets of people living with ASD much better than most allistic people. This typically includes using direct, literal wording rather than verbally dancing around an issue. While many therapists use open-ended questions to encourage self-exploration, I speak with my autistic clients in way that avoids confusion and ambiguity. I do not implement subtle cues, hints, or implications. You will not be pressured to suss out or struggle to interpret the meaning of what I say. Getting directly to the point and saying what I really mean is fundamental for me.
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Allistic people and our social quirks like pointless small talk, relying on body language more than spoken words, meandering questions, and emails filled with silly exclamation marks are probably a mystery for you. I welcome you to ask me questions about how the allistic mind works, why we act and speak the way we do, and what masking/approximating behaviors are ok for you to just drop entirely.
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You're probably already exhausted with trying to navigate confusing interpersonal dynamics in your daily life. Perhaps you work so hard to adjust yourself to please others that you're not totally sure which aspects of your personality are genuine and which are performative anymore. Masking will not be mistaken for true happiness with me. In fact, you don't need to mask or approximate neurotypical behavior with me at all. Show up as your genuine self and trust that I will understand.