Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Cortez-Neavel.
Hi Beth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My career as a liberation-oriented, anti-oppressive therapist began way before I started graduate school at Texas State University for a M.A. in Counseling. In my first career, I was journalist producing work for outlets like the Texas Observer, Austin American-Statesman, KUT News, the Austin Monitor, and the Texas Standard. Through journalism, I cultivated my love for real human stories and engaging in every conversation through curiosity, without judgment.
When I decided it was time to change careers, my love for these aspects of life led me to work as a Sexual Assault Victim’s Advocate at The SAFE Alliance. As I worked through graduate school, I eventually was hired in the SAFE Alliance counseling department, where I continued providing a safer therapeutic space for survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and childhood abuse. I then worked for Austin Family Counseling in Westlake, where I continued to grow my practice and learned the ins and outs of owning my own business. My journey has recently led me to opening up my private practice, Queer AF Therapy, in East Austin.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My hardships throughout my life also help inform how I provide care for my clients. I continue to grow and learn how to combat the systems of oppression that we all live under and that I have also personally experienced: racism, homophobia, transphobia, stigma against mental illness, ableism, and many others. I have had to navigate these both inside and outside of workplaces and communities I have been a part of.
I, too, am a survivor of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. I continue my own healing with an understanding therapist whom I trust. Having lived through similar experiences as my clients, especially traumatic ones, now helps me better understand and be with my clients who are exploring how these traumas have impacted their life.
If you have also experienced sexual assault, childhood abuse, and/or intimate partner violence, please reach out to The SAFE Alliance for support and services.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Queer AF Therapy?
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate (LMFT-A) supervised by Michelle Silva Segura, LPC-S, LMFT-S, and SEP.
I center my therapy around my clients’ needs and lived experiences. I see mostly queer and transgender individual clients, couples, and families. Depending on what my client is needing, I help them navigate exploration of their various identities, relationships, trust, safety, trauma and abuse, and other life events. I feel so called to this work, especially due to my own lived experiences.
I bring my whole self into the therapy room with my clients, while still keeping healthy professional and ethical boundaries. I identify as a queer, fat, neurodivergent, Latinx, nonbinary/trans, kinky, and polyamorous Austinite. My clients tend to find me because of these aspects of my self and how I help others navigate these identities as well. Exploring the lived experiences and identities of my clients are so crucial to helping them untangle how the systems of oppression we are all living under may be affecting the issues they are hoping to heal from.
I cannot think of another career that would be as fulfilling as helping others more fully understand who they are and how they relate to themselves, their relationships, and the world.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
In my creative pursuits, I also continue my writing through autobiographical poetry and prose. I explore topics such as sex, love, intimacy, trauma, abuse, healing, joy, and hope.
Pricing:
- $155 individual 50-minute sessions
- $220 relational 90-minute sessions
- $165 relational 50-minute sessions
- $250 relational 90-minute sessions
- Sliding scale is available on a limited basis.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://queeraftherapy.com
- Instagram: @queeraftherapy
- Other: https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/texas/austin/beth-cortez-neavel
Image Credits
Headshot take by Ben Batschelet. Graphics created by me.
