Gay Men's Counseling Alliance
Jonathan Merker MA LMHC
Counseling for gay individuals, couples, and groups
About
The mission of Gay Men's Counseling Alliance is to help gay men who have survived sexual trauma to experience freedom and healing. GMCA is founded by Jonathan Merker, LMHC, who has been working in the realm of trauma and recovery with gay men since 2012.
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Jonathan provides in-person therapy at his office in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, near 7th avenue and 20th street. Therapy is also available virtually via secure video call.
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GMCA offers the following in-person services:
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Individual Therapy
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Couples Therapy
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Therapy Groups for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
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Therapy Groups for Survivors of Conversion/Religious Trauma
PRACTICE AREAS
Gay Men’s Counseling Alliance is a psychotherapy practice by Jonathan Merker with the mission to help gay male abuse survivors create meaningful, satisfying, and healthy relationships. Jonathan is a relational psychoanalytical psychotherapist who can help gay men work through a number of both universal and gay-specific issues. Jonathan practices a relational narrative model to work through past trauma that allows the therapy relationship to heal what was wounded. Whether your abuse was physical, spiritual, or emotional, Gay Men's Counseling Alliance can help you recover and heal. Jonathan believes that relationships are the context in which we heal, and as such, couples and group work is highly encouraged in addition to individual counseling.
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
Individual counseling at GMCA is narrative and relational, which means Jonathan spends time truly understanding your story. The more we understand about you, your history, and present patterns, the more we're able to change your relational patterns into ones that work for you-- and this is especially true of what types of patterns we create when we survive trauma.
Jonathan's primary focus as a therapist is on healing childhood sexual abuse and conversion therapy abuse. Jonathan was trained by experts in the field, and expanded his understanding of CSA with his understanding of gay male psychology throughout his years of practice. The particularity of how this trauma affects gay men is what Jonathan knows best, and what he truly delights in seeing healed.
COUPLES COUNSELING
Couples counseling at GMCA is focused on providing help to relationships where one or both members are survivors of childhood abuse. An intimate relationship with a partner provides one of the most comprehensive maps for healing, and with GMCA's guidance both members of the relationship become equipped to thrive together. Working together on how to navigate sexual abuse symptoms can create a satisfying healing partnership that can last a lifetime.
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This model of counseling is also helpful if one member of a couple has survived religious or conversion therapy abuse. Learning how to navigate the ambivalence, the binaries, and the other symptoms that come from homophobic programming can be the difference between a relationship surviving and thriving.
GROUP COUNSELING
GMCA offers in-person psychotherapy groups in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. These groups are specifically for gay men so that we can grow and heal together as a community. Current group offerings are listed below. You must be in individual counseling with a licensed provider in order to attend a group. Please contact GMCA for more information.
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Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
This group is for gay men who experienced childhood sexual abuse. We will collectively read the same chapter in a book to discuss how being gay affects our experience of abuse, then learn how to listen and be listened to in stories of deep wounding. Through the sharing and listening we will heal and recover.
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Survivors of 'Conversion Therapy'
This group is for gay men who were a part of any program designed to change, alter, or suppress one's sexual orientation. The symptoms of these groups can often look like the symptoms of childhood sexual abuse. As a group we will explore the beliefs and stories that were created from these violent beliefs, and through sharing our stories we will affirm and celebrate our homoaffectivity and homosexuality.
CONTACT
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Jonathan Merker, MA LMHC LPC
Gay Men's Counseling Alliance
206-707-9188
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Please fill out this form to schedule a free consultation or with any questions you would like answered. Please note that Gay Men's Counseling Alliance is licensed in CO, NJ, NY, and WA, and cannot offer counseling in any other jurisdiction.
