Portland Therapy Center
Jake H. Jacobsen

Jake H. Jacobsen (HE/HIM)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

MA, LCSW

I have 22+ years of working within the LGBTQ community. I have a specialty with trans/NB life and the process of grief/loss.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

Portland,

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $200-$250

Provides free initial consultation

Provides telehealth services

Practicing Since: 2001

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network

My Ideal Client

Psychotherapy is a collaborative process that begins by exploring the issues you bring into therapy in an environment of openness, and nonjudgemental curiosity. Together, we will work toward strengthening your inner emotional resources, and your ability to begin to make more satisfying life choices for a greater sense of wholeness, and harmony. I work with people of all nationalities, races, religion, sexual orientation and gender identities.

My Approach to Helping

My approach is eclectic including: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Attachment theory, Harm Reduction and Creative Arts Therapy. My practice experience includes counseling people with anxiety, PTSD/trauma (AIDS pandemic, 9/11, Covid) depression and other mood disorders, addiction, adult children of alcoholics, neurodivergent adults/youth, sexuality, gender identity (medical and/or social gender transitioning) for teens and adults who identify as transgender or non-binary and those who are questioning their gender identity, LGBTQ family/partners, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other life challenging conditions.

Why I Became a Therapist

I've been in the LGBTIA+ community since I was a teenager, a main factor that led me into the field of psychology. In the late 1970's luckily I had a therapist that did not pathologize my coming out as queer and that meant the world to me. It meant that I could begin to envision a full life as a queer person in an era when everything I saw on TV, heard at school, or read in the newspaper told me that being queer was a pathology. Today we're in a time of profound socio-political change with a dramatic increase in anti-LGBT+ bills/laws attempting to stop trans youth rights to access healthcare in some states, racism and violence against POC, erasure of black history from education, anti-semitism, banning books, the effects of climate change and fears of rising autocracy. These issues are all interconnected and need to be seen and acknowledged in order to do the work towards the fight for social justice and our civil rights. Addressing these issues in therapy is fundamental for healing.

Techniques I Use

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Loss or Grief External link

    In New York I lived through the AIDS pandemic and 9/11 working with people dealing with PTSD. Today we are living through another pandemic with Covid-19, as well as major socio-political upheaval. These events profoundly changed me as a person and as a therapist. Honing my skills in working with people dealing with trauma and loss became a focal point of my training as a therapist. Trauma and loss are often the roots of complicated mental health issues such as PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Contact Jake H.

Optional note (300 character limit). Please do not include sensitive medical information.