A safe ‘Room’

Brian Kennedy

Therapist Brian Kennedy, Room for Change open new offices in Oak Lawn

TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com

When Brian Kennedy saw the successful career he had built crumble around him, he felt depression and despair building around him, inside him. But instead of letting it defeat him, he sought help. And then he built himself a new career — a career in which he is able to help those who find themselves where he once was.

Kennedy went back to school to become a licensed professional counselor working with clients on issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, substance use, and trauma. His real passion, though, lies in helping others in the LGBTQ community.

That is why, Kennedy said, he chose to join Amanda Esquivel in her practice, Room For Change. Esquivel, who founded Room For Change, works with LGBTQ clients in honor of her father, a closeted gay man who died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 34. Room for Change has three locations in Garland, and now one in Oak Lawn.

Kennedy was working as a therapist in a Frisco office, but he knew that what he really wanted was to service his community, the LGBTQ community, with an office in the heart of the Gayborhood. Because while LGBTQ people live everywhere, it is in Oak Lawn where many of them feel safest and most at home.

So he joined Room for Change to help open the practice’s new offices at 3710 Rawlins St., Ste. 1420.

“I wanted to work down here in Oak Lawn because I really want to develop a practice that serves the LGBTQ community here in the community,”

Kennedy said, noting that LGBTQ clients who came to him from other therapists said they often did not feel fully understood and accepted, even by “LGBTQ-friendly” therapists.

The key, Kennedy said, is knowing “the difference between ‘LGBTQ-friendly’ and ‘LGBTQ-affirming.’”
Non-LGBTQ therapists who are LGBTQ-friendly, he said, “may not be as open to some of the things queer people bring to the table in therapy — open relationships, kink and so on. There are certain things that happen in queer relationships that just are not as heteronormative as some counselors think,” he explained.

LGBTQ-friendly counselors may not truly understand some aspects of transgender care, he added. And these days, amidst all the political turmoil and some politicians choosing to use queer people as tools to energize their homophobic base, “that is creating a lot of anxiety and stress that others [non-LGBTQ people] aren’t dealing with. Those counselors who see everyone are not seeing those things, not recognizing their effect on LGBTQ people as quickly.”

Kennedy stresses that he isn’t saying LGBTQ clients should only see LGBTQ counselors. But in some situations, it does make a difference.

“As counselors, we all want to be open to learning and understanding new things. But we don’t want our queer clients to feel like that they have to do an LGBTQ primer every time they walk into their therapist’s office,” he said. “When I self-identify [as LGBTQ] in session, you can see some of the anxiety just fall off the client. They know then that they don’t have to explain certain things to me.

“Clients need a place where they can go and not feel judged, not feel like they have to self-edit,” Kennedy added. “They need someone to talk to they know will understand the community they are part of and all the different facets of it. They need a place where they can be comfortable and feel safe and understood while they are working toward whatever change they are seeking.”

Room for Change in Oak Lawn
Kennedy said that the Oak Lawn office of Room for Change has a staff of three: “I am a fully licensed counselor, and there are two interns.” He said he specialized in LGBTQ issues, trans/gender identity issues, life transitions, grief, sex and sexuality, anxiety, depression, shame, couples issues, relationships, religious trauma, setting boundaries, anger management, coping skills, issues around divorce, substance abuse, family conflict, infidelity, school issues, issues around self-esteem, self-harm, stress, creative expression, living with HIV and issues around BDSM/kink.

He said that his office is “open to seeing adolescents, individuals and couples, and I am working toward developing an LGBTQ therapist consulting group, where we can bring together different therapists who are working with LGBTQ clients and who themselves identify as LGBTQ.”

Room for Change takes all major insurances, Kennedy said, and their cash pay rate is $120 a session, “which is considerably better than most.”

He continued, “We want to provide access to anyone who wants or needs access [to therapy], especially for people who live in this area. We want to develop a really good practice here that really serves the common good of our community.”

For more information about Room For Change, visit the website at RoomForChange.info. Read more about Brian Kennedy at PsychologyToday.com/us/therapists/brian-kennedy-dallas-tx/832720. To set an appointment at any one of the four Room For Change locations, email manager@roomforchange,info or call 214-385-5445.