Gender Affirming Care in Saint John, Fredericton & Across New Brunswick

Gender-affirming care is a holistic, client-centred approach that respects and celebrates your identity. Whether you are questioning your gender, navigating transition or seeking a safe space to share your experiences, our services are designed to meet you where you are. We offer support for individuals across the gender spectrum, including transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer and gender nonconforming individuals.

At Laura Gatien & Associates, we provide compassionate, inclusive, and affirming care for individuals exploring or affirming their gender identity. We understand that the journey to living authentically can be both empowering and challenging, and we are here to support you every step of the way.

How We Can Help

We provide a range of therapeutic services to help you build confidence, resilience and joy in your authentic self, including: 

  • Individual Therapy: Safe, one-on-one sessions tailored to your personal needs and goals.

  • Support Through Transition: Emotional support and guidance for social, medical and/or legal aspects of transitioning.

  • Family Counselling: Helping families understand, support and affirm their loved ones.

  • Letters for Gender-Affirming Medical Procedures: If required, we can provide letters of support to access Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and/or Gender-Affirming Surgery (GAS) following the standards of care from WPATH (version7).

  • Workplace and Social Advocacy Skills: Support in navigating conversations about your identity in personal and professional settings.

We offer gender-affirming care in-person in Saint John and Fredericton, as well as online virtually.

How Gender-Affirming Care Works

Gender-affirming care supports individuals in aligning their appearance with their gender identity to improve their mental and emotional well-being. This care can take many forms, starting with exploring the option of “coming out,” which involves affirming one’s identity with friends, family, colleagues, and within their broader community. It can also include social transitioning, such as changing legal documents to reflect a person’s chosen name and gender marker or altering appearance through changes in hair, clothing or other personal styles.

We start with a biopsychosocial assessment to better understand how biological, psychological and social factors affect a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviours. We will examine how gender dysphoria impacts you and discuss your readiness for treatment. We can also educate on the associated potential risks and managing expectations of surgery and hormone therapy.

The first step in connecting with a therapist in Fredericton or Saint John is to fill out this form. Based on your requirements, we’ll match you with someone we feel is best suited to help you.

Counselling sessions can be conducted in-person or virtually, whichever you prefer. Sessions typically run 50 minutes long. How often you attend sessions is discussed collaboratively and is based on your needs and schedule. 

You are always in control of your therapy, working at your own pace, and can choose the frequency and length to best suit your needs.

Sessions with a registered social worker (RSW) or licensed counselling therapists (LCT) are $150 for 50 minutes.

How much does therapy cost? 

Our counselling fees are not covered by Medicare but are covered by many extended health insurance plans.

Our clinic has therapists who are either registered social workers (MSW & BSW level social workers) or Licensed Counselling Therapists (LCT).

You must check your specific plan for what you have coverage for, as coverage is different for each policy. Verify that your plan covers counselling/therapy with a MSW, RSW or LCT. Your insurance may state you have coverage for clinical counsellor or psychotherapist, which would cover LCT or social worker. 

We also offer direct billing with many different insurance companies, which allows you to keep more money in your pocket. We can direct bill Blue Cross, Veterans Affairs (VAC), Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Canada Life, Claim Secure, Chamber of Commerce, Work Safe, NIHB, Department of Social Development, and more provided your plan is set up for direct billing. Your are still responsible for any co-pay amounts at the time of service.  

Is therapy covered by insurance? 

About Laura Gatien & Associates

At Laura Gatien & Associates, we take a proactive and collaborative approach to mental health treatment, offering clients access a diverse team of professionals with various expertise and specialties who learn from and can refer to one another. We take a holistic approach to treatment and believe everything makes perfect sense in the context of your life experiences.

Quality care is very important to us as a team, and we ensure this is upheld through regular clinical meetings, ongoing professional development and training opportunities, as well as using evidence-based frameworks. This helps us provide you with the best care for your individual needs so you can make progress sooner.

Our clients benefit from shared resources that exist within a team and the peace of mind that they are not just working with an individual, but are part of a broader mental health community learning and growing together.

We prioritize accessibility and availability of services, providing limited wait times and evening appointments to accommodate diverse schedules. We will regularly ask for feedback on your experience here so we can continue to improve.

Therapists

  • “I felt safe and able to speak openly and freely about my problems. Got great feedback and went away feeling better than I was before going.”

  • "I always feel comfortable there; it's a judgment-free environment regardless of which staff member I see. I have also made a lot of progress there.”


  • "I love how professional it is. I have also had an absolutely amazing experience with my therapist."

  • New List Item

    “Very professional, good listener, brings a calmness and easy to communicate with, non-judgmental.”

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    “Feel as if it's a safe zone and very easy to talk with.“

  • New List Item

    “It is so nice to feel safe and at the same time given honest answers that aren't always easy to hear.”

Take the Next Step

We are accepting new clients for gender-affirming care in Fredericton, Saint John and across New Brunswick. We are honoured to walk with you on this journey toward living your truth.