About Us
Dedicated to Our Patients’ Well-Being and Self-Love
We know how exhausting it can be, trying to connect with therapists who don’t fully understand the LGBTQ+ experience. It’s also frustrating to walk away from therapy feeling like you didn’t learn any new skills or build any new insights. We know this because we’ve lived this as well.
Full Focus Therapy started with a desire to bring affirming, robust therapy practice to the LGBTQ+ people who need it most. No matter how big or small your problems are, we are here for you because you deserve to live your life without shame or judgement. We are committed to our patients’ well being, and we look forward to working with you.
Meet the Founder
My name is Dr. Kerry McBroome and my training began in New York City. I received my BA in Psychology from Pace University in downtown Manhattan. I then moved to Malaysia to teach English as part of the Fulbright Scholar program through the State Department. When my time in Terengganu, Malaysia was up, I moved to California to attend the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium, a combined program Stanford University School of Medicine runs with Palo Alto University.
My first taste of DBT, Dialectical behaviour therapy, came as a practicum student at Stanford University, where I earned my Masters degree and Doctorate, and did my dissertation on developing an LGBTQ+ affirmative family therapy program. I completed my postdoctoral work at the Chicago DBT Institute, a Linehan-certified comprehensive DBT program. I then moved back to New York where it all began—to open my own private practice.
Our Values
Respect for the Full Person
We work to reduce personal bias and prejudice and we approach identity with curiosity in order to honor each individual. Every person deserves equitable access to quality LGBTQ+ affirmative care. That’s why we provide sliding scale spots to reduce the financial barriers to therapy.
We are committed to providing responsive and culturally-affirming healthcare, moving towards collective care and away from the colonial model of treatment. We support that value via advanced training and clinical experience in working with these communities.
Progress, Not Perfection
Shame is a universal human emotion and almost everyone in the LGBTQ+ community has felt it about themselves at one time or another. Shame can bring out our perfectionism and that can block progress in therapy. Our first value of Progress, Not Perfection welcomes in everyone, all parts welcome.
The Fastest Way Is Slow
24/7 availability is not consistent with the full and satisfying life I want for my clients and for my providers at Full Focus Therapy. We advocate for our clients to hold boundaries and in order to model that in ourselves, you can expect that emails and communication will be returned within two days, not two hours.
Joy as a Radical Act
This is taken from Rebecca Makkai’s essay in Electric Literature entitled “The World’s on Fire. Can We Still Talk About Books?” The original quote reads “Art is a radical act. Joy is a radical act. This is how we keep fighting. This is how we survive.”
One of the most powerful aspects of the therapeutic relationship is the space it holds for sitting with great pain. Just as we commit to making space to sitting with that pain with you, we also commit to holding space for joy. Pain and fear and suffering are not separate from joy, humor, and playfulness. All emotions are welcome in order that you can bring your full self to therapy and know that all of it will be accepted.
Hold Onto the Dialectics
My thesis advisor at Pace University, June Chisholm, was fond of yelling out the word “vicissitudes!” whenever we oversimplified or ignored the nuance of a given psychological theory. She used this word to drive us away from easy answers, from black and white thinking, or “either/or” positions.
In a similar way, the “dialectics” in Dialectical behavior therapy refers to moving beyond binary thinking and making space for the gray areas, for multiple things to be true at once. From a queer perspective, this means welcoming people who live beyond the gender binary, beyond the gay/straight binary, beyond all binaries. This value calls us to recognize the full, complex human in front of us.
Every big journey starts with the first step.
We know that choosing a therapy practice can be both exciting and scary. If you’re feeling ready to begin your mental health journey, schedule a free 20-minute consultation today.
