Pride Therapy DC

05/19/2026

After nearly 20 years, Love in the Time of HIV is returning in a newly updated Second Edition — and now, finally, as an audiobook.

This story began in another era: before PrEP, before marriage equality, during a time when love, fear, grief, and survival often lived in the same room together.

Revisiting it now feels emotional, surreal, and strangely timely.

While awaiting news on my newest manuscript, The Purple Couch: Love, Anxiety, and Who We Become, I wanted to reopen this chapter first.

More ways to read. More ways to listen. More soon. 📚🎧

MentalHealthMatters TherapistAuthor LGBTQHistory Audiobook SecondEdition GayMen QueerWriters Psychotherapy BooksOfInstagram BookAnnouncement Memoir NarrativeNonfiction LGBTQCommunity Pride Bookstagram AuthorLife Healing QueerStories HIV MentalHealthAwareness

03/13/2026

¡Descubre todo lo que PrideTherapyDC tiene para ofrecer en nuestro sitio web!

Mantente informado con las actualizaciones más recientes, explora nuestra amplia gama de ofertas y conéctate con todo lo emocionante que sucede aquí.

Visítanos en https://pridetherapydc.com hoy mismo para conocer todo lo que hay para ti.

Explore supportive therapy services for LGBTQ+ individuals at PrideTherapyDC. Connect with us today for a positive change in your life.

01/31/2026

Went to an art fundraiser for this Lgbt community center that does daily food for the community bought a piece of art and a young playwright that I’m doing to go to his show on Wednesday and I promise him I’ll bring him flowers

01/15/2026

some insight from the purple couch

12/18/2025

Christmas in my new condo live that penthouse Mexican life baby Feliz Navidad

11/14/2025

Healing isn’t linear. It’s seasonal.
Some days you’re blooming.
Some days you’re frost.
Most days, you’re a little bit of both.

This image marks the beginning of something I’ve been building quietly for years — The Purple Couch: my q***r therapist’s take on love, anxiety, and becoming.

In the therapy room, I watch people try to grow even in cold seasons. I watch them return to themselves after years of hiding. I watch them get frustrated when healing feels slow or messy, not realizing that every season has its purpose, its rhythm, its lesson.

What I’ve learned after 25+ years in LGBTQ+ mental health is this:
You’re not supposed to bloom every day.
You’re supposed to stay rooted.

This space — here on Instagram and on Substack — is where I’ll share the ideas, stories, and tools that guide my clients through the seasons of becoming. Thoughtful, q***r, trauma-informed, grounded in research but spoken in a human voice.

If you’re navigating anxiety, reinvention, loneliness, q***r identity, messy relationships, or just trying to feel like yourself again — you’re in the right place.

Welcome to the couch.
Take a breath.
We’re just beginning.

—Michael Mancilla, LICSW
The Purple Couch newsletter now live on Substack — link in bio.

10/15/2025

✨ “If I could shrink myself down to the size of a storybook character, this is exactly where I’d live.”

This little gothic library is the perfect reflection of my comfort zone as an author and former literary agent — surrounded by books, layered stories, and a touch of magic. 📚✨

I can’t take credit for the build — my magician did the intricate work. My hands are a little too clumsy for this level of microsurgery. But I can absolutely admire it. The chandeliers, the spiral of rolled maps, the tiny clock on the wall — every detail makes it feel like a world I could disappear into.

📖

06/21/2025

🏳️‍🌈 DC Healthcare Providers! Is your license renewal coming up? Meet your LGBTQ+ CE requirement and expand your cultural fluency — all in one powerful, on-demand course.

💻 LGBTQ Youth: What Healthcare Providers Need to Know
📍 Taught by Michael Mancilla, LICSW
🕒 Finish in just 2 hours
💵 Only $39.95
🌐 www.pridetherapydc.com

In this DC-compliant training, we go beyond the basics to explore the lived realities of LGBTQ youth today:

✨ Supporting transgender and nonbinary youth
✨ Understanding gay gang members and the juvenile justice system
✨ Challenging the model minority myth in clinical settings
✨ Learning from the Muxe—a third-gender tradition in Oaxaca, Mexico, where gender-diverse children are affirmed, celebrated, and integrated

✅ Identity-affirming tools
✅ Real-world strategies
✅ Meets DC license renewal requirements

📲 Instant access. Easy CEUs. Real impact.

⸻

05/15/2025

Feeling grateful to do work that still feels like a calling.

I just updated my website to reflect the broader services I now offer—still grounded in LGBTQ+ and trans-affirming therapy, but now with added support for those exploring life abroad, starting over, or just seeking more freedom and clarity.

I’m not trying to turn my friends into clients—but if you know someone who’s thinking about therapy, struggling with identity, or planning a move out of the U.S., feel free to send them my way.

www.pridetherapydc.com
(DM me if you want to refer someone confidentially)

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