Here’s where you can learn about the many facets of who I am.

I identify as trans and genderqueer, lesbian, kinky, creative, playful, a bit nerdy, and as someone with other intersecting, often marginalized identities. 

Genderqueer, by my definition, refers to an active ‘queering’ of gender, a deliberate subversion of gender norms to highlight the artificiality of the gender binary and gender classifications overall. Within myself, I cannot find where one gender ends and another begins. I typically present with some measure of ‘female masculinity’ as a trans woman, though I incorporate femme-ness as well. Clients never need to understand their transness in the same ways as I do mine.

My family history includes systemic oppression, refugee status, and genocide.

Psychotherapy is not my first career.

Music was my first love; piano lessons began in childhood and later I performed with bands and in studio settings, also composing music and doing sound design for independent theater. Then I moved onto visual arts and became a photographer exhibiting in galleries.

Creativity is inherent in who I am and I still engage in various projects that some friends consider a tad ‘wackadoo’:

And many years ago as Lawrence Jacobs, I worked in the less glamorous fields of corporate middle management and IT.

Today, I have joys and stressors like everyone else, but generally I live a happy, vibrant life that I share with diverse friends. I dine about town, meander through museums and galleries (I get lost in the Met every… single… time…), gaze in wonder at the Planetarium, delight in basement jazz clubs, and attend various LGBTQIA+, BDSM/kink, and other community events. I’m also glad to have a rewarding profession in which I help others and can be of service.

Lastly, I’m a lovable goofball. I am an avid Muppet fan (Gonzo and Rowlf are my primary role models, and Cookie Monster in moderation), would love nothing more than to soar on the Enterprise (TOS, SNW, or TNG please), and am a member of the Helicon Chamber Music Foundation.

Laura A. Jacobs, LCSW-R, (pronouns: she/they/he/none) is a trans and genderqueer identified psychotherapist, speaker, author, activist, and heretic specializing in transgender and gender nonbinary issues, queer/LGBTQIA+ issues, and sexual diversity including kink/BDSM, polyamory/consensual nonmonogamy, and sex work.

They served a four-year term as the first transgender and genderqueer Chair of the Board of Directors, and ten years on the Board overall for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, a multisite, $100M+ healthcare organization with the mission of providing high quality, compassionate care to the LGBTQIA+ community of NYC regardless of ability to pay.

Laura was also the first trans-identified Chair at any LGBTQIA+ Federally Qualified Health Center nationwide. She is also a prolific speaker in the media, at medical, mental health, and community based conferences, in medical schools, and for other organizations, having been featured in the New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, NBCNewsOnline, SiriusXM, CBSNews, Mic.com, TEDx, and more.

Her most recent project, Surviving Transphobia is an anthology featuring 16 prominent transgender and nonbinary figures and was released by Jessica Kingsley Publishers on September 21, 2023. Laura also has authored or coauthored books, chapters, and articles on gender and sexual diversity.

Laura was presented the Standard of Excellence Award by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and has received other awards as well.

They are a member of the Kink Clinical Guidelines Workgroup, a coalition which developed the first best practices document for the mental health care of those who are interested and/or involved in kink, BDSM, and/or fetish eroticism. As Lawrence Jacobs, he worked in the arts as a musician, composer, and photographer, also in less glamorous positions such as corporate middle management.

Standard of Excellence Award:

AASECT, the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists

Impact Award, Gay City News [NY]

Champion of Social Justice

NASW, The National Association of Social Workers, NY

Licenses:

• NY: LCSW-R: 078979R

• NJ: LCSW- 44SC054654600

• DC: LC200003354

• PA: CW025109

• IL: #149.027953

• RI: ISW04226

NPI: 1477719516

Education:

• MSW: NYU School of Social Work

• BA: Sarah Lawrence College

And More

• Listed as a Kink Aware Psychotherapist via the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom

• Member of the Kink Guidelines Workgroup, a body that established the first clinical guidelines for the treatment of kink-involved persons. Currently a member of the Version Two Revision Committee

• Member of the Manhattan Alternative coalition of medical and mental health providers working with gender and sexually diverse clients

• Certified in the WPATH SOC-8 [World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care, Version 8]