The Woman Behind the Therapist. Queertherapie was born out of Lorène E.z. Abfayer’s desire to create a therapeutic space in France specifically designed for queer people. At that time, there were still very few care settings run by the people they served, offering a truly affirmative, depathologizing approach that was mindful of the social and political realities experienced by LGBTQI+ communities. It was during her studies in psychoanalysis that E.z. met Alexis Neel, who was then living in Portland, Oregon, a region historically shaped by queer community cultures, harm reduction practices, peer support, and alternative psychosocial approaches. While E.z was developing her clinical and theoretical thinking in France, Alexis had already been working for several years in the psychosocial field with queer communities, homeless people, survivors of domestic violence, and vulnerable individuals in the United States. Their meeting marked the beginning of a collaborative effort where psychoanalysis, lived experiences, trans women, intersex, non-binary identities, community practices, feminism, critical thinking about care, and knowledge drawn from the field intersect. Together, they are gradually building the human, clinical, and political foundations of Queertherapie. Queertherapie has evolved through an ongoing dialogue between their respective experiences, their practices, and their shared reflections. Their work is grounded in the idea that queer therapeutic spaces cannot be separated from social realities, power dynamics, collective traumas, and the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Married and partners in life as well as in the creation of Queertherapie, E.z and Alexis continue to work together to develop a situated, community-based therapeutic approach that is deeply engaged with issues of gender, subjectivity, care, and emancipation. Alexis Neel Abfayer Alexis Neel Abfayer is an American transgender and Intersex woman, co-founder of Queertherapie, a peer support practitioner, feminist activist, and community organizer who has been working for several decades with marginalized, queer, and vulnerable people. Her journey spans the fields of political activism, community mental health, art, feminist struggles, support for transgender people, and trauma-informed social intervention. This diversity of experiences now forms one of the foundations of the theoretical framework developed within Queertherapie. Assigned male at birth and having grown up in a context of white American privilege, Alexis has developed a profound critical analysis of systems of domination, imposed masculinity, gender norms, and social mechanisms of power. The discovery of their Intersex status during their transition profoundly transformed their relationship to the body, identity, and traditional gender narratives, shaping an approach that is at once political, existential, and therapeutic. For over ten years, she has been supporting LGBTQ+ individuals, survivors of domestic violence, homeless people, and young people in situations of psychological and social vulnerability. Her approach is grounded in peer support, trauma-informed practices, active listening, client autonomy, and a critique of normative models of care. At Queertherapie, Alexis contributes to the development of a context-specific framework for queer and trans support, grounded in lived experiences, power dynamics, the deconstruction of social assignments, and the need to create therapeutic spaces that are truly inclusive and non-pathologizing. Her work is also rooted in an autobiographical and memorial approach, where personal history becomes a tool for political analysis and collective transmission. Through writing, speech, counseling, and community practices, she explores the connections between trauma, gender, social exclusion, resistance, and self- reconstruction. Before her work in the psychosocial field, Alexis ran a Fine Art B&W Photography lab in San Francisco for fifteen years. Prior to that, she was a political street activist focusing on the environment, nuclear weapons and power, feminism, and corporate domination. She now considers her activism, her collective practices, and her forms of resistance to be an artistic practice in their own right. Since October 2024, Alexis has also been battling pancreatic cancer. This experience with illness now shapes and deepens her reflections on the body, vulnerability, dignity, healthcare systems, autonomy, and the existential realities linked to mortality, trauma, and self- transformation. True to her approach, she continues to address these issues from the perspective of lived experience, weaving together personal experience, political analysis, and human support. This journey further strengthens her commitment to more inclusive spaces of care, ones that are more aware of power dynamics and more respectful of queer, trans, and marginalized subjectivities.

Appt