Lana Hurst

I’m a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and psychoanalyst-in-formation based in New York City. I work primarily with queer and trans adults, as well as people navigating questions of identity, relationships, desire, sexuality, religious trauma, and major life transitions. Before becoming a therapist, I spent many years studying theology and working in religious leadership. That background left me deeply interested in the questions people carry about who they are, what they want, what they believe, and how they came to understand themselves in the first place. Psychoanalysis offers me a way of approaching those questions without assuming there are simple or predetermined answers. My approach is psychoanalytic. Rather than focusing only on reducing symptoms or teaching strategies for managing them, I’m interested in what becomes possible when we give sustained attention to your words, relationships, dreams, contradictions, and reccuring patterns. We often find ourselves repeating things we say we want to change, wanting things we wish we didn't, or living according to expectations we've inherited from other people. Therapy creates a space to become curious about these conflicts and about the parts of ourselves that remain unfamiliar to us. This kind of work can be especially meaningful for people whose experiences of gender, sexuality, faith, family, or belonging have required them to question the stories they were given about who they were supposed to be. I believe therapy is a place where we can create the conditions for something surprising to unfold—for you to encounter your own desire, tolerate the unknown, and find new ways of relating to yourself and others. I work best with people who are curious about themselves and interested in going beyond surface-level solutions. You don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what you want from therapy. Often, discovering what the question really is becomes part of the work.