
Geo McLean

About Geo
I come to this work as a fellow human, shaped by the same raw materials as anyone else: love, shame, anger, hope, fear, loss, joy. I know the messiness of family, the weight of community expectations, the struggles of identity, and the strange surprises and betrayals of living in a body. These experiences don’t make me an expert on yours - far from it. Even if you and I had walked similar paths - like growing up queer in a small Northern Ontario town - our stories will still be different. And that’s okay. Therapy isn’t about perfectly communicating the impact of your past, but about paying attention to how your life stories live inside you now.
My work has taken me into many communities and settings - foster care, supportive housing, schools, and queer men’s health. Since 2022 I’ve been working for the Deaf Well-Being Program, a mental health clinic for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. As a Hearing person working in Deaf space, I learned quickly that allyship isn’t something you announce. It’s something you practice, muddle through, and embody. I carry that same commitment into all my work: to show up with respect, humility, and care.
In terms of training, I bring tools such as EMDR, mindfulness and meditation practices, relational and trauma-informed approaches, and crisis support techniques. But at the heart of it, what I offer is a steady presence - someone who can sit with you through big emotions, uncertainty, and complexity, without rushing to fix or explain them away.
This work matters to me because I’ve seen what happens when we are truly met - not judged, not managed, but met - in our most vulnerable places. I would be honoured to offer that kind of space to you.
Masculinity, Gender and Safety
Men & Masculinity
Counselling is vulnerable work and for anyone seeking it out, I commend your courage. In particular, there are so many cultural, social, and internal forces that make it difficult for men to seek counselling. Our minds are often a war zone between being stoic and self-reliant, and heeding the calls from loved ones to “get help” or “be better.” As one side gains more power, the other grows more frenzied. Being a man and having experienced this tug-of-war makes me all the more compassionate for boys and men living in between expectations. It can feel like the only way through is to harden against the world, to be more efficient, more effective, and less connected. But there is another way. Healing asks something different of us - not to be harder, but to be more whole. If you’re carrying the weight of old patterns, pressures, or pain, you don’t have to figure it out alone. There is strength in choosing to slow down, to feel, to reconnect, and that is something I can guide you with.
Gender & Safety
For many people, men and masculinity can be a charged topic. With so much conversation around gender, power, and patriarchy, I know that my presence as a man can bring up a lot - memories, hopes, anxieties, and wounds.
Over the years, a big part of my own growth has been learning to meet this reality with care and humility; I continue to do the work to make my presence as safe and grounded as possible. My commitment is to create a container where you can show up as you are, give me feedback and when there are moments of discomfort, I will recognize them as opportunities for learning.
If you have a complex or painful history with men, it’s completely understandable if the idea of working with a male-identifying therapist feels like a big leap. Your sense of safety is integral, and if that leap brings up fear and activation in you that is overwhelming then perhaps having me as a counsellor isn’t worth the risk. However, if you feel some clear activation, there can be real power in working through your discomfort directly with a man who is attuned, committed, and trained to hold those tensions with you. I offer free consultations for exactly this reason: to give you an opportunity to feel things out, and see if they are right for you.
Relationships and Non-Monogamy
Relationships are central to what it means to be human. They shape us, challenge us, and offer some of the most powerful opportunities for healing and growth. I believe that every connection - whether romantic, platonic, familial, or something unnamed - carries the potential to transform us if we meet it with honesty, curiosity, and care. I hold a deep respect for the diverse forms relationships can take. In my work, I invite my clients to imagine ways of relating that are rooted not in obligation or default scripts, but in genuine choice and mutual thriving.
I also work from the understanding that love, intimacy, and connection are not limited resources to be rationed. In all intentional relationships, such as in consensual non-monogamy, the emphasis is not on fitting into a model, but on nurturing the unique aliveness of each bond. Relationships can be activating - surfacing fears, patterns, and longings - but it is precisely through this activation that we have the chance to heal old wounds and forge new ways of being. I support people in building relationships that are anchored in consent, autonomy, and deep respect, trusting that these foundations can sustain more freedom and more intimacy, not less.
Power Dynamics
Power is everywhere. In everything we relate with, there are power dynamics. Nowhere is this more acute than our personal and societal relationships, where power imbalance can create conditions of coercion, exploitation, and oppression. But power imbalance isn’t inherently oppressive and harmful. Power dynamics can be fun, exciting, edgy, and rewarding when communication, consent, and ethical practices are in place. For example, Kink and BDSM are ways that one can create a container for safely exploring power imbalances and teasing apart the ways that power works in our lives. In the real world, who is in power blends in with love, sex, finances, health, etc. Entering into curated spaces in which you are, by choice, empowered or disempowered, can make power really clear, easier to play with, and give us insight into how it plays out in our day-to-day lives. It can show us sides of ourselves we had never acknowledged or noticed before, and help us feel empowered in a world bent on dominating us.
All of these perspectives and ideas are welcome in my practice, as we discuss what power dynamics feel safe, exciting, edgy, or unacceptable to you and how you might communicate that learning in your life.
Sexual Liberation
2SLGBTQIA+ experiences
Being queer has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. It broke open the structures I was taught to accept and invited me into a deeper, freer way of being with myself and with the world. Queerness showed me that real liberation begins within - not through conformity, but through honest self-discovery. This process has been long, messy, and ongoing, and I hold deep gratitude for the ways it has shaped me. As a counsellor, I offer others the same space for courageous exploration and growth.
While self-discovery is part of any meaningful life, for queer people, it is often a matter of survival. We are asked to sort through expectations and assumptions just to find our own truth. Healing, for me, is not about fixing brokenness but about reclaiming our right to belong and to live authentically. In my practice, I honour the strength it takes to walk this path and offer my support to those who choose it.
As a final note, I offer a special welcome to those on the asexual spectrum, and to those who are questioning or curious. Too often, in queer, polyamorous, and alternative spaces, sexuality is still expected to fit within narrow boxes. Your experiences are valid, whether or not they fit those expectations. There is space here for all of who you are.
Sex Work
Sex work is work. Like any other form of labour, it involves a complex web of cultural expectations, risks, interpersonal dynamics, and, at times, injury or exploitation. Yet few other forms of work are so burdened by shame, stigma, criminalization, and moral panic. I approach this reality with a sex-positive perspective that recognizes the full humanity of sex workers — their agency, creativity, resilience, and wisdom. Sex work can be deeply empowering for workers, offering autonomy, community, financial independence, and a way to reclaim narratives around desire and care. It can also be profoundly meaningful for clients, providing connection, healing, exploration, and intimacy in a world that often isolates and pathologizes.
At the same time, I don't romanticize the systemic forces that harm sex workers: legal persecution, social stigma, violence, and economic instability all take real tolls. I hold space for both the beauty and the difficulty, without forcing either into a narrow story. I view sex work as one of many valid and legitimate ways that people seek meaning, survival, connection, and livelihood.
How I Work
So, you’ve gathered the guts to put yourself out there and find a counsellor. You’ve decided something needs to change, and brute force just isn’t cutting it. You’ve filled out intakes, and reviewed websites, and discussed your needs with someone, you pick a counsellor, and let’s say you end up with me.
I welcome you into the room (IRL, or virtually), we exchange some pleasantries, go over consent and confidentiality, review your intake briefly, and when that moment passes, the next moment drags on. The air in the room gets thick with anticipation. We both wonder, “Who is this person? What should I say? What’s going to happen next?”
My job is to hold space, to witness, to be curious about what is alive for you in the moment, and to gently confront whatever is holding you back from the moment, and so these moments of action and reaction are the key parts of our work together. In such a fast paced world, we often miss these contractions, hesitations, and anxieties, so that we can meet deadlines, get the kids to school on time, and just get through the day. However, I will never ask you to “hurry up.” If anything, I’ll ask you to stay with whatever you’re experiencing, to give it the time it needs instead of ricocheting off to the next thing.
This is your time, and your space. However you show up - whether with clear goals, a lot of uncertainty, or somewhere in between - we start from there. You don’t need to have the right words or a polished story. There’s no rush and no expectation to be anything other than exactly where you are. Our work is to stay with whatever comes up, at a pace that respects your process, and to see what unfolds from there.