Don Nocon

My name is Don Nocon. I am a gay, Filipino-American who was raised in a traditional Pentecostal home. After two years of college, I felt guided into ministry. At this point, I was ten years into my twenty-year struggle of trying to be straight (spoiler alert- it didn’t work).

Having grown up in my family’s denomination, I had been serving since I was sixteen. Along with my two siblings, I attended the same Bible college and we all became pastors/ministers. The second decade of my fight to become straight included more expressions of my true nature. I heard God himself/herself/themselves call me out of the closet and I have never looked back.

In this time, I survived two stints of reparative therapy and the Church’s only answer to the homosexual issue – same-sex attraction/addiction. I left the ministry and floundered in careers that did not fit me. At the age of 34, I met my atheist husband, a psychotherapist as well, who was divinely used to bring me back to what I should have been doing all along – therapy. Sadly and tragically he died in 2020, but my story doesn’t end there as I am now partnered with a wonderful man.

I have two BAs: one in biblical studies/pastoral care (LIFE Pacific University) and the other in liberal studies (Azusa Pacific University). My master’s is in counseling psychology and from Pacifica Graduate Institute. I have been practicing since 2018 and am educated in the depth perspective. I am also particularly at home in relational Gestalt which builds on the co-created relationship experienced in the room. I have an imaginative approach as I invite the client to be fully themselves.

I am licensed in California (LMFT #138346). I am certified as a Brainspotter which is a trauma modality. I am also certified as a sex addiction therapist (CSAT-c, complete in April ’23). I love, love, love working with couples and the LGBTQ community is central to who I am as a person and therapist.

I am you, in all facets of the gay Christian experience. My other loves are cooking, visual arts, and swimming and of course spending time with my partner.