Seal Dwyer, of Seal Dwyer Counseling, LLC, is a local therapist passionate about working with the LGBTQ community. Dwyer helps individuals explore their gender and sexuality through a transnational and intersectional feminist lens. Seal focuses on helping individuals identify trauma and working through resulting challenges. Her stance on body positivity is an important concept in a time where social media often leads people to negatively compare themselves with others. As a therapist and individual who has been out since 1994, she helps people be themselves by first being herself.  Seal is self-described as a queer, fat feminist who is gifted to help others empower their own identities. Dwyer knows a therapist cannot be with a client at all times, so she challenges her clients to work and grow in the limited time they have together.

Seal has partnered with St. Cloud Pride repeatedly and was a head speaker during a recent mental health panel at the St. Cloud Public Library. Here she shared that queer bodies live in frequent trauma as a result of society not completely accepting them. This is one reason why St. Cloud Pride cannot aim to spread acceptance and support for LGBTQ folks only on our own. Individuals like Seal Dwyer make that change every day within the St. Cloud community in so many important ways.

It is apparent that Seal’s energy and positive spirit are key factors in years of practicing therapy in her downtown St. Cloud office. In our interview with Seal, the word community was mentioned often, so we felt it was important to ask what community means to her. She says community is about love and care which are not simply verbs, but solid actions people do well by on a daily basis. Dwyer states not any one person is the same, but we can still come together and find commonality.