Practitioner record · Checked 9 Oct 2026
Dr. Charles Hoy-Ellis has been in practice 21 years and is licensed in Washington. Dr. lists stress, Anxiety, LGBT and trauma and abuse among 8 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.
Everything below is either quoted from Dr.'s own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.
01 · Who Dr. works with
Dr. lists 4 specialisms and 4 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Dr. chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.
02 · In Dr.'s own words
Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.
I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) and a Certified Sexual Minority Specialist based in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. I have more than 20 years’ experience providing psychotherapeutic services in both community and private practice settings. I work primarily with sexual and gender diverse communities, often referred to as LGBTQ2SIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, 2-Spirit, intersex, asexual, and others who do not identify as hetero and/or cisnormative. My clinical practice is informed by the research I have been involved with more than 20 years that examines how larger social structures, such as heterosexism “get under our skin” to influence mental and physical health processes and outcomes among historically marginalized and underserved communities. I also have significant experience and am comfortable in addressing issues and challenges (separately and/or intertwined) that may be important in clients’ lives, such as kink, polyamory, and growing older.
My foundational perspective is psychodynamic and phenomenological – a way of understanding that things we think, feel, and do are often adaptive in our previous experiences of being human, such as (& not limited to) growing up and coming of age, and our interpersonal relationships. It suggests that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are shaped by unconscious motives and conflicts, often stemming from past experiences, particularly those in early childhood. Central to this perspective is that it is not what we experienced that shapes our beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world, but the meaning(s) we create to make sense of those experiences. This perspective also focuses on how these hidden forces interact with one another to affect our mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
My master’s is in “clinical/contextual” practice. This means that I see the psychological challenges that people experience, such as ‘depression’ are almost always deeply connected to the social environment, past, present, and anticipated futures. For example, it has not been atypical that sexual and gender diverse who present with issues around depression and anxiety uncover that they may have unresolved internalized stigma related to their sexual and gender identities and orientations. It would be surprising if it weren’t because of the intense, ongoing socialization processes that we experience on an ongoing basis that often begin even before birth, for example, ‘girls are emotional, nurturing, and caring,’ while ‘boys are tough and don’t cry.’ When we violated those heteronormative, gender-normed (and made-up) behaviors we were punished – when we ‘stayed within the lines’ we were rewarded. The challenge – and the opportunity is that the behavioral repertoires we developed earlier in life (a metaphorical parka) to protect ourselves sink below our conscious awareness (become invisible) and are no longer protective. The metaphorical parka in Antarctica is good, that same parka in the Sahara – not so much….
While grounded in psychodynamics, I also have a wide variety of tools that I bring into the therapeutic relationship, including (but not limited to) cognitive behavioral, narrative, and rational-emotive-behavioral practices. Neither one tool nor one size fits all. A core worldview that I hold is that every person is the absolute expert on their own individual lives; I have expertise in understanding some of the general processes of human behavior in the social environment. I see my job as ‘walking with’ clients for a brief time to mutually explore not “what’s wrong with you,” but rather “what happened to you?”
Lao Tze is credited with the saying that "the longest journey starts with a single step." When you are ready to take that first single step on your next journey, I am more than happy to walk with you.
Dr. Charles Hoy-Ellis, on the BetterHelp listing · read 9 Oct 2026
03 · What happens next
Dr. practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of Dr.'s own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.
BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking Dr. at this point.
BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Dr. is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to Dr..
You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.
A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.
Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.
04 · Before you commit
Built from what Dr. actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not Dr.'s - Dr. has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.
“How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”
Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.
“With 21 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”
Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.
“How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”
On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.
05 · Practical details
06 · Provenance
Dr.'s name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 9 Oct 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.
The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.
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