The second half is still yours to shape
Therapy for gay men in the second half of life.
Depression, anxiety, grief, serious illness — and the question of what comes next.
In San Diego and online across California.
You don't have to have the words for it.
Maybe something happened — a serious diagnosis, a loss, retirement, or a relationship that isn't working the way it once did.
Or maybe nothing happened, and that's what's strange: your life looks fine from the outside, and still the joy has gone out of it — the flatness, the worry humming under ordinary days.
Whichever it is, what you're feeling is real. It isn't weakness, and it isn't just what this age feels like. This is worth talking to someone about.
My Specialties
Depression & Anxiety
The 3 a.m. dread, the days that all feel the same, the effort it takes to seem fine.
These are treatable, and you don't have to accept them as the cost of getting older.
Living With Illness
Cancer, heart disease, dementia, a new diagnosis, or a condition you've managed for years.
Your medical appointments cover the illness. They don't cover the fear, the anger, or the strain on the people around you.
Living With HIV
Long-term survival, aging with HIV, what it does to intimacy.
I lived through the same years you did. You won't have to explain them to me.
For Partners
When the person you love is ill, it changes things for you, too.
A place to be honest about the exhaustion, the resentment, and the grief you're not supposed to be having yet.
A different kind of therapy
This is a small private practice for gay men in the second half of life. Men come here with depression that showed up late, a marriage or partnership that doesn't feel like one anymore, a retirement they don't know what to do with, or an illness that has turned everything upside down.
That last one is where men usually have trouble finding someone. Most therapists do one or the other: they work with gay men, or they work with people who are seriously ill. Bob has spent his career doing both. So if you're facing something serious, you won't have to start by explaining it — he already understands what you're up against.
— The practical details
About the practice
Bob Basque, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice, working with gay men in the second half of life. Sessions are held in person at his office in San Diego's Bankers Hill neighborhood, or by video anywhere in California.
He works with depression and anxiety, serious and chronic illness, living with HIV, grief and loss, caregiving, and alcohol use — individually and with partners.
Bob is in network with traditional Medicare, UnitedHealthcare / Optum, Aetna, and Anthem Blue Cross and bills those plans directly. Medicare Advantage plans vary, and some allow out-of-network care. All other plans are private pay, with out-of-network claims filed through Mentaya, an insurance billing service.
I'm Bob Basque, LCSW
I'm a member of the generation I work with.
I came of age during the AIDS crisis. I watched friends die. I went to therapy because I needed help and knew it.
It's why I became a psychotherapist — and why this practice belongs to gay men navigating the second half of life.
You don’t have to have the right words.
You don’t have to be “ready.”
If something in you knows you don’t want to go through this alone, that’s enough.
What Bob's fellow therapists say about him…
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“Clients sing Bob's praises; he is direct, empathetic, and knows his stuff!”
—Judy, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
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“Bob creates a safe and nurturing therapeutic environment with his wonderful blend of empathy, insight, and professionalism. You're in great hands!”
—Rusty, Family Therapist
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“Bob is a brilliant therapist. He understands the clients’ experience well. Bob’s talents for facilitating solid therapeutic relationships with clients are nothing short of exceptional.”
—David, Psychotherapist