Center Blog

Guest Post by Client who participates in the Center’s Skills For Emotional Health Group

Skills For Emotional Health is an all-gender interactive support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-identified people to discuss personal emotional challenges and to develop skills for managing these issues. Challenges include experiences of anxiety, depression, excessive self-criticism, recurring distressing thoughts, and other mental health concerns. Members are encouraged to share successful coping strategies, develop non-judgmental self-acceptance, and strengthen support networks.

For many emotionally challenged LGBT people there is a belief that there is no “safe haven.” Fears, depression and anxiety rule our lives and we wonder if we will ever be able to relate to others.

Far too many of us are seeing professionals, but the sensation of being isolated, alone and owning our depression and negative feelings about ourselves, as if we deserve this self-loathing. Outside sources such as family and religion, are more often than not, major contributors to our negative self-image and it seems there is nowhere to turn.

We have been programmed into a mind-set that “our kind” are freaks and have been punished by factors at home, in society, or both. We have often been brain-washed into self-hatred by parents or siblings,  peers, religion, and society at large, or combinations of all of these factors.

The Center group “Skills For Emotional Health” offers an unique alternative to such negativity. This is not a replacement for one-on-one therapy, but it is a positive group environment, where we can express our deepest feelings that prevent us from being the person we wish to be. It is a place where we can voice and/or vent our frustrations, fears, anxiety and self-loathing in a warm, supportive and self-affirming atmosphere.

There are no quick cures, but we are all on a journey of self-discovery and hope. Nothing good comes easily or fast, but here, we can be ourselves with others of similar experience and begin the healing process in a guided and supervised setting. No judgments, no criticism, no harsh words; only our peers, all going through this process together and for many, for the very first time ever.

Those who participate in this group learn that we can understand and face our own demons, and we can begin to defuse and disarm those gremlins of the past that still hold sway over us and eventually send them packing. There are no guarantees in life, but group therapy is one way we can find support and insights into this long, dark tunnel, towards that glimmer of hope and light up ahead.