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MN LGBT Therapists Network News
June 2016
vol. IX, Issue 2
Celebrating 28+ years of MN LGBTQIP2SA
Mental Health Networking & Training
The Latest
LGBT Therapists Pride Booth
June 25 & 26 - Loring Park - Minneapolis
We'll be there again. Consider volunteering to help staff our table. Invite your therapist friends to help out, too.
- It’s fun!
- Share info about our online resource directory and organization
- Network with other LGBT Therapists members
- Bring your business cards and brochures to display on the table
- Recruit new LGBT Therapists members
- Support the LGBT Therapists network
- People watch ;-)
Shifts will go fast - some have already been filled by early birds! Last year we had more volunteers than shifts! Volunteer for shifts on Saturday or Sunday:
8:30 - 10am
10am - noon
noon - 2pm
2-4pm
4-6pm
We would like 2-3 people/shift. For more information and to reserve a shift, email Bobby Reis.
Thank you in advance to all of our volunteers.If you're not volunteering with us, make sure you stop by to say hello!
 Pride Twin Cities' Response to Orlando:
Our hearts are heavy with grief remembering the 49 people killed and 53 injured in Orlando Sunday morning. This senseless tragedy unfolded while members of our LGBT family were dancing and celebrating life. It has affected us all deeply and Twin Cities Pride is working diligently to ensure that our 2016 events are safe and provide a space for the LGBT community from across the region to come together as family; to love, to heal, to educate--and, yes--to celebrate.
Retreating out of fear is natural instinct--but we must not let fear keep us from dancing. Love will always triumph over hate. For those concerned about safety at this year's Pride festivities, please be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you safe. We are ramping up our efforts with local and national law enforcement to review and bolster our existing security measures, and we're planning to make security at Pride more visible and accessible.
Additionally, Twin Cities Pride is working through plans for paying tribute to the victims of this horrific crime. We will share details of these memorials as soon as they are finalized, so that you may participate in a way that is meaningful for you.
As always, we look forward to celebrating with you during the festival,
June 24-26. Let us come together in strength and solidarity with our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community to support the victims of this tragedy, to seek justice, and yes...to dance.
Yours in Pride, Dot Belstler, Executive Director
 LGBT Therapists presents:
The Ripple Effects of Orlando: We LGBTQ Therapists Need to Take Care of Ourselves, Too: A Discussion for LGBTQ Mental Health Providers
Sponsored by the MN LGBTQ Therapists Network
Friday, July 22 from 1:30-3:30pm
Walker Community UMC – 3104 16th Avenue South – Minneapolis 55407
Free to any LGBTQ mental health provider, whether you are a member of The MN LGBTQ Therapist Network or not
Lenny Hayes and Irene Greene will help facilitate the casual round table conversations. (This is not a "workshop" and it is not for CEUs.)
– formal registration required –
Discussion topics:
- How is Orlando impacting us personally and in our work with our clients? (i.e., our clinical work with our LGBTQIAP2S clients and our non-queer clients)
- What is oppression fatigue and what is compassion fatigue?
- Ideas on how to prevent our compassion fatigue while managing our oppression fatigue
For many of us who are LGBTQIAP2S mental health providers, the first weeks since "Orlando" have been intensely emotionally and psychologically draining. We have been raw with our own pain from Sunday, June 12, 2016 and the subsequent political, religious and social macro and micro-aggressions. Orlando epitomizes the day-in and day-out personal and collective violence, discrimination, erasure and injustices of homo-hatred, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and transphobia that we in the queer and queer POC communities face each day. We are all dealing with varying degrees of oppression fatigue.
And yet, as therapists, we have showed up and done our work of listening empathetically to the PTSD, grief, fear and anger of our LGBTQIAP2S clients, and equally attended to the therapeutic needs of our non-queer clients - who may or may not have even mentioned Orlando.
This parallel process, clinical hour after clinical hour, naturally takes a toll on us. Compassion fatigue is already a common "hazard" of our job as mental health providers. It is exponentially more likely and more harmful when it is exacerbated by an event that strikes deeply in our own communities.
Compassion fatigue born of oppression fatigue succinctly illustrates the natural intersections of "the professional, is the personal, is the political.”
"Taking our own advice and making our self-care a priority is imperative."
– Irene Greene, Chair MN LGBTQ Therapists Network Steering Committee
"I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival."
– Audre Lorde
We are going to cap this gathering, probably at about 20 people. If there is more interest, we will modify our plans; maybe have two simultaneous groups. We will be setting up a formal registration process next week. "Liking" this page does not automatically get you registered. (Though, please do it, as it helps us have a general sense of the interest for this event.)
If Allies (straight and cisgender therapists who are active allies of the LGBTQIAP2S communities and do or do not have queer clients) want to organize their own simultaneous gathering, you are welcome to do so. Some allies have said they would like a space to talk about their straight and cisgender privilege, how they can be more supportive to LGBTQ therapists and LGBTQ people in general, and more supportive to their LGBTQ clients. There's probably other issues, too.
We have reserved enough space at Walker for this to happen. Contact me (Irene) and we can coordinate the schedules, amend this event page, share information, etc. I started to organize a Allies part of the event, and after talking with 3 straight and cisgender therapists who couldn't do it, I let it go and put my energy back into the LGBTQ therapist event. I think it would be great if there was an ally event, also.
Questions or comments to Irene Greene at: MNLGBTtherapists@gmail.com
LGBT Therapists Network Updates
We are touching up some of the language that represents our organization.
(1) To the alphabet soup of our wider community, we have added in the following terms: asexual, pansexual, and two-spirit.
(2) Our tagline now reads, "Celebrating 28+ years of MN LGBTQIP2SA Mental Health Networking & Training".
(3) Being primarily a white, cisgender middle-class, metro-based LGBT and Q organization, we work to acknowledge our bias and privileges. We are committed to steps that expand our awareness towards diversity and that build inclusive bridges between our communities. See our About Us page to read even more about our evolution.
(4) The mission statement is now "MN LGBT Therapists Network is a network of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit, and asexual affirming mental health and social service workers and their allies in Minnesota (MN). The goals of the network are: To provide an opportunity for professional and social support, to exchange resources and referral ideas, to provide continuing education, and to affirm the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit, asexual, and allied communities."
RECLAIM! - Hiring Full-Time Therapist
LGBT Therapists member RECLAIM!
"We currently serve about 40% youth of color and 75% transgender youth, the majority from the Twin Cities metro area. The Full-Time Therapist is a licensed and credentialed professional who is not only passionate about the mission and values of RECLAIM but can clearly speak about queer and trans issues with youth, families (given or chosen), and colleagues practically. The primary interest of this role will be in supporting young people and their families around mental health needs with a focus on gender and sexuality and supporting entry level staff and social work interns in a supervisory role.
This therapist will be expected to participate in normal aspects of clinic functioning, including team meetings, documentation of clinical work, maintaining billing practices within RECLAIM’s ethical standards, and other responsibilities as assigned. It is possible that this role will support the ConneQT pilot."
full job description
Conferences
Beyond the Boxes II
 Three Cutting Edge Topics in LGBTQ Mental Health: Gender, Poly & Oppression Fatigue
One-day conference sponsored by:
The MN LGBTQ Therapists Network
~ go to detailed information & registration~
Format: Our mental health conference is unique because it intertwines clinical with personal with political. Each topic will be presented in two+ hour workshop blocks and is comprised of one presenter and 3-4 panelists. Each speaker is a mental health professional AND has personal lived experience with the topic. Each workshop will offer definitions, address assumptions, discuss clinical issues, and outline the best practices that are unique to the topic.
- Session I: 8:30-11:30am Gender Fluidity and Transgender Issues
- Session II: 12:30-2:45pm Polyamory and Open Relationships
- Session III: 3:00-5:30pm Oppression and Compassion Fatigue for LGBTQIP2SA* Mental Health Providers
*LGBTQIP2SAA Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer & Questioning, Intersex, Pansexual, Two-Spirit, Asexual & Allies // More detailed updates about the speakers and presenters will be posted here by July 31.
CEU's and lunch available.
Note: Register early. We do anticipate selling out. Before we had even made our ticket sales “live,” we already had waiting list reservations for ¼ of the spots available. Walker Church has capacity for only 160 participants.
Volunteers are needed (and very much appreciated) before the conference and the day of the conference. To learn more about volunteer duties, contact the Volunteer Chair: Christy Schick
Note: People who volunteer for fewer than 20 hours will need to pay for their own registration, CEUs and lunches. If you want to receive conference CEUs, you need to volunteer for duties that do not occur during the actual conference hours. Tell Christy this information when you contact her. These slots are limited.
~ go to detailed information & registration ~
Conference Planning Committee Membership:
- Program & Committee Chair: Irene Greene
- Treasurer: Bobby "Robert" Reis II
- Registration Chair: Kelsey Scampoli
- CEU Chair: Susan Eckfeldt
- Space Chair: Christine Broughten
- Resource Chair: Kate Jalma
- Volunteer Chair: Christy Schick
Steering Committee Membership:
- Chair: Irene Greene
- Treasurer: Bobby "Robert" Reis II
- Co-chairs of Membership Committee: Kelsey Scampoli and Mary Anna Palmer
- Twin Ports Representative: Tamilyn White
- Mindy Benowitz – on leave
Gender Odyssey Conference
August 3-4 / 4-7, 2016 WA Convention Center, Seattle, WA
Professional/Provider Pre-Institute: For Students and Professionals
GO Professional Seminar, Gender Odyssey Professional conference (GO Pro) Aug 3-4, 2016 For professionals or students seeking to advance their understanding and knowledge of gender variance and transgender identities. A two-day conference that serves as a prelude to Gender Odyssey or as stand-alone conference.
For Adults and Teens: Gender Odyssey 2016: August 4-7
Gender Odyssey is an international conference focused on the needs and interests of transgender and gender non-conforming people.
For Families and Kids: Gender Odyssey Family 2016: August 4-7
Gender Odyssey Family is an annual conference for families who are working to navigate the day-to-day realities of raising a gender non-conforming or transgender child.
http://www.genderdiversity.org/gopro/
ALGBTIC 2nd Annual Conference: Empowering Through Unity
2nd Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX
September 16-17, 2016
ALGBTIC: Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Issues in Counseling: A Division of the American Counseling Association
more info and tickets
Research
The Minnesota Transgender Aging Study
Serving MN Transgender Older Adults: Please consider taking a brief (2 - 5 minute) survey about care/service provision to transgender older adults. Dr. Abel Knochel (University of Minnesota Duluth) and Dylan Flunker (Rainbow Health Initiative) are conducting this study.
take the survey
The Minnesota Transgender Aging Study is funded in part by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of the Minnesota. We seek to understand where transgender older adults receive care, to locate gaps in that care, and to identify what you need in order to better serve this population.
Dr. Abel Knochel, University of Minnesota Duluth aknochel@d.umn.edu
Dylan Flunker, Rainbow Health Initiative agingproject@rainbowhealth.org
Self-Disclosure in Therapy
Recruitment for participation in a study on sexual orientation disclosure The following is a study that aims to further the understanding of self-disclosure in therapy. The factors that go into the decision making process of disclosing sexual orientation to clients have been identified in existing research; however, the degree of importance of each factor have not been determined and the cost of concealment has not been determined when a therapist decides to not disclose his sexual orientation. The eligibility criteria are as follows:
Must be a gay identified male
Must be out to most friends and family for a minimum of three years
Must be a doctorate level psychologist
Must be working in the field for a minimum of three years
If you are interested in participating in this study, please refer to the informed consent (at the beginning of the survey) for participation eligibility and further discussion on the details of the study. Thank you for your consideration to participate,
Researcher: John Gatermann Doctoral Candidate
MSPP at Argosy University
Jgater5377@stu.argosy.edu (636) 248-8031
CRP Chair: Mark Carlson-Ghost, Ph.D., L.P.
Mcarlson-ghost@argosy.edu (651) 286-7970
Begin Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V96NXJ6
Community Resources MNsure and Health Insurance Basics – LGBTQ Populations
In late 2015 NAMI Minnesota received another MNsure grant to help people with mental illnesses and their family members obtain health insurance. In addition, NAMI Minnesota is working to educate individuals, including LGBTQ populations, on how insurance works and how to utilize the benefits offered. Two fact sheets on health insurance basics have been written: Key Terms to Know and Differences Between Primary and Emergency Care. These can be ordered on request. Presentations are also being offered on these topics.
NAMI Minnesota is also working to educate people on the differences between primary and emergency care, and what typically happens when you go to each type of provider. The hope is that people will be more informed of their health care options and feel ownership of the health care choices they make. To sign up through MNsure, if you would like a presentation on health insurance basics, or if you would like to request copies of the health insurance basics fact sheets, please contact NAMI Minnesota’s MNsure Project Coordinator, Dara Larson, at dlarson@namimn.org, or call 651-645-2948, ext. 117.
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