Empowerment center
good nature
Beyond the common triggers for depression in society, when you add a marginalized or vulnerable identity into a person’s experience, it increases the chances of depression significantly.
Professor Ken Hardy (in relation to racial identity, but the point still stands with the queer community, especially in relation to Queer People of Color) has a concept of the “assaulted sense of self”, which refers to negative views towards oneself due to society discriminating against and marginalizing people within your identity group(s).
This experience can lead to internalized queerphobias, which is the belief that something is inherently wrong with you for being queer because that’s what your environment has been telling you. For queer individual who grow up in queerphobic households, communities, states, or see the discrimination towards other queer people in different places, it can take a huge toll on overall wellbeing and very understandably fuel depression. Humans aren’t meant to live in a way that denies them the ability to authentically express themselves.
We see healing through a holistic lens, with a lot of different mind / body factors at play. We can help you to explore your experience, engage in trauma healing, and find coping skills that can help you on your path of releasing depression.
However, depression is a mind / body experience that can also be inflamed by medical and physical health experiences. If you have experiences like hormone imbalances, substance use, or dietary concerns we may encourage you connect with your primary care doctor, a nutritionist, a psychiatrist, or another type of professional to help you in ways that are outside of a therapist’s scope of practice. If you would like us to be able to collaborate with that other professional to help you, you can sign a release form that allows us to communicate with them!