LGBTQ and Mental Health
These are the many reasons why an LGBT mental health counselor is needed. Nontraditional queer romantic or sexual relationships also experience erasure, invisibility, and prejudice from the heteronormative society. It becomes difficult for queer couples to find a therapist who is affirmative and understands the impact of the dominant heteronormativity and its pressures. Center for Mental Health provides affirmative lgbt couples counseling.
It is important to acknowledge that being LGBTQ does not automatically indicate mental illness. However, as a result of being part of a minority group, stressful experiences lead to an increased risk of mental illness and mental health concerns for LGBTQ people, and they are at a higher risk of mental health problems like depression, suicide, anxiety, substance abuse, and PTSD.
Recent research has shown that there is a huge gap between their mental health struggles and their help-seeking behavior. Those who do seek help state that they face further discrimination and invalidation of feelings from Mental Health Professionals and are often subjected to illegal “conversion therapy” to reintegrate back into societal norms, harsh language, and even erasure of experiences. This tends to discourage any further help-seeking behavior and results in further deterioration of mental health.
The team from the Center for Mental Health recognizes the importance of taking into account minority stress, unique life stressors, life course, intersectionality, and social ecology for a more complete understanding of LGBTQ mental health needs. It is with this objective that the Mental Health Professionals at the Center for Mental Health took it upon themselves to get trained and certified in Queer Affirmative Counselling Practices from an esteemed organization (Mariwala Health Initiative).
CMH – A Queer Affirmative Counseling Center
The Center for Mental Health is proud to be one of the few mental health Centers in India that offer LGBTQ counselling by LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy trained Mental Health professionals. By engaging with and providing adept services for the LGBTQ community, we acknowledge and strive to be more than just queer or LGBTQ-friendly therapists. Mental health professionals must understand the unique life stressors that members of the LGBTQ community face, either as individuals or couples.
Our clinical and counseling psychologists have taken intensive training and are certified in Queer Affirmative Counselling practices by the Mariwala Health Initiative. Our training involved understanding the history and need for queer affirmative therapy and understanding the unique life stressors, issues, and concerns of gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgender, nonbinary, and queer clients. We have learned to look at and administer traditional therapies from a queer affirmative lens. In this intensive training, we as LGBTQ therapists have also gained insight into intimate relationships, chosen families, issues with and the impact of biological families.
What is LGBTQ affirmative therapy or Queer Affirmative Counselling?
Why is Queer or LGBTQ Affirmative Therapy necessary?
Individuals who identify as LGBTQ face constant discrimination, oppression, and marginalization. The traditional conditioning of society often causes harm to the sense of self of a queer individual by rejecting and ‘othering’ them.
Counseling for LGBTQ individuals can provide support for sexual and/or gender identity issues that can be distressing. LGBTQ counseling involves understanding that there are unique life stressors that are specific to the community and individual in addition to the stressors of daily living. The unique life stressors can stem from the discrimination and lack of acceptance that is faced in almost every sphere of their lives.
