SF Therapy Collective

A JOINT MESSAGE FROM SF THERAPY COLLECTIVE AND QUEER LIFESPACE. We are living in unprecedented times. Our country is riding the wave of a devastating pandemic while witnessing the explosion of frustration and grief due to years of systemic oppression, racism, and widespread prejudice against the American black community. The President, instead of attempting to calm the fires of dissent, has instead inflamed them and provoked conservative extremists and law enforcement to vi...olently engage with peaceful activists. All the while citizens are still ordered to remain in their homes for quarantine measures and follow the evening curfews recently enacted in many cities across the country. At the beginning of 2020, all of us in the queer community looked forward to another June of Pride celebrations including parades, festivals, and parties. But now the focus must change. Let us not forget that Pride began with a riot. It began with people fed up with prejudice, unfair laws, and bigotry. Our forefathers and foremothers took to the streets to raise their collective voices in opposition to the tyrannical laws of America that denied them what so many others took for granted. Now is the time for us to examine how we can be a part of this new wave in history. Now is the time for us to raise our voices with the Black Lives Matter movement and support our brothers and sisters, trans brothers and trans sisters, as they struggle against a system that has resisted them for hundreds of years. To be silent is to be complicit. We have a presence in the Bay Area queer community. We have a presence as being a place of welcome and warmth for those seeking refuge from the slings and arrows of trauma, both societal and personal. Let us continue to be this crucial presence. Let us ally ourselves with our POC sisters and brothers, our QPOC brethren, and anyone who desires to see the end of racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, classism, and xenophobia in this country and the world. We are strong. We are united. We have a voice. Let us share it. http://www.queerlifespace.org

"The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) communities have experienced increased anxiety and depression since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those who haven’t struggled with these conditions before, according to researchers at UC San Francisco." Scott Maier

Oppression itself makes us sick. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to treat mental health issues as solely residing in the individual." Aida Manduley, LCSW. Ttrauma-focused clinician and Latinx activist.

A JOINT MESSAGE FROM SF THERAPY COLLECTIVE AND QUEER LIFESPACE. We are living in unprecedented times. Our country is riding the wave of a devastating pandemic while witnessing the explosion of frustration and grief due to years of systemic oppression, racism, and widespread prejudice against the American black community. The President, instead of attempting to calm the fires of dissent, has instead inflamed them and provoked conservative extremists and law enforcement to vi...olently engage with peaceful activists. All the while citizens are still ordered to remain in their homes for quarantine measures and follow the evening curfews recently enacted in many cities across the country. At the beginning of 2020, all of us in the queer community looked forward to another June of Pride celebrations including parades, festivals, and parties. But now the focus must change. Let us not forget that Pride began with a riot. It began with people fed up with prejudice, unfair laws, and bigotry. Our forefathers and foremothers took to the streets to raise their collective voices in opposition to the tyrannical laws of America that denied them what so many others took for granted. Now is the time for us to examine how we can be a part of this new wave in history. Now is the time for us to raise our voices with the Black Lives Matter movement and support our brothers and sisters, trans brothers and trans sisters, as they struggle against a system that has resisted them for hundreds of years. To be silent is to be complicit. We have a presence in the Bay Area queer community. We have a presence as being a place of welcome and warmth for those seeking refuge from the slings and arrows of trauma, both societal and personal. Let us continue to be this crucial presence. Let us ally ourselves with our POC sisters and brothers, our QPOC brethren, and anyone who desires to see the end of racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, classism, and xenophobia in this country and the world. We are strong. We are united. We have a voice. Let us share it. http://www.queerlifespace.org

"June is Pride month, and the streets are full of protesters against police murder and for Black livesnever has the connection between queer and Black struggles for justice been more plain, even if the histories of both those struggles are very different." Marke B.

"Calling out history, that it was LGBQT+ individuals of color who essentially sparked the gay liberation movement in the 1960s, leaders from many of America’s most prominent LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups banned together to say, We understand what it means to rise up and push back against a culture that tells us we are less than, that our lives don't matter. Tony Morrison

#blackouttuesday

"Amid all this suffering, it can be hard to believe Audre Lorde when she said that caring for yourself is a form of self-preservation and, thus, an act of political warfare. But it is, and it matters. If you are feeling sad and overwhelmed and angry right now, here are some things you might do to get a tiny bit of relief." Rachel Miller

"Losing queer spaces exacerbates the stresses many were already facing before this." Katelyn Burns

"For everyone out there who is working remotely when normally they would go to an office and are really struggling with that balance, you need to know that you’re not failing." Gillian Sisley

Teletherapy is effective and can be much needed during this unprecedented time. The SF Therapy Collective stands ready to serve our community. For questions or to set up an online intake, please email Meredith Welch at [email protected] or leave a message on our intake line at: 415.659.8282102

"For many, the ability to be in contact with others and to be out in the world commuting to work, being at work, grabbing dinner with friends at your favorite taco joint, looking forward to seeing one of your favorite artists in concert on the weekend helps reduce our sense of disconnection, rumination and despair, which are all symptoms common and familiar to those of us who live with depression." Annie Wright

***Attention Post Graduate Therapist Interns! Join us on the next leg of your journey to becoming a licensed therapist while becoming part of an expanding group that has been proudly serving the local queer communities for the past 9 years. Currently, we are taking applications for post-graduate, license eligible (MFTI, ASW) clinical interns who are looking to gain hours toward licensure and can commit to at least 8-10 hours per week for a year to our agency. Those hours incl...ude at least 7 clinical hours and one hour of individual supervision. Additional opportunities to provide outreach to the community. A competitive stipend is provided to interns quarterly. We are now also interviewing for interns at our sister organization, Queer LifeSpace. Please use the contact below to for inquiring about Queer LifeSpace. SF Therapy Collective’s vision and goal is to serve our wonderfully diverse community. To accomplish this, it is imperative that we continue to work towards reflecting this diversity in our clinicians that work with our client base. Also, as part of our work towards serving our community and combatting the continued existence of employment discrimination and general lack of diversity within our mental health profession, SF Therapy Collective has chosen to be an equal opportunity/affirmative action organization. All interested individuals, especially those who identify as people of color, disabled, HIV+, transgender, gender variant, or gender non-conforming, are urged to apply. Please send a letter of interest and resume with references to Chris Holleran, MFT. Email: mailto:[email protected] or call 415-659-8282 ext. 125

"LGBTQ young people are already significantly more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. But according to researchers at San Francisco State University, rates of attempted suicide among LGBTQ youth more than double when parents try to change their sexual orientation. And those rates triple when parents and therapists and religious leaders try to do so." Colin Dwyer