"I have a Queery about...Mental Health" ft. Erica Woodland

"What are specific mental health challenges queer people deal with?" "How can we cope?" "How is the field of social work broken?" "How can we, as a community, take care of each other?"

On this final interview of Season 2, I interview healing justice practitioner, licensed clinical social workers and founder and executive director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network, Erica Woodland (he/him). Erica and I get into discuss journey of taking care of our mental health and that specific journey for queer people and the challenges we face. Erica shares how he knew form a very young age he wanted to of service to his communities in some capacity. he felt responsible because of the support he got and because he wanted to help correct a system that isn't set up for black folks to succeed. It was through his journey of unlearning outside of his formal schooling, which was taught through a white, cis, heterosexual, ableist lens and recognizing the need to center healing in the journey to repair the relationship between the medical field and Black and Indigenous folks, that led him to see the need for a resource that connected queer and trans folks of color to practitioners in their community. This resource being the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network. In addition to talking about the creation of NQTTCN, Erica shares his own approach to mental health in his practice and with his clients, and we discuss the idea of meaning making and understanding generational trauma, de-centering therapy as the only form of healing, the impact of this past year on all of our mental states, and what we can do moving forward to heal ourselves, community, and world.

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Organization of the Week: NQTTCN
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Show Produced by Nick Eibler

Co-Produced/Edited by Addison McKissack

Theme Song written by Matt Gregory, Colin Egan, and Mike Hubbard 
Produced by Colin Egan and Mike Hubbard

Logo Design by David Pavón