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July is LGBTQIA Empowerment Month! Each week we sit down with one of our practitioners to discuss topics of interest in the health & wellness industry. Angela Shuey joins us this week!  About Angela: I believe that through the power of a trusting and compassionate relationship, a person can grow and flourish in ways never thought imaginable.  What aspects of your practice do you believe relate in particular to LGBTQIA Empowerment? Similar to the author of the article below, I too am a therapist on the spectrum who agrees with the notion that silence breeds danger. I have been fortunate to work with many individuals who were looking to be more genuine with their identity. I urge anyone who feels that they need to break the silence within themselves to make an appointment with me, Angela Shuey of Connection Counseling Center. In counseling you can learn how to love what is within and help bring those parts to the surface." What are three health & wellness tips that you'd recommend for LGBTQIA empowerment?  Tips to Self-Love: Surround yourself with like-minded individuals. Be curious to yourself with loving compassion. Ask questions when you don't know the answers. Any articles or resources that you find valuable for LGBTQIA empowerment that you'd like to share? Silence Is Killing Your LGBT Relatives By Mark O’Connell, L.C.S.W.-R. LGBT Pride Month 2016 will always be remembered for the worst mass shooting in American history to date, one which took 49 lives at an Orlando, Florida, gay club June 12. Yet in the past week, I have spoken with too many queer people whose families did not reach out to them at all, not even to simply ask,"How are you?" or say, "I love you and I'm thinking of you." Too many. (And of note, some of them hadn't heard from family during last year's historic pride month either, when marriage equality became a national reality and there was cause for celebration rather than mourning). As a psychotherapist and a queer person, I must say that such silences are killing us. Silence has been the greatest threat to queer lives throughout history. Homosexuality was pathologized and criminalized in the early 20th century, and it would take decades of suffering in the closet and enduring "witch hunts" before the Stonewall riots of 1969 busted open the doors of LGBT identities, leading to the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness and the pursuit of civil rights across the country. But in the 1980s, the lethal plague of silence struck again, when the Reagan administration's disavowal of the AIDS crisis led to the deaths of tens of thousands of gay men. In response, founders of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP introduced the image: SILENCE = DEATH. Read more here... We're so grateful to Angela for sharing this valuable information for LGBTQIA Empowerment Month and for being a valued member of Tribe.
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