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Chicago Therapy Collective (CTC) promotes city-wide responsibility for alleviating minority mental health disparities, and provides personal and cultural change opportunities through therapy, training, activism and the arts.
CTC’s mission is rooted in the intimate awareness apparent in therapy and other psycho-social analytic traditions that the mental health struggles of LGBTQIA community members, especially QTBIPOC (Queer Trans Black Indigenous People of Color), are often the result of systemic, intersecting injustices that need attention beyond the therapy room and within the relationships, organizations and communities to which those QTBIPOC community members belong.
Complex systemic struggles such as the ones QTBIPOC community memebrs experience require multi-faceted interdisciplinary interventions and widespread support. Through therapy, training, activism and the arts, CTC strives to provide a creative path forward for improving minority mental health.
Since 2018, CTC has produced numerous art exhibitions, performance and storytelling nights, direct action and advocacy events, and tailored training and consultations that center the leadership and lived experiences of QTBIPOC community members. To inspire collective, cross-community engagement and action, CTC encourages neighbors, coworkers, friends and loved ones to join the Collective and support collective efforts in building a more safe, just and inclusive Chicago for QTBIPOC communities
Our priority project for 2020 is our Trans-Inclusive Chicago Campaign, which challenges Chicago organizations to Get Trained, Get Feedback and Hire Trans Now. Additionally, our campaign produces Trans Art Is performance nights and art exhibitions to foster local Trans talent and promote cultural change through amplifying those artists’ platforms.
While we are here for partnership (see bottom of page) and welcome new CTC members who wish to spearhead efforts to eradicate mental health disparities among other traditionally marginalized communities, based on the current capacity and personal identities of our membership, our community in focus is Chicago’s transgender community. With that, we design Trans-Inclusive Chicago to emphasize the needs of Chicago’s Trans BIPOC community members and community members living at the intersections of other marginalized identities in particular.
The Collective strives to be neighborhood focused and partnership oriented to ensure effective and sustainable change. As an Andersonville based nonprofit, we work to collaborate with our local QTBIPOC community Members and our neighbors who live, work, and visit Andersonville to foster intersectional Trans-Inclusion in Andersonville. We invite our members living, working and frequenting other neighborhoods to spark similar collaborations in their neighborhoods.
At the neighborhood level, we work to curate highly individualized opportunities for:
(1) neighbors and businesses to deepen their awareness, understanding, and investment in T/GNC people, especially QTPOC, already in their lives;
(2) for allies to center, celebrate, and compensate T/GNC people at the local level; and
(3) for communities, businesses, and individuals to move toward increased engagement and capacity for inclusivity through improved knowledge, empathy, and practical skills–to everyone’s benefit!
Outside of Andersonville we invite Members to spearhead locally-focused change in their neighborhood, workplace, or other immediate sphere of influence.
Do you or your organization have a mobilization or an idea for a mobilization that supports minority mental health in your community? Let’s talk about partnership! We are here for both one-time and ongoing partnerships that foster minority mental health and wellbeing and across communities. Contact [email protected]