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Unravel the impact of minority stress on mental health, exploring LGBTQ+ experiences and broader societal effects.
As a lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer beings we often grow up feeling we are the only one and this can create a terrible sense of isolation. Hearing negative things about being LGBTQ when you were a child or teen may have caused minority stress, which is the experience of being judged, condemned and criticised for not fitting in with the majority culture's idea of what it means to be a man or woman. We may have then internalised these negative beliefs, prejudice and discrimination. This results in a feeling that there is something wrong, bad or deficient about ourselves which gives rise to shame and low self-worth and we find it hard to trust others and it may impact our mental health and the coping strategies we use to try and avoid the pain. .
In this workshop we recognise our shared experience, and by hearing from each other we create a space where each person is held and we can heal through feeling part of a community instead of being alone. WE share our stories, so we are no longer alone and we recognise ourselves in others as they share their story.
One of the exercises we do is to identify the negative inner beliefs we have internalised about what it means to be LGBTQ and then as a group we transform them into affirming statements that nurture us and give a sense of healing as a collective process rather than being alone. We then finish the workshop with an inner child visualisation where we bring these positive messages to our own inner child or teen to let them hear what they needed at the time.
Nick Kientsch is a former Buddhist monk, with over 30 years of experience practicing and teaching meditation and mindfulness. His work now centres around supporting people’s mental health, in particular those in the LGBTQ+ community.
"This workshop was very powerful for me....to imagine that gay boy being valued, celebrated, and cherished -- not just by my now-self, but by his whole community -- was new for me. This new connection felt like progress in healing my inner pain and disconnection from myself."
