Beyond the Boxes III Conference Series
Registration Closes 10/23/2019 at 12:00 PM
New Student and Non Profit Prices
~ A One Day Conference by, for and about LGBTQ+ Mental Health Professionals and Our Socially Conscious Allies ~
"Juggling Privilege and Political Trauma Stress: When Our Clients’ Trauma and Oppression Do and Do Not Mirror Our Own: Current Issues Facing LGBTQ+ Muslims and Gender Expansive BIPOC and Our Moral Injury and Vicarious Trauma"
Through the lens of oppression, privilege and Political Trauma Stress, we will explore the current social-political toll on Muslim LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Gender Expansive humans’ mental health and wellness, name best practices for their mental health providers, identify ways that providers can effectively address our own privileges in and out of our counseling offices, and learn concrete and sustainable strategies to minimize our own Burnout, Intersectional Oppression Fatigue, Moral Injury, Vicarious Trauma and Compassion Fatigue.
As caring professionals working with members of marginalized communities, we are subject to feeling the sinking heaviness of moral injury, burnout and compassion fatigue.
For those of us who are (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer + (LGBTQ+) and/or Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) and/or Muslim helping professionals, we are enduring amplified personal and community physical and psychic traumas, and, if we work within our own communities, a potential increase in our own professional vicarious trauma and intersectional oppression fatigue.
For those of us who are socially conscious helping professionals and non-BIPOC and/or non-LGBTQ+ and/or non-Muslim, we may be experiencing guilt, denial or fear regarding our European-American ethnicity, straight and gender privileges, and have questions about our professional best practices with regards to our marginalized clients.
In this one-day conference, together, we will expand our cultural humility around our differences and increase our skills toward our common goals of sustainable LGBTQ+ justice, equality, safety, and physical and emotional health and well-being. We will leave with concrete strategies and personalized plans to invigorate our individual and collective strength, healing and wellness.
Presented by MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network www.lgbttherapists.org
When Friday, October 25, 2019 | 8am – 5pm
Where Walker Community UMC http://www.walkerchurch.org/
3104 16th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Fees
Discounted Tickets:
Students - 50% off - $40
Employees of Non-Profits - $75
Members only -
Member - $175
Military, retired members - $80
Non-member – General registration opens September 6, 2019:
Non-member - $225
Military, retired non-members - $100
(Organizations who are “members” pay per person not per organization)
Fee includes: 7 to 7.5 CEUs, box lunch from Wilde Cafe, snacks, and a MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network canvas bag.
CEUs:
MN Board of Psychology: 7.5 credits
MN Board of Social Work: 7 credits - 2 of them for ethics
MN Board of Marriage and Family Therapy: 7 credits - 3 of them for ethics
MN Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy (LADC): 7 credits
MN Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy (LPC/LPCC): 7 credits
A few notes about this conference: (1) This Conference is intended as an anti-racist, sex-positive and socially conscious space that is affirming and inclusive of the fluidity and varieties of sexuality, sexual and gender expressions and relationships. (2) Members of the MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network are welcome to bring their publicity materials (e.g., business cards, flyers, postcards) for the Member Promotion table. (3) We will start the conference on time at 8am. Please come early enough to register, grab some tea, coffee, muffins or fruit and a place to sit. (4) Be aware that parking around the Walker Community Church is only residential. Plan for extra time to park. (5) The building is fully accessible.
Conference Format
730-8am - Registration
8-815am - Welcome & Opening remarks:
Irene Greene MSED, Chair MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network
815-1015 - Workshop I
Presenter: Ghazel Tellawi PhD UM Program in Human Sexuality
Workshop Title: Intersectional Oppression, Trauma and Mental Health Of LGBTQ+ Muslim Individuals, Including a Discussion of Mental Health Related Stigma and Cultural Humility
Description:
This workshop will provide background information and research on identity reconciliation in LGBTQ+ Muslim individuals, given the tension with possessing these potentially conflicting identities, both within the individual and in their communities. We will examine the mental health impact of this intersectional oppression and discuss implications relating to the ethics and privileges of mental health providers, including a discussion of increasing our own cultural humility.
1015-1030am - Break
1030-1230 - Workshop II
Presenters: Taylor Hall (left) Anti-Violence Program Community Advocate (peer counselor and crisis respondent) – OutFront and Junior Avalos (right) Organizing and Campus Coordinator - OutFront Minnesota
Workshop Title: What Helping Professionals Need to Know About the Impacts of Systematic Oppression on LGBTQ+ People of Color
Description: This training will delve into the ways that systemic oppression informs and creates trauma for LGBTQ+ folks, particularly queer people of color and trans people of color. We will examine intersections of oppression, privileges and disadvantages within the community, and how to work ethically with those who are most vulnerable. The training will include history, statistics, lecture, activity, and group discussions.
1230-130pm - Lunch
130-230pm - Panel topic: Our Presenters Share the Personal and Professional Impacts of Political Trauma Stress On Them and Their Methods of Self-care: Panelists will share how the oppression that they see professionally and experience personally impacts them and what they do to take care of themselves.
Panelists: (1) Ghazel Tellawi, PhD, UM Program in Human Sexuality (2) Taylor Hall Anti-Violence Program Community Advocate – OutFront (3) Junior Avalos Organizing and Campus Coordinator - OutFront Minnesota
230-245pm – Break
245-445pm - Workshop III
Presenter: Irene Greene MSED Greene Growth and Training LLC
Workshop Title: Beyond Self-Care for Helping Professionals: Minimizing Our Own Political Trauma Stress, Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, Burnout and Moral Injury
Description: How do we providers manage our own political trauma stress, oppression fatigue and vicarious trauma, while also helping others heal theirs? This training will outline the personal and professional factors that contribute to helper burnout, oppression fatigue, privilege savior complex, vicarious trauma, moral injury and compassion fatigue. Participants will complete personal assessments of their resiliency and stress, burnout, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue symptoms. Concrete strategies and a realistic plan for advanced personal and professional care will be identified.
445-5pm - Closing
Wrap-up / CEU forms / Evaluation
About the Presenters
Ghazel Tellawi, PhD (she/her) is the current Randi and Fred Ettner Postdoctoral Fellow in Transgender Health at the University of MN Medical School’s Center for Sexual Health in the Department of Family Medicine.
Dr. Tellawi received clinical training in psychotherapy and assessment in a variety of settings, including a university counseling center, hospital settings, private practice, and a university clinic that served both students and members of the community. She has clinical interests in the following areas: sexual and gender identity, the role that microaggressions play in the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals, and sources of coping and resilience in LGBTQ+ individuals. Ghazel, born in Homs, Syria, is a queer-identified, cisgender woman from a Muslim family. While not a practicing Muslim, Ghazel identifies with many of the values that are interwoven between the religion and Middle Eastern culture. These values have been mixed into her Texan upbringing and Midwestern graduate training. Outside of her work, Ghazel is a massive soccer fan, and can be found playing or watching soccer every weekend.
Taylor Romero Hall (they/them/theirs) is the Community Advocate in OutFront Minnesota's Anti-Violence Program.
Taylor studied literature and gender at St. Catherine's University, where they graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Currently, Taylor is working on an MFA in Creative Writing for Children at Hamline University in St. Paul. A long-time community advocate and direct care worker, Taylor entered the non-profit sector in early 2017 working in Homeless Prevention and Homeless Services. Taylor’s approach to direct service emphasizes a harm reduction style, as well as trauma and person-centered care. Taylor is a regional trainer and developer, and travels throughout the metro offering a variety of diversity and inclusion trainings. Taylor is a proud person of color and has professional and personal competency in racial and LGBTQ equity. In the office, Taylor is a peer counselor and crisis respondent for community members who have experienced violence or bias. Their interest lies in developing meaningful relationships with peers and clients, especially through mutual respect and radical empathy. In their off time, Taylor enjoys spending time with their wife, dog, and two cats in their South Minneapolis home, as well as playing board games, doing puzzles, and experimenting with new food recipes.
Junior Avalos (he/him) is the Organizing and Campus Coordinator at OutFront Minnesota.
Junior joined OutFront’s Policy and Organizing team in June 2018 and is currently the Organizing and Campus Coordinator. His role consists of doing community outreach and managing the Queer Defenders Network, a coalition of college and university students dedicated to Queer and Trans equity.
Originally from Houston, TX, he moved to Minnesota in 2014 to attend St. Olaf College where he graduated with a B.A in Dance, with a concentration in Women & Gender Studies. Junior's experience consists of being a Political Leaders of Tomorrow Intern with WomenWinning, where he assisted in field organizing for Angie Craig's congressional race in 2016, and also as a Constituent Services and Scheduling Intern for Senator Al Franken in 2017. Throughout his college career, Junior also organized behind issues focusing on racial justice, LGBTQ equity, and immigration reform.
Junior is excited to be supporting OutFront's work on banning conversion therapy. When he is not working, he likes to spend time cooking dishes, spilling the tea, or playing rugby!
Irene Greene MSED (she/her) is the owner of Greene Growth and Training LLC in Minneapolis.
Irene has 32+ years as a psychotherapist, positive psychology holistic wellness and relationship coach and educator. In Irene’s private practice in Minneapolis, Irene currently facilitates three support groups: a sexual abuse survivor group, a group for executive directors of nonprofits, and a burnout and compassion fatigue group for helping professionals. She also offers relationship coaching and individual counseling. She is a co-founder and the Chair of the MN LGBTQ+ Therapists Network, a psychological first-aid street medic trainer, and has certification trainings in conflict resolution, compassion fatigue and trauma. Irene was the first director of the UM-Sexual Violence Program, worked as a State of MN Crime Victim Specialist, served as Chair of the MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault and on the board of MN Women in Psychology. Irene provides burnout, stress and compassion fatigue trainings and addressing our whiteness trainings to social service, medical, educational, mental health, and non-profit community-based agencies and organizations. Irene is a European-American (of Irish, German and Roma Gypsy ethnicity) cisgender woman, has been “out” as a lesbian over half of her 60 years, a survivor, a parent by creative means and hails from a small conservative farming community in Minnesota.
About the MN LGBTQ+ Therapists Network
The MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network is a grassroots network of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual, gender expansive, Two-Spirit (LGBTQIAPG2S) and allied/affirming mental health, wellness, medical and social service professionals.
The MN LGBTQ+ Therapists’ Network (The Network) was established in 1988 as a grass-roots group of LGBTQIAPGE2S mental health professionals who wanted a way to safely network, support and educate each other and the community about issues related to LGBTQIAPGE2S mental health and wellness.
As far as we know, we are the first such professional organization for LGBTQIAPG2S mental health providers in the country.
The MN LGBTQ+ Therapists' Network (The Network) has 150+ paid members who are working or studying in mental health, social service, wellness, healing practices and related fields. We offer a public online resource directory of our members and their services. We also have an active Facebook site with members from all over the world. The majority of our members are located in the five county Twin Cities metro area. Our other members hail from Greater MN, Wisconsin and Eastern North Dakota. The Network is coordinated by a volunteer steering committee of its members.
The goals of The Network are, using an intersectional lens:
(1) provide our members opportunities for professional and social support
(2) exchange and offer resources and referrals
(3) provide LGBTQIAPG2S mental health continuing education
(4) affirm our LGBTQIAPG2S communities.
As a diverse community of LGBTQ+ and allied helping professionals, we are committed to honoring the complex intersections of gender and sexuality with race, age, ability, size, spirituality, education, country of origin, immigration status, family composition, and class.
We deem it critical to provide education and mental health services that move beyond just the "acknowledgement of differences and cultural competence".
We aim to advance a context of helper cultural humility that recognizes privilege and oppression trauma, the essential nature of collective health and wellness, and actively works towards just, respectful, accessible and expansive mental health and wellness opportunities and services for all humans.
About the Beyond the Boxes Conference Series
~ A one day conference by, for and about LGBTQ+ Mental Health Professionals and Our Socially Conscious Allies ~
Beyond the Boxes is a series of one day conferences organized by volunteers of The Network and dedicated to topics and themes related to LGBTQIAPG2S mental health and wellness. The series, offered every few years, is designed for socially conscious mental health professionals and students in the mental health, wellness and related fields. The conference is open to all genders and sexual identities.
The Network’s first conference, Beyond the Boxes I:Emerging Trends in LGBTQ+ Mental Health, was held in 2010 at the UM-Twin Cities. We co-sponsored it with the Office for Equity and Diversity: GLBTA Programs Office and the Queer Student Cultural Center. It sold out at 365 attendees and offered 3 tracks with 32 workshops. In 2016, The Network coordinated Beyond the Boxes II: Three Cutting Edge Topics in LGBTQ+ Mental Health: Gender, Polyamory and Oppression Fatigue. This sold out conference was held at Walker Church in Minneapolis and had one track with three clinical trainings and panels on these three topics. In October 2019 we will present: Beyond the Boxes III: When Our Clients’ Trauma and Oppression Do and Do Not Mirror Our Own: Current Issues Facing LGBTQ+ Muslims and Gender Expansive BIPOC. We again anticipate a cutting-edge sold-out conference.
