Interview: The National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

Erica Woodland

Pronouns: He/Him

Photo credit: Texas Isaiah.

Follow NQTTC on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or reach out via email at nqttcn@gmail.com. Visit their website at nqttcn.com.

The National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network is a relatively new organization. Tell us about the main work that you do, and what inspired you to start.

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN) was a vision I had for a number of years while doing work with the Brown Boi Project — a national gender justice organization working in communities of color along with my work as a clinician participating in a local network for queer therapists of color in the Bay Area. I noticed a huge need for mental health practitioners from our community for movement leaders across the country, as well as a model for how to connect queer and trans people of color (QTPoC) to practitioners from within our community. In 2016, NQTTCN launched as a project to connect and mobilize QTPoC mental health practitioners to ensure that our communities have access to mental health support, but more importantly, that this support be rooted in social justice and liberation. 

The core of our work is focused on practitioner development through training, capacity building and skill sharing; developing and sharing healing justice resources including our directory and Mental Health Fund, as well as community resources; technical assistance to support social justice organizations to integrate healing justice into their work; and field building to center healing justice in the field of mental health and movements for social justice.

NQTTCN’s main framework is healing justice. What’s your working definition of healing justice? How is that incorporated into NQTTCN’s work? 

We acknowledge and honor the lineage of healing justice that informs and grounds our work. We define healing justice as a political and spiritual framework rooted in disability justice, environmental justice, reproductive justice, and abolitionist movements. Healing justice is also anchored in the ancestral traditions and practices of indigenous, Black and other people of color, immigrants, poor and low income people, people with disabilities, women, femmes, and queer and trans people. It recognizes the ways historical trauma and structural violence has caused harm, grief, crisis, trauma and further cycles of violence for oppressed peoples. Healing justice honors our inherent ability to heal and the specific legacy of resistance and resilience of queer and trans people of color. It requires that we constantly re-imagine what is possible regarding our healing, safety, sustainability and fortification.

Our working definition of healing justice is at the center of our practitioner development work. We know part of our role is to provide mental health practitioners with education that acknowledges systemic oppression and structural violence as a root cause of our suffering as well as how our current mental health system is based on upon structural violence. We work to weave healing justice into our organizational culture and all programming to assert our dignity and right to heal. 

We love that you tackle mental health from many angles, like supporting queer and trans mental health practioners of color in deepening their training and providing logistical and financial support to QTPoC in obtaining mental health care. Why did you decide to take this approach? What have you learned in the process?

Access to quality mental health care for queer and trans people of color is extremely rare. This issue is both complex and structural so our interventions must be as well. QTPoC practitioners are part of the broader community and experience the very same challenges as those seeking their support. To increase access to care, our healers must be resourced and supported, in addition to providing concrete resources such as a directory and financial assistance to actually find and then pay for care. We are learning that the line between “practitioner” and “those seeking support” is fluid and requires that we reimagine our understanding of this relationship and the importance of providing an ecosystem of care that also addresses the needs of practitioners.

We hear from so many folks that they really struggle to find a therapist who has an intersectional analysis related to race, gender, and mental health, and who has at least a passing understanding of reproductive health, rights, and justice work. Your directory of practitioners seems like a great place to start. What other tips do you have for people in determining if a therapist is the right fit for them?

Finding the right practitioner is an extremely important process. It takes so much courage to reach out for support especially for queer and trans people of color. I recommend that folks get really clear about what they are looking for. Things to consider: race, gender, age, ability, immigration status, religion/spiritual background, training, experience, fee, location, type of practitioner etc. I then recommend that folks do phone consultations with at least 3 practitioners and use this as an opportunity to get to know a therapist and then decide who to schedule a first session with. 

Finding a therapist the same as starting any new relationship: it’s important to express your needs up front, and address any issues that arise in the first few sessions to determine if the practitioner is a good fit. Feedback is foundational to the therapeutic relationship. Even with a gifted practitioner, sometimes it may not be a good fit. It’s good to be real about this and work to find a practitioner that can better support you. 

Finally, many folks live in regions where there are few practitioners who are people of color or QTPoC. You can do good work with a therapist who may not meet all your needs. Figure out your non-negotiables and be flexible about the others where possible. So much of the healing that happens in therapy is due to the work you put in to the process.

As you know, for many activists and organizers, it’s a real struggle to prioritize their mental health, especially as people who work 24/7, fighting for their lives under an administration that wants to see us jailed, dead, or deported. What advice or reframing do you have for folks that might support them in prioritizing mental health care?

Because of the political and social conditions we are working in, activists and organizers are exposed to trauma at increasing rates. Unfortunately the culture of organizing itself is still rooted in the belief that we do not have time to prioritize our care emotionally, physically and psychologically because of all the urgency of the work for liberation. I have witnessed the ways our work practices as organizers and activists replicates capitalism and ableism despite our best efforts to be different. Communities that are highly traumatized are easier to control and surveil. In order to be successful in our organizing, we must shift the belief that our healing can wait. We are responsible for doing all that we can in our communities to take care of ourselves and each other. If we don’t, our movements will continue to suffer; our relationships will continue to suffer and we will continue to suffer. In my own life I have witnessed what is possible in my work for liberation when I have prioritized my needs around my mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

We also hear from organizational leaders that they have no resources (or sometimes, to be frank, no desire) to prioritize the wellbeing of their staff. We know this attitude and the toxic practices that accompany it impact marginalized folks the most. For organizational leaders that are curious, how might they begin to incorporate healing justice practices into their organizations? 

As we learn more about trauma and destigmatize mental health, those who work in organizations are increasingly asking for more support around their mental health. In my work with organizational leaders, I start with some grounding in understanding trauma and how specifically social justice organizations are affected by it. From there, my first recommendation is often to slow down. The increasing urgency that organizations are responding to requires that we move from being reactive to being responsive. Organizations at their best support the wellbeing of their staff and address the ways they may be experiencing vicarious trauma. Talking to your team about strategies that would support them is the best place to begin. 

Some of the innovative strategies that I’ve witnessed recently are providing financial assistance for staff to go to therapy, improving health insurance coverage, giving the entire staff additional time off after a crisis to prevent burn out, and reimagining the organization’s work plan to make sure it is taking into account the political and social conditions we are navigating. Some organizations are bringing in practitioners to provide short healing sessions at the workplace. Some strategies do not cost anything but require time and intention. For example, actually taking lunch breaks, having good boundaries around work, not contacting your staff outside of work hours unless absolutely necessary, etc.

What’s your day to day like at work? 

NQTTCN is unique in that we were an all-volunteer virtual organization for the first 18 months. Then we transitioned to an all-part time virtual organization. My day-to-day work is varied but generally includes several virtual meetings, time to work on bigger, long term projects, way too many emails and time focused on managing my team and fund development. I have a lot of flexibility in regards to determining my schedule and the way in which I do my work. I travel significantly for both NQTTCN and my other healing justice work so I regularly spend time in multi-day convenings related to field building or meeting in person with our team and our board. 

How does NQTTCN operationalize its values into practice within your own organization?

As an organization moving towards healing and disability justice, we operationalize our values by identifying and prioritizing our needs in order to do our work in a way that is sustainable, efficient, and energizing. Our team practices this by determining the time, conditions and practices that work for each person. When meeting in person, we have explicit practices related to travel knowing that this takes a toll on each of us in different ways. We do our best to meet everyone’s access needs. For example, when flying, we aim for direct flights and no more than one stop. We avoid red eyes and try to give folks time to rest before going into multi-day meetings. We prioritize food that helps us feel good and have the energy we need. We are mindful of our waste and the impact we are having on the planet when we come together in person. We try to spend time in nature when possible and everyone has their own room so they have space to recharge. We plan for all of this in our budget because it is a priority. 

Our meetings always have a very spacious agenda with actual breaks for lunch and in the morning and afternoon. We begin and end with ceremony to honor the role of spirit in our collective work. We check in with each other about our lives and how the work is impacting us. We hold each other’s healing intentions and support when asked for. We adjust the pace with which we do our work when any of us are struggling.

What podcast are you into right now?

I LOVE podcasts and see them as an accessible and important healing justice strategy! I’m currently listening to The Read, Marsha’s Plate, All My Relations and 1619. Hard to name just one!

How much sleep do you get a night? 

I get 7-8 hours of sleep per night and love a good nap when I can sneak one in.