Hi friends, I wanted to share some things I'm offering this Fall and a couple of resources I've been building. See below! Free Workshops 1. Managing Anxiety Around Sexual Health - Nov 15, Vancouver, in-person 2. Exploring the Spectrum & Rainbow of Grief - Nov 21. Toronto, in-person. 3. LGBTQ+ Muslim Mental Health, Dec 1, virtual Therapist Corner 1. CBT Treatment Planning Reference Guide 2. Toronto’s Queer & Trans Therapists - Get Connected Free Workshops *Managing Anxiety Around Sexual Health * Some people have lots of casual partners and rarely get sexually transmitted infections. Others have only a few partners and regularly find themselves at the testing clinic. Much of this is merely a function of risk reduction and chance – but try telling your anxiety that! This workshop is specifically for folks who experience high anxiety around sexual health (even when their exposure to infection is seemingly low). Social worker and psychotherapist Rahim Thawer will explore why we both need anxiety and how we could benefit from tools to contain it. We’ll discuss how anxiety plays out during hook-ups while communicating about risk, and when accessing testing services. This group is open to self-identified men (trans, cis, and other men), two-spirit and non-binary folks who also identify as gay, bi, queer, asexual, and/or as guys who are into/or have sex with guys (for any reason – including for work). * Register Here:* https://www.eventbrite.com/e/managing-anxiety-around-sexual-health-tickets-165172578629 *Exploring the Spectrum & Rainbow of Grief* Grief is a complex emotional experience. We grieve losses resulting from death. We also grieve non-death losses such as relationship endings, drifts away from friends, the disappointment of families, the person we hoped we would be and what we hoped life would look like. Some of us turn to religion, faith and/or spirituality to cope with grief while many others struggle with the compounding experience of grieving religious teachings and communities that once held a central space in our lives but no longer serve us. Rahim Thawer, social worker and therapist, will begin this workshop with an exploration of his own queer grief supplemented by anecdotes from his clinical practice. Participants will then consider the types and sources of grief in their own lives and share perspectives on the role of spirituality, if any, in supporting grief processing. This session is open to folks who identify as agnostic, atheist, or of-faith. This workshop offering is in collaboration with the Multi-Faith Centre and Sexual & Gender Diversity Office. *Register Here:* https://clnx.utoronto.ca/home/slevents.htm?eventId=58800 *LGBTQIA+ Muslims and Mental Health* Fri, Dec 1, 2023 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EST This webinar by Rahim Thawer will draw on academic literature, personal lived experience, and community organizing work with two queer Muslim groups based in Canada. We will unravel the tensions that affect the mental health of 2SLGBTQIA+ Muslims, including managing homophobia and coming out, reconciling sexuality and faith-based identities, both being critical of Islam and fighting Islamophobia, seeking and creating affirming spaces, acculturating as asylum seekers and Canadian-born 2SLGBTQIA+ Muslims, and religious-cultural factors affecting access/understanding of mental health services. There will be a Q&A period at the end of the session. Learning Outcomes: 1. Examine the religious, cultural and political diversity among Muslims across the globe 2. Articulate various meanings of what it means to be a queer or trans Muslim 3. Consider the unique needs of this minority that exist within a minority 4. Explore the intersection of homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia *Register Here:* https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2slgbtqia-muslims-and-mental-health-tickets-753370731137 Therapist Corner *CBT Treatment Planning Guide* This resource <https://www.affectiveconsult.ca/s/Treatment-Planning-Reference-Guide-for-CBT-Clinicians-20.pdf> was initially created for my social work students as a working document and has been developed with heavy reliance on AI. Use it only as a reference guide and starting point in your work as a therapist. https://www.affectiveconsult.ca/cbtresources *Our Community Is Growing! * If you are a private practice therapist in the GTA and identify with the 2SLGBTQ+ community and you’d like to be added to the *public-facing TQTT listing *above, please complete this form <https://airtable.com/appGtIJtr0jANm0c7/shrtzGNfjuf5IHuG2>. If you are a private practice therapist in the GTA and identify with the 2SLGBTQ+ community and you’d like to be added to the *TQTT Google group mailing list*, send an email to the moderators by clicking here <tqtt+subscribe@googlegroups.com?body=Hi%2C%20my%20name%20is...%0A%0AI%20work%20with...%0AAnd%2C%20I%27m%20part%20of%20the%20LGBT2SQ%2B%20community.&subject=please%20add%20me%20to%20the%20tqtt%20mailing%20list> . *https://www.affectiveconsult.ca/torontos-queer-and-trans-community-therapists <https://www.affectiveconsult.ca/torontos-queer-and-trans-community-therapists>* warmly, Rahim Thawer MSW RSW Affective Consulting & Psychotherapy Services affectiveconsult.ca To leave, manage or join list: https://listserv.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=sdoh&A=1