Professionals Newsletter - January 2022

Written By Kylyn Small

Good morning,

I hope everyone had a restful holiday (or at least one that didn’t contribute stress of its own 😃).

After a short break, we’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded our offerings going into 2022. Take a look!

 

LGBTQIA+ support groups

We have launched two new LGBTQIA+ support groups; one aimed at the general community, and one for local social workers and other professionals.

Our community group is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals, their families, and other allies to ask questions and get the support they need. This group is focused on LGBTQIA+ adults, and the allies of LGBTQIA+ youth and adults. Meetings are held twice a month virtually. You can see the schedule and other info at https://outoftherain.life/support-groups

Our professionals group is intended to be a safe space for those looking to better support their LGBTQIA+ clients, or providers who are LGTBQIA+ themselves. We recognize that while there are numerous work groups, cohorts, boards, and other groups in the community designed to find solutions and get things done, there is a lack of resources to support the individuals doing this important work behind the scenes. Our LGBTQIA+ Support Group for Professionals aims to fill in some of the gaps in support for those standing up for the needs of LGBTQIA+ members of our community.

If you are interested in participating, please fill out our survey. This will help us hone the group to the needs of the community, and also decide scheduling: https://forms.office.com/r/TXUYt64P5g Scheduling is currently TBD, and will be decided based on the results of the survey. We are planning on holding the first meeting in February. We will announce when a date is set via this mailing list. You can also see more info at https://outoftherain.life/support-groups

 

Expanded training for organizations

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to facilitate the Safe Zone workshop for several organizations across Oregon last year. We have taken the feedback from those trainings and combined them with our own expertise and experience to develop two follow-up trainings. You can find more info here: https://outoftherain.life/training-for-organizations

LGBTQIA+ “102”: A training that’s intended as a direct follow-up to the Safe Zone workshop. This training provides practical, best practice guidance for working with LGBTQIA+ clients. It delves deeper and expands on the basic concepts introduced in Safe Zone.

Supporting Transgender Clients: Working with transgender and gender non-conforming individuals presents a host of unique challenges and considerations, many of which end up slipping through the cracks as we navigate supporting our transgender clients. This training provides an in-depth primer on best practice and practical approaches when working with transgender individuals.

We’re always happy to make modifications to fit an organizations needs. Please contact us if you have any questions about our training offerings.

 

Life Coaching

We are currently accepting clients for life coaching.

We have a “scholarship” fund available that can help with free or reduced cost coaching for qualifying individuals in need of financial assistance.

Our life coach, Kylyn Small, has extensive experience working with LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies, teenagers, and parents/families.

Life coaching can also be a valuable tool to supplement other counseling options, such as:

  • Exploring LGBTQIA+ identities for adults or youth who are questioning their gender or sexuality. We are experienced in navigating the difficult path of discovering yourself, and coach both LGBTQIA+/questioning individuals as well as their family and other supports to help ease the process.

  • Exploring an individual’s counseling goals and providing support while they are on a waitlist to see a licensed therapist. Wait times can be astronomical for many individuals seeking help. Coaching can be a great way to get help now for individuals in need. A coach can prepare them for therapy by helping them clarify their goals and identify barriers in their life, and then transition them to a therapist when available.

  • A resource for employees to meet with to address concerns, stressors, and challenges. A life coach can be a valuable support in improving employee retention and productivity.

  • We’ve been made aware that foster/adoptive parents may be hesitant to seek a licensed therapist or other mental health providers due to numerous factors. Life coaching can be an alternate way to access support and work through life’s challenges when traditional therapy may not be an option.

Visit https://outoftherain.life/life-coaching to learn more about our life coaching services.

 

Therapy

We are proud to announce that Marie Small LCSW will soon be accepting clients for therapy! Her waitlist is currently open, and she will take OHP, private pay, and can bill out of network as needed.

Marie is EMDR trained and specializes in working with trauma, LGBTQIA+ concerns, and writing gender affirmation letters. See https://outoftherain.life/therapy for more details.

She will also soon be certified as an EMDR consultant, and has an open waitlist for providers seeking consultation. Please contact us for more details or to join the waitlist.

 

Whew! My fingers are tired from all that typing!

 

One last thought: Our primary goal with Out of the Rain is to help fill some of the gaps in mental health services that we’ve seen in our community. We are always looking for ways to expand to help meet those needs. If you see any gaps in the services in your community, send them our way! We’ll see what we can do to help address them.

If you have any questions, you can see our contact info at https://outoftherain.life/contact

Hope you all have a great week!

Gratefully,

Kylyn Small

Kylyn Small