Weekly support group meetings begin Monday afternoon at Purple Sky Counseling, and participation is free. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. then and every Monday afterward, teenagers who identify with the LGBTQIA community or who are questioning their identity can come together to talk. LGBTQIA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual.
“It will help teenagers that are LGBTQIA start to make new friends and receive support from peers but also from therapists in training in how to deal with the emotions of being gay in Utah, or how to explore being trans or gender non-binary in Utah,” says Purple Sky Founder and Owner Cassidy DuHadway. “They'll talk about and explore different skills that have worked for different people, like different coping skills, and then how to use those in your lives, but then also just a lot of space for the kids to kind of just create and have discussion around the things that they're struggling with as well.”
DuHadway says the ideal group size will be eight to 10, but more would be welcomed. Group members will set their own rules and expectations in early meetings.
The weekly meetings will last until at least the end of the school year, then into the summer if the group wants.
“One of the things that we have found as therapists in Heber is there's actually a really large population of LGBTQIA youth, and it's usually hidden,” DuHadway says. “Everyone feels extremely alone, and everyone feels extremely scared of being seen in our community in different ways for different reasons. So, we wanted to really give a space where these humans that are struggling with that can come and learn and start to trust and start to be seen in a safer way, regardless of what goes on for them at home or at school.”
The therapists in training holding the meetings and guiding the conversations are a clinical social worker and an intern.
Participants under 18 years old need parental consent to attend.
For more on how to sign up, email christy@purpleskycounseling.com or visit purpleskycounseling.com.
