OSTC Blog
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OSTC Blog *
Rethinking Rage: When Anger Can Be Healthy
Rage has a bad reputation. When we hear the word, we often picture uncontrollable outbursts, damage to relationships, or situations that spiral out of control. But can rage actually be healthy? Can it serve a purpose in our lives? Let’s unpack that from a mental health and LGBTQ+ perspective.
The OCD and Queer Identity Connection Nobody Is Talking About Enough
There is a conversation happening in LGBTQ+ mental health spaces that is long overdue. And it is not an easy one to have because it sits at the intersection of two things that carry a lot of shame on their own: queerness and OCD.
So let's have it anyway.
Your Feed Is Not Just Upsetting. It Is Traumatizing You
Let's be honest about what is actually happening when you pick up your phone.
You are not just scrolling. You are absorbing.
Coming Out Is Not a Moment. It Is a Practice.
There is this cultural image of coming out as a single event. The conversation. The announcement. The moment where you finally say the thing out loud and everything shifts. And while that moment is real and it matters, what nobody talks about enough is everything that comes after it.
Shame Has Been in the Room This Whole Time
We spent an entire series talking about toxic relationship patterns. About power and control, chosen family, money, sex, community, and what healthy actually looks and feels like. And underneath almost every single conversation was the same thing, whether we named it directly or not.
Shame.
Your Money Story Is Not Just About Money
We talk a lot in therapy about the stories we carry. About how the messages we absorbed early, about who we are, whether we belong, whether our futures are worth investing in, shape the decisions we make long after the people who handed us those messages are out of the room.
The Personal Is Still Political: On Shame, Survival, and Queer Joy
I have been sitting with this conversation for a while now. Because what Alex Garner brought into this week’s Episode of My Therapist is Out! was not just decades of advocacy experience or a sharp political analysis, though he brought both of those things. What he brought was the particular clarity that comes from a life fully inhabited.
What Do You Actually Want? Queering Relationships and Sexual Scripts
Most of us spend years figuring out who we are. Coming out, naming our identities, finding language for the parts of ourselves that the dominant culture never had words for. But there is a whole other layer of work that does not always get the same attention: figuring out what we actually want.
Built for All of Us: What Queer Community Actually Requires
I have been in a lot of queer spaces. Some of them changed my life. Some of them left me feeling more alone than when I walked in. And I have spent a lot of time thinking about what makes the difference.
The Friendscape: What Queer Community Actually Requires of Us
We spend a lot of time in queer spaces talking about romantic relationships. Who we love, how we love, what healthy love looks like when the world has spent so long telling us our love doesn't count. And that conversation matters.
What "Toxic" Actually Means, and Why the Word Alone Isn't Enough
Somewhere along the way, "toxic" became the word we reach for when something in a relationship doesn't feel right. And look, that instinct is usually pointing at something real.
What Makes a Relationship Toxic, and Why It's More Complicated for Queer Folks
As a queer therapist, one of the questions I get asked most often, in sessions, in community spaces, sometimes just in conversation, is some version of: Is this relationship toxic, or am I just being too sensitive?
The Power of Immersion: How Community Can Shift Your Perspective
Last weekend, a few of us at OSTC had the chance to volunteer at the Know Other Festival, and it was one of those experiences that reminds you why community matters so deeply.
Leading with Intention: Springing Into Clarity and Confidence
As we roll into spring and the longer days of summer, it’s easy to feel pulled in a hundred different directions. Between work, relationships, activism, and personal growth, it can start to feel like you’re being asked to do everything all at once.
Hope Is a Practice: Finding Ground Through Action
At the No Kings 3 Day Rally, we stood alongside community—organizers, activists, healers, and folks who are just trying to make sense of the world we’re living in. There was a mix of emotions in the air: anger, grief, determination… and something else that I think often gets overlooked.
Hope.
To Be Seen: Why Visibility Matters for TGI2+ Mental Health
And for so many TGI2+ folks, that kind of visibility doesn’t come easily—it’s something you fight for, negotiate, or sometimes decide isn’t safe to reach for at all.
Community Care as Queer Survival and Collective Healing
Community care is the practice of recognizing that our well-being is interconnected. It moves beyond the idea that healing is an individual responsibility and instead asks: How do we show up for each other?
When Harm Is About Who You Are - Why It Hurts So Deeply — and Why It’s Not Your Fault
What Is Identity-Based Harm? Identity-based harm refers to violence, discrimination, microaggressions, and systemic barriers that target who someone is — their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ability, immigration status, religion, or neurodivergence
Generational Strength, Queer Lineage, and the Power of Community Care
When we talk about generational strength, many of us are taught to think only about bloodlines—family trees, ancestors we’re biologically tied to, stories passed down through last names and DNA. But for queer people, that definition has always been incomplete.
When Harm Lives in Our Bodies and Stories
Identity-based harm isn’t only something we think about—it’s something that stays with us, shaping how safe it feels to be in our bodies. Identity-based harm can feel deeply personal, but it’s rooted in systemic marginalization that impacts our sense of self-worth and belonging.