About Our Collective

We are a Collective of LGBTQIA+ Black Indigenous Therapists of Color who are dedicated to radically decolonizing mental health for our communities after our own shitty experiences with oppressive mental health providers. Our vision at Lavender Healing Collective is to provide trauma-focused, Intersectional Feminist Therapy* services to our communities that have historically experienced racism, anti-Blackness, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and additional forms and intersections of oppression by mental health and other providers. We strive to create a space where the radical healing of oppression trauma is possible while continuing to be sustainable for providers.

Our Principles

  • All LGBTQIA+ BIPoC folx deserve culturally relevant, affirmative support and mental health services.

  • Our communities deserve accessible, affordable, anti-capitalist, anti-oppressive therapeutic services that meet their needs.

  • We take our clients’ lead as the experts of their own lives and ensure that we are able to identify with them all of the ways oppression has affected their life as we work to create healing and empowerment from within.

  • We utilize LGBTQIA+ affirmative, culturally relevant, trauma-focused, and evidence-based approaches to therapy to create an environment in which our clients can heal.

  • We assist our clients in connecting with, creating, and enhancing affirming social supports and community spaces.

  • We work from a foundation of Intersectional Feminist Therapy by working to address power imbalances in the therapeutic relationship and reminding our clients that they are the experts of their own lived experience. We arm our clients with knowledge to empower them through bibliotherapy and we continually discuss the effects of oppression trauma.

  • We do not ascribe to or support TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) ideology or any other concepts that cause harm and exclusion. We acknowledge and oppose this hateful aspect of some “Feminists” and we will hold space for the healing from these harmful beliefs.

  • We work on identifying and embracing all of our clients identities, strengths, resources, and supports to counter institutionalized racism, anti-Blackness, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, and all forms of oppression.

  • We will create an environment where our clients can heal from mental health care-related trauma and persecution.

  • We will pay a living wage and fair compensation for our staffs’ labor. We will provide supervision, support, and respect to every member of our Collective.

  • We will create and maintain a healthy work environment and utilize Collective Leadership decision making to ensure that all voices of our Collective are heard and included.

  • We will not tolerate tokenism in any form. Every clinician’s strengths and lived experience will be celebrated, not exploited.

A Note from Our Founder

Lavender Healing Collective’s roots are based in radical activism and the need for healing of burnout from exploitation. As the Founder of Lavender Healing Collective, I felt a strong pull to create something sustainable for Clinicians as well as provide the highest standards of care for our clients. I was extremely fortunate to have had a few incredible mentors along the way that helped me navigate the mental health field but that is not the case for most. The horror stories we have heard from our clients of therapists causing harm by upholding homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, and other oppressive systems is heartbreaking. It is completely unacceptable and it has to stop, NOW.

Quite frankly, the field of psychology is failing, it is failing all of us. It is especially failing pre-licensed therapists, who are new to the field and enthusiastic about helping others to heal, but are met with a lack of support, supervision, guidance, and respect. Therapists must work hundreds of hours without pay to graduate from masters programs, then expected to work high-demand agency jobs with exploitatively low wages as a rite of passage. In community mental health agencies where many therapists end up there are often unrealistic expectations of high productivity, clearly sending the message that clients=cash. High productivity is dehumanizing to therapists, whose mental health suffers in these conditions, and clients, who do not get the help they need from burnt out providers. This model, based on exploitation and capitalist values, is not working and is unsustainable for all.

At the Lavender Healing Collective, we hold ourselves to the highest standard based on the guidance of our indigenous cultures and traditions. We dig into the ancient healing of our ancestors in order to guide us toward holding space for others to heal. We are committed to prioritizing the lives of LGBTQIA+ BIPoC folks in our best efforts to create spaces where our communities can be seen, heard and validated.