Episode 00: Ideas, Excitement, and the history of Queering Mental Health!
Welcome to our very first podcast episode! In this introductory episode, Alice, Charles, and Nicole talk about their visions for the podcast and the origins of the title. Episode 01 will follow shortly!
TRANSCRIPT:
Charles: Welcome to the Queering Mental Health Podcast, or Queering Mental Health, THE Podcast. I'm Charles, they, them. I'm like the back of the house kind of person, do social media and account stuff. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?
Nicole: Hi, I'm Nicole. I use she/her pronouns. I am the client care coordinator. So basically, that means that if you want to get in touch with anyone at the team, make an appointment, need some support, that's me.
Alice: I'm Alice, she/they pronouns, the founder and clinical director of Our Landing Place and the creator of Queering Mental Health, which is kind of weird to say, but here we are.
Charles: Yeah, that's an important foundational piece of information. Yeah. So we're starting this podcast. We have a lot of ideas for it. There's lots of excitement. What do you think your role will be in the podcast, Alice?
Alice: I think I'm still figuring that out, truthfully. I'm really excited to be involved, to be having the conversations that we have as a team that no one else gets to see behind the scenes. Actually have them in a forum where people can connect with us and we can expand the conversation. So, you know, sort of hearing people's feedback or reading people's comments and just seeing, you know, like, is what we're saying resonating? Are you seeing similar things? Do you have a different point of view? And if so, we'd love to have some discourse with you about that. So I think that's sort of where I'm most excited. I'm not planning on sort of driving the bus. We don't tend to have somebody driving the bus solo anyway at Our Landing Place. So really just like seeing where the team wants to collectively take this and have it be a place where we can have interesting, thought provoking and fun conversations that feel accessible and that feel really relevant to the work that clinicians are doing. Or just folks who are interested in a queered lens to mental health, to therapy, to the world at large. So I guess it's sort of in the... even though we've been dreaming it up and being convinced of this quite some time, I think it's sort of in the in the baby stages right now where we're just sort of dabbling. And I think that's that's almost sort of a relief to just be doing it and seeing where it goes rather than having like a really structured like this is where it must go. So I'm excited to see what my role.
Charles: Yeah, Nicole, what are you excited about for the podcast?
Nicole: I mean, I'm not a big podcast. I don't have a lot of experience with podcasts. I don't have the attention span for podcasts, unfortunately. I think in theory I would really like it, but I'm really excited. You know, like kind of, you know, what Alice said that we have really amazing, smart and funny clinicians in our team. And a lot of people don't know that unless you are a client or you work one on one with the clinicians. And I'm excited to see them like super nerd out therapeutically, I guess you could say any time any of their like special interests. There's so many things about the clinicians on our team that have and so many different lives that they've led that, you know, brings experience into the room that a lot of people don't know about. So I'm pretty I'm really excited to see to see what that looks like.
Charles: I think for both you and I, Nicole, because we're not clinicians actively right now, you know, in that field. It's still so joyful to witness people talk about their their passion projects and the things that they really love about their work.
Nicole: Yeah. So I'm really excited to hear that and really excited to sort of carry on the Queering Mental Health project.
Charles: I'm like a big podcast head and a lot of the sort of vibes that I was getting at the conference was like, oh, this would be a good podcast. Oh, that would be such a good podcast episode. I can see like driving and listening to it and like talking back at it like, oh, you know. So. Yeah, it's a really good format for continuing those kinds of conversations, even inviting some of the people we have present back into the room to have more conversations and yeah, really, really connect further with that and expand that community outward.
Nicole: Yeah, that's great. I think along with Alice, I'm not really super sure what my role will be as well. I'm probably a helping one. What I'm really excited about is taking like little bits and pieces and making some like fun social media content that maybe, for folks that aren’t, you know, like me don’t have the attention span for a 45 minute podcast we can put little bits and blurbs and maybe catch people that way. So I'm excited to see what is going to come of this.
Charles: Yeah, totally. So many different ways to share knowledge and connections for sure. So, yeah. So we're using Queering Mental Health. I think probably the first people that kind of catch on to this podcast are going to be people who know what Queering Mental Health is or was, but if they're coming to this because they're like, “a podcast about Queering Mental Health?! Great!” And maybe we need a little bit of background information on what Queering Mental Health was or came from. What was the story of that, Alice?
Alice: Yeah, the story is that I desperately wanted to attend a conference for queer clinicians that was not the ABCs of LGBT and that created some kind of a sense of community. And I kept looking and looking and looking and looking and I looked everywhere. And I really wanted a Canadian one and I couldn't find one. And so I was like, well, OK, I guess I'll just make it then. And so I did. And so our first year was 2021 and it was very specifically a Canadian online conference, obviously, you know, in the height of the pandemic, everything was online. And I had no idea if people were going to vibe with it or not. It was very grassroots. And so, yeah, I just sort of created this conference. And I had some really great colleagues and friends. But participated in it and we sort of created an instant community, which was really, really rad. So the conference ran every year and every year we learned a lot and we changed some things. So year one was 12 hours back to back. We learned a lot about nobody wants to sit at a screen in a chair for 12 hours. So we learned a lot then. And then the next year, I think we went to two days on the second year. But again, we maybe like didn't pace it as well. As we could have. But I think that the fact that it was this sort of grassroots community driven, almost like a very unique type of conference, people were very forgiving of us. They were like, I'd really love if we could have a longer break between sessions. We're like, thank you for that very sweet feedback. And so every year we kind of adjusted and it got bigger and bigger. And so while it was very much, you know, ideally within a Canadian context, we actually had speakers from across the globe and we had attendees from everywhere, which is super, super cool. And we had a core group of people that have attended every single one of them. And so when we announced that the year this year, yeah, it would have been this year. So 2026 is our last one, there were understandably some some upset people who, you know, just want the community to continue and want the opportunity to learn and have these conversations where, you know, if you're a queer clinician or you're somebody who is very, very allied with the community or very knowledgeable, you're actually interested in what we're talking about. You're not sort of, you know, I mean, there's so much value to learning the ABCs and there's also so many resources out there already. And we wanted to have more nuanced conversations. And so we decided, you know, the conference, I think, was was perfect for its time. It was exactly what was needed to build that community, to fill that space. And it just isn't something that currently makes sense to continue in the format that it's in. But we didn't want to lose the community and we didn't want to lose access to these great conversations. And so we're transforming it into a podcast that, you know, like Nicole was saying, you know, some folks have the attention span to listen for a two hour podcast and some folks are like, if it's more than three minutes, my brain is done. Yeah. And so that's part of what's so exciting about, like, us not following a set format is that some of the episodes are going to be really short and some of them are going to be longer. And some of them are going to have folks from outside of Our Landing Place and some of them are just going to be, you know, those of us therapists that love nerding out together, nerding out together. And so I think it's going to be a little bit of a variety of things. And when we're sort of less concerned with what gets us the most views and we're really more about, like, what is the most fun conversation or what sparks the best dialog? What really elicits that community feel? So, yeah, so that's the story of how queering mental health started as a I'm really looking for a conference and I can't find one. It's very annoying all the way through to we're starting a podcast. So 2021 to 2026, we've come a long way.
Charles: Yeah, super exciting. Nicole, I know you were in the chats and the comments really watching what people were saying about the space. How did that space feel for you?
Nicole: Yeah, I mean, the cool thing about I mean, one of the best things, in my opinion, about having an online conference, you don't have to wear pants. You can have snacks at your hands and you could just be comfortable. However you needed to show up that day, there was space to show up exactly like you needed to be, which is great when you're talking about like mental health, but also so many of us are neurodivergent and it's a lot to be in a conference all day long and like all the masking and the pretending and the sitting up and the chatting and the networking, which is great, but also can be really heavy. A lot of the conversations were around how people felt connected. And, you know. Again, the main theme in a lot of these breakout sessions where people were bummed about this being the last conference, because there isn't really this kind of space. Of people that are like minded, you know, when you find your community, you want to grab onto them and stay with them forever. And that's a lot of people talked about in these in this conference is that finding your people and finding your community and then you're able to, you know, build your own resources, but also have someone to talk That just gets it without having to explain, you know, like Alice said, the LGBT ABCs, everyone brings, you know, their own backpack of information and not having to make it about queerness or transness or neurodivergence that we all get it. So I'm excited to see kind of the new elevation of the conference turning into the podcast. Because I do think that that's a way for people to still feel connected with community, but on their own terms. So you don't have to show up in a way that you can be laying in your own bed and just like watching it with headphones on or listening to it, I guess. With headphones on. So I think it, it really creates like a safer space or a space that feels more inclusive because it's your own space. Maybe. But yeah, it's a, it's a different way to still continue to connect with folks and keep the community alive and connected on your own terms. So. Yeah.
Charles: Yeah. That's definitely something I've noticed with all kinds of podcasts, podcasts that are, that are, you know, really about a specific community about a specific set of ideas and then podcasts that are just about two friends talking, but they have all these in jokes and they have this language. Yeah. And then you have all of these different ways that people engage with it. Yeah. And you know, comments on the actual episodes to like a discord that where people could chat. There's all kinds of ways that we can build around the podcast so that people can connect and relate to it in different ways. So I'm excited to, to work on that as well. So I think that's all we need to say about the podcast right now. Does anyone want to say anything else about like what you hope it'll be or what you're hoping for your first episode?
Nicole: Maybe it'll be my entryway to podcasts. Because obviously I love the people that we work with and I'm interested in what they have to say. And so I'm excited to hear what they have to say. And maybe that'll be my, I'll fall in love with podcasts this way.
Alice: I love that. I don't know if I have any hopes for topics or anything like that for the first ones, but yeah, I'm excited to, to kind of see how we all vibe sort of hanging out in that podcast space. And also like really getting to showcase people's personalities. Like we have some big personalities on our team and we have so much fun when we're together. And we really do sort of bounce, like Nicole said, like we nerd out together. Like we are bouncing those things off of each other. And it's just, I think it would be really fun to see that come to life and then have, you know, almost sort of like an archive of that, even selfishly for us to like get to look back at this and be like, remember when we had that silly conversation about people? Or like, oh, remember when we had that like really deep conversation about that important thing? Yeah. That'll be, that'll be a really exciting thing to watch.
Charles: Yeah. That'll be very nice. In fact, we already have, so for our next episode being the first sort of official episode, we have one in the bag and it's with Shadi. Shadi is offering a consultation group for 2SQTIBOC folks where they can sort of share that specific and nuanced experience of those intersections in practice in a therapeutic space. Yeah. I've, I've watched it and it's, it's a really great conversation between Shadi and Aziz Mirza, who's another clinician at Our Landing Place, and Tina Borsa and Jade Giff. So they're all chatting together and they really get into a couple of different nuances. They talk about addressing white fragility in sessions, navigating over or under relatability with their clients, and the importance of feeling not just held and helped by supervision. But like seen as who they are, their full self, the, all of the intersections and, and validated in that experience. So it's going to be a great episode. And yeah, I'm really excited to see the sort of response from that and, and to have people hear their ideas and their thoughts. Yeah.
Alice: Great. You know, keep an eye on our social media to stay updated on when we're releasing our episodes. And if you have ideas, if you have topics you're interested in. Yeah. If you would like to be a part of our podcast, get in touch.
