My Therapist Is Out!

SPECIAL EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!National Coming Out Day is October 11th and we are building something together. Literally. Join OSTC and BabyGay at The Black Cat in Silver Lake from 1 to 5PM for our 4th annual NCOD event. This year is a collaboration with BabyGay, The Black Cat, and Los Angeles Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez of CD13, and the vision is as practical as it is joyful.Together we will assemble 100 Welcome Wagons, coming-out kits for LGBTQ+ folks navigating one of the most tender moments of their lives. We will write SupportCards. We will share food and music and the particular kind of togetherness that only happens when a community shows up with intention. OSTC therapists will also be on site offering free mental health check-ins, because sometimes the most important thing you can do on a day like this is talk to someone who gets it.Joining us are an incredible group of partners including Friends of the Silver Lake Library, The Future Perfect Project, Human Rights Campaign, Impulse, It Gets Better, Kids Managing Conflict, Los Angeles Public Library, Mama Dragons, OutCare Health, Pride House LA and West Hollywood, and more.This is a daytime community build, free and open to the community. Come make something with us.Queer Moment of Joy Guest: Adeline She/HerBabyGay Mission:BabyGay is a 501(c)3 organization that transforms support for the LGBTQ+ community by celebrating and empowering individuals through their coming out journey.  Since our groundbreaking launch in 2023 at the LA LGBT Center, we've created a powerful movement combining storytelling, community support, and advocacy. Our signature Welcome-Wagon Box, featuring heartfelt SupportCards handwritten by community members, provides essential resources and connection for those beginning their journey.BabyGay Founder: PJ Brescia (they/them)www.baby.gayInsta, YouTube, & TikTok: @babygaytvPodcast Streamers: @BabyGayOpen Space Therapy Collective Mission: Open Space Therapy Collective (OSTC) was founded with a vision to provide amazing care for people who often struggle to find therapists that are familiar with their community and their specific needs—particularly, LGBTQ+, TGI2+, Neurodiverse, BIPOC, people in non-traditional relationships and those of diverse cultural backgrounds. OSTC Founder: Renae Johnson, LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) www.openspacetherapycollective.comInstagram & YouTube: @openspacetherapycollective TikTok: @openspacetherapy Podcast Streamers: @MyTherapistisOut 

We spent this whole series naming what is toxic and building tools for what’s health. Now let's talk about what we are actually building toward.In the second Q&A closing out Queer Hearts Healthy Starts, Renae Johnson LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) and Allison Smith LCSW (she/they) get into the question listeners kept asking in different forms: okay, but what does healthy actually feel like?They talk about why healthy relationships can feel boring at first and why that is actually the sign you have been waiting for, how to tell the difference between anxiety and excitement in your body, what repair looks like when it is real, how to get curious about what you actually want in your sex life without making it a whole production, why laughter is an underrated part of intimacy, and how to build community when the world around you is not giving you a lot to work with.They also get personal. Allison talks about learning to ask for help while injured and what that opened up. Renae talks about knowing what each person in their life is actually good at and leaning into that instead of expecting everyone to do everything.Warm, honest, and a genuinely good place to land at the end of a series.Queer Moment of Joy Guest 1: Kira Kull They/Them @kkmiracleQueer Moment of Joy Guest 2: Mardee Milburn She/Her @thefoiledmuseHost Bios: Allison Smith LCSW (she/they) is a Licensed Therapist at Open Space Therapy Collective. Allison specializes in integrating trauma-informed, abolitionist frameworks to support clients in exploring identity, relationships, and cultural connections. Renae Johnson, LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Board-Certified Art Therapist, and the Founder of Open Space Therapy Collective, a group practice offering affirming, social justice-driven mental health care for the LGBTQ+ & QTPOC community. With clinical expertise in complex trauma, identity development, and creative expression, Renae blends therapeutic depth with a commitment to equity and inclusion.In addition to their clinical work, Renae produces community wellness events like Queerly Connected and is a founding board member of the LA Queer Coalition, creating spaces where queer and trans people can gather, heal, organize, and celebrate. As a speaker, consultant, and activist, Renae is passionate about building systems of care that honor the full humanity of queer and trans individuals—and equipping healthcare and wellness providers with the tools to do the same.To find more from us visit:Website: https://www.openspacetherapycollective.comInstagram: @openspacetherapycollective TikTok: @openspacetherapy Spotify: @MyTherapistisOut Apple Podcasts: @mytherapistisoutYouTube: @openspacetherapycollective

It showed up in every single episode. In the conversations about toxic relationships, money, sex, community, and chosen family. Under all of it, the same thing: shame.In this Q&A episode closing out the Queer Hearts Healthy Starts series, Renae Johnson LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) and Allison Smith LCSW (she/they) sit down to pull it all together. They get into what shame actually is clinically and how it is different from guilt, how to start noticing when shame is running the show versus when you are actually making a choice, and the unexpected places it shows up, including your bank account, your sex life, and your inability to let anyone pick up the tab.They also talk about generosity as a shame response, resentment coming from envy more than anger, and what it actually means to expand your emotional bandwidth instead of just shrinking your world down to what feels safe.Honest, warm, and genuinely useful. This one earns its place as the series closer.Queer Moment of Joy Guest 1: Aja Kai Rowley They/Them @ajakaiQueer Moment of Joy Guest 2: Emmie Yk She/Her @emmie.ykHost Bios: Allison Smith LCSW (she/they) is a Licensed Therapist at Open Space Therapy Collective. Allison specializes in integrating trauma-informed, abolitionist frameworks to support clients in exploring identity, relationships, and cultural connections. Renae Johnson, LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Board-Certified Art Therapist, and the Founder of Open Space Therapy Collective, a group practice offering affirming, social justice-driven mental health care for the LGBTQ+ & QTPOC community. With clinical expertise in complex trauma, identity development, and creative expression, Renae blends therapeutic depth with a commitment to equity and inclusion.In addition to their clinical work, Renae produces community wellness events like Queerly Connected and is a founding board member of the LA Queer Coalition, creating spaces where queer and trans people can gather, heal, organize, and celebrate. As a speaker, consultant, and activist, Renae is passionate about building systems of care that honor the full humanity of queer and trans individuals—and equipping healthcare and wellness providers with the tools to do the same.To find more from us visit:Website: https://www.openspacetherapycollective.comInstagram: @openspacetherapycollective TikTok: @openspacetherapy Spotify: @MyTherapistisOut Apple Podcasts: @mytherapistisoutYouTube: @openspacetherapycollective

We have talked about relationships to ourselves, our families, community, sex, and romance. And we saved the most loaded topic for last: money.In this final full episode of Queer Hearts Healthy Starts: Breaking Toxic Relationship Patterns, Renae sits down with Patrick Armano-Amato, CRPC, AWMA, Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch, for a conversation that is equal parts practical and deeply personal. Because for LGBTQ+ folks, money has never been just about money.They get into the history that explains why so many queer people never learned to plan for a future, how internalized shame shows up in spending, saving, and avoidance, the very real financial cost of being queer when it comes to family building and legal protection, what couples can do right now to safeguard their financial rights as marriage equality faces new threats, and what a healthy, values-aligned relationship with your money can actually look like.This one is grounded, honest, and genuinely useful. Whether you are partnered, single, building a family, or just trying to figure out where to start, this conversation is for you.Queer Moment of Joy Guest 1: Gabriella Layne Her/Hers @strutsocialwithgabbyQueer Moment of Joy Guest 2: Casi Schwisow She/They Guest Bio : Patrick Armano-Amato, CRPC™, AWMA™, is a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles who is dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, families, and community leaders navigate life’s financial decisions with confidence. His practice focuses on creating personalized financial investment strategies that reflect each client’s unique goals, relationships, and definition of family.Beyond his advisory work, Patrick is deeply involved in the LGBTQ+ community. He serves as Vice President and Board Member of the Los Angeles LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the Board of Advisors for APAIT, and serves as Vice Chair of the LA Pride Business Council at Bank of America. Through his professional and volunteer work, he is passionate about expanding financial education and helping people build lasting financial security while supporting the communities they care about. IG: oliveb0yLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-armano-amato/Email: [email protected]: https://advisor.ml.com/sites/ca/century-city-ca/patrick.armano-amatoHost Bio: Renae Johnson, LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Board-Certified Art Therapist, and the Founder of Open Space Therapy Collective, a group practice offering affirming, social justice-driven mental health care for the LGBTQ+ & QTPOC community. With clinical expertise in complex trauma, identity development, and creative expression, Renae blends therapeutic depth with a commitment to equity and inclusion.In addition to their clinical work, Renae produces community wellness events like Queerly Connected and is a founding board member of the LA Queer Coalition, creating spaces where queer and trans people can gather, heal, organize, and celebrate. As a speaker, consultant, and activist, Renae is passionate about building systems of care that honor the full humanity of queer and trans individuals—and equipping healthcare and wellness providers with the tools to do the same.To find more from us visit:Website: https://www.openspacetherapycollective.comInstagram: @openspacetherapycollective TikTok: @openspacetherapy Spotify: @MyTherapistisOut Apple Podcasts: @mytherapistisoutYouTube: @openspacetherapycollective

Thirty years of living with HIV. Twenty years of global queer advocacy. And a perspective on shame, sex, and survival that you are not going to hear anywhere else.In this episode of our series Queer Hearts Healthy Starts: Breaking Toxic Relationship Patterns, Renae sits down with Alex Garner (he/him), Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Communications at MPact Global, for a conversation that moves between the deeply personal and the unmistakably political. Because for Alex, those two things have never been separate.They get into what it actually felt like to come of age as a gay man during the AIDS epidemic, why HIV was, for many men of his generation, a matter of when and not if, and what it took to move from fear and stigma into a life built around joy and self-possession. They talk about what queer rage can do when it gets channeled into something, what parents of queer teens need to unlearn, how MPact is choosing to expand rather than retreat in a moment when so much is being stripped away, and why the dance floor has always been, and still is, a form of resistance.This one goes deep. And it lands somewhere hopeful.Queer Moment of Joy Guest 1: Ronan Mayock He/Him @ronanmayockQueer Moment of Joy Guest 2: Lara Etzen She/Her @laraetzeGuest Bio : Alex Garner is a writer, artist, and community advocate dedicated to advancing queer visibility and health equity. He currently serves as Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives & Communications at MPact Global Action and previously led sexual health innovation and global campaigns as Senior Health Innovation Strategist at Hornet. With over 25 years in community organizing and two decades as a writer, Alex uses storytelling, art, and advocacy to humanize queer experiences and destigmatize conversations around sex, HIV, and identity.Born and raised in Southern California, Alex is a proud Chicano, gay/queer, and male-presenting person who embraces fluidity and authenticity. Living openly with HIV for 30 years, he shares his personal journey including his time as a sex worker and performer to challenge stigma and inspire others.Links: https://www.instagram.com/alexgarnerla/ www.mpactglobal.org https://www.instagram.com/mpact.global/https://www.facebook.com/MPactGlobalAction/Host Bio: Renae Johnson, LPCC, ATR-BC (they/them) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, Board-Certified Art Therapist, and the Founder of Open Space Therapy Collective, a group practice offering affirming, social justice-driven mental health care for the LGBTQ+ & QTPOC community. With clinical expertise in complex trauma, identity development, and creative expression, Renae blends therapeutic depth with a commitment to equity and inclusion.In addition to their clinical work, Renae produces community wellness events like Queerly Connected and is a founding board member of the LA Queer Coalition, creating spaces where queer and trans people can gather, heal, organize, and celebrate. To find more from us visit:Website: https://www.openspacetherapycollective.comInstagram: @openspacetherapycollective TikTok: @openspacetherapy Spotify: @MyTherapistisOut Apple Podcasts: @mytherapistisoutYouTube: @openspacetherapycollectiveKeywords: queer health, HIV, sexuality, community, impact global, LGBTQ+ activism, mental health, global health, queer joy, advocacy