Supporting LGBTQ Youth with Trauma Informed Mindfulness

Salina Mae and Ursula Elsa

Training Description

Creating a safe container of acceptance, nonjudgement, and belonging is critical for the wellbeing of LGBTQI+ youth. In this workshop you will learn how to support LGBTQI+ youth in processing unaccepting attitudes, cultivating resilience, developing self-awareness, and a strong self-love.  For LGBTQI+ youth, mindfulness can be especially transformative by providing compassionate self-awareness practices. You will gain tools to deepen your allyship to your clients, in a way that truly honors the intersectional layers of identity. 

  

We acknowledge the complexity of running trainings that seek to foster deep self and community connection in an online format. We are committed to create trainings that provide opportunities for connection, self reflection, embodied practices, mindfulness and that incorporate learning and integration for multiple learning styles. In our training design, we will have space for breaks from the screen, opportunities for participants to engage with the natural world as a resourcing and reflective tool, and different formats and group sizes for discussion and integration of the materials as the training progresses. We value the emergent and so create trainings that are adaptive to the experience and feedback of the participants and the collective as we are in session. 

Learning Objectives

• Explore and understand how mindfulness can be supportive and culturally relevant for LGBTQI+ youth 
• Engage in at least 1 activity to support youth in their self-acceptance 
• Explore at least 1 activity for supporting youth in cultivating resilience 
• Learn how to cultivate your allyship and advocacy as a youth worker 
• Learn and practice how to utilize at least 1 mindfulness-based nonjudgement practice for youth
• Engage in at least one activity to develop  self confidence
• Learn at least 2 tools for supporting youth in navigating their gender and sexuality 
• Practice and learn at least 1 breathing technique for youth  to cope with stress and anxiety 

Agenda

10:00-10:15  Welcome, Housekeeping, and Mindfulness Practice

10:15-10:30 Introduction to Supporting LGBTQI+ Youth

10:30-10:45 Intersectional Identities and the LGBTQI+ Community 

10:45-11:00 Activity 1: “The Gender Unicorn”: Understanding sexuality, gender identity, and expression 

11-11:30  Activity 2 Self-Acceptance practice 

11:30-12:00 Activity 3: Nonjudgement practice 

12:00-1:00 Lunch Time and Individual Questions

1:00-1:45: Activity 4: Cultivating Allyship

1:45-2:00 Closing and Feedback; Course Evaluations 

Meet Our Trainers

Salina Mae (she/her/hers), is a Bay Area born and raised community leader with over 15 years’ experience serving California schools both as a K-12 classroom teacher and as a mindfulness coach and consultant. With a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion, she received her Master’s in Education and California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential at the Claremont Graduate University in 2006.  She specializes in building creative, inspired, and socially awake trainings and curricula that lead to action in the areas of mindfulness, social justice, and systems change. Salina is a certified yoga teacher, a dedicated mentor and advocate for LGBTQI+ youth and is currently the Director of Mindful Education at Seeds of Awareness in Oakland. 

Ursula Elsa (she/her/ hers) was born and raised in the beautiful land of the Bay Area, Ohlone Territory. She has been teaching mindfulness and nature connection to youth in the Bay Area for over 6 years and is currently leading rites of passage work for Gaia Girls. Ursula is passionate about creating programming for LGBTQI+ and neurodiverse communities. She is also a trained doula and an advocate of parent’s rights in the birth community. Ursula has been collaborating with Salina since 2013 to create mindfulness-based programming, educator trainings and curricula. 

This course meets the qualifications for (4) BBS CEUs for LCSWs and MFTs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.