Ready to dive in the strategies and getting into more of the nitty-gritty with mental health & relationships? Hear it all on this episode of the Queer Joy Podcast; where two relationship therapists explore what it looks like to see joy in queer relationships.
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TRANSCRIPT
Keely: We have to constantly remind ourselves: no one is responsible for someone else's life. We are not responsible for another person's joy. We're not responsible for making them happy. We're not responsible for keeping them alive. But there's a lot of things we can be. We can, as partners, be supportive, be compassionate, bring joy, bring pleasure. But not just bring, but, like, participate in pleasure with the other person. It's just, we're not responsible for another human being. all right! Back again! Melisa: Welcome back to Queer Relationships. Queer Joy: Part 2 of the continuation of our conversation about mental health in queer relationships. Keely: Yeah, part two. And I realized, it feels a little heavy. I feel a little heavy right now. Usually we're talking about all these like super, like interesting, like, gooey happiness. Melisa: Also, we're like for listeners, we're recording part one and two back to back. So we're sitting in the heaviness. I would recommend listening to them separately. Keely: So if you didn't listen to the first episode of the first part of this discussion on relationships and mental health, I would definitely recommend listening to part one first. But if you didn't, just to get you up to speed, the first part we talked a little bit about definitions of anxiety and depression, and then how to start the conversation, when to start the conversation, how to talk about it. Some general things to think about and on this episode recording, we really wanted to focus on strategies and getting into more of the nitty-gritty when you're in the relationship situations. Melisa: Shall we do intros again just in case there's anyone who's skipping part one and wants to dive right into part two and doesn't know who we are? Keely: Always introductions. I am Keely C Helmick. I'm the owner of Connective Therapy Collective. I'm a queer, non-binary, white able-bodied person. I am solo poly and licensed professional counselor as well as a certified sex therapist. Melisa: And I'm Melisa DeSegiurant. I'm a licensed clinician at Connective Therapy Collective. I'm white, bisexual, polyamorous, gender fluid, mostly able-bodied, coming into physical recovery and also deal with anxiety in keeping with today's topic. Keely: Yeah. And so in honor of May being Mental Health Awareness, we are continuing our conversation around mental health and relationships. And I think I didn't mention this. Cause again, I, I have assumptions sometimes, but really wanting to recognize and validate that there is a high percentage of queer and trans folks with diagnosable mental health challenges, ment