The Rainbow Room: Online group for LGBTQ+ young people.

In the spirit of keeping this little blog updated……..I thought I’d share some of the brilliant work that’s going on at Rainbow Mind, where I work as the project coordinator alongside my private practice. This week I’ll be focusing on the Rainbow Room - our online mental health drop-in group for LGBTQ+ young people.

The Rainbow Room is free to join and open to anyone identifying as LGBTQ+ who is between the ages of 17-24. It’s completely free to access and the groups are held every fortnight on a Thursday between 6 and 7.30 pm. They have been running for about a year now and is usually a mixture of people who are joining for the first time, and people that like to attend regularly. The most important thing to remember is that you’re very welcome, whether you’re a newbie or an old-timer!

The groups are more interactive than your run-of-the-mill mental health group, more colourful and interactive. We always make space for people to bring whatever they want to bring to the session. This may be something that you’re struggling with, or perhaps it’s an achievement that you’re proud of or even a talent that you’re keen to show off!

The facilitators (Bindie, Bex and Omikemi) ensure that everyone has time and space to contribute, but also work really hard in designing sessions that include music and videos that celebrate or mirror the experiences of growing up as LGBTQ+, as well as teaching techniques drawn from mindfulness and self-compassion, focused therapy that can help us in managing common mental health problems.

One of the best elements of these sessions is that they are co-created between the facilitators and participants. This means that each session, the group members decide what they would like from the following session, which topics feel relevant at that particular time. The team then go away and design the following session around the needs of the group (rather than just assuming what people want from the sessions).

Rainbow Mind offers a variety of mental health support services including Radical Self Care courses and 121 therapy. The Rainbow Room is a great place to experience what it is like to access their services or to indicate to the team that you’re interested in finding out more.

If you’re interested in joining a Rainbow Room session, it’s super easy to get involved. You just need to either register via the EventBrite page, or join the Rainbow Room group on Meetup.