News / mental health
New LGBTQ+ mental health and counselling service launched
A new LGBTQ+ therapy and counselling service in Bristol will cover covering everything to do with sexuality, sexual orientation, gender and sex.
Launched at the end of February 2020, Talk to the Rainbow specialises in helping the queer community in the face of a growing mental health crisis.
The organisation was founded out of the need for LGBTQ+ specific, professional therapies and counselling and the team includes experienced therapists, counsellors, psychologists and mindfulness practitioners who all have lived experience or strong links to the LGBTQ+ community.
is needed now More than ever
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The queer community are more susceptible to mental health problems and Talk to the Rainbow hopes to combat the factors stopping LGBTQ+ seeking professional help, such as discrimination and inequality.
“We are thrilled to be opening our flagship service in Bristol,” says director and co-founder Hugo Minchin. “Certainly, the LGBTQ+ community in the South West is facing a massive mental health crisis. It’s a harsh reality, but quite frankly, people are dying.
“We aim to step in at a time to offer support and care when no one else really is. We are looking forward to providing a truly unique counselling service to Bristol and the local regions, and to start to make a difference to such a wonderful, yet very vulnerable community.”
Hugo Minchin founded the organisation alongside Tara Fraser. Photo courtesy of Tribe PR
The professionals working at Talk to the Rainbow have been chosen to reflect a range of training and approaches to offer a wide-ranging approach to helping the queer community in Bristol and across the South West.
Recent research has found that more than half of LGBTQ+ people have experience discrimination, one in seven queer people avoid seeking healthcare for fear of discrimination from staff.
In a climate where transgender young people are more than four times as likely to experience depression and one in eight young people have attempted to take their own life, a service like Talk to the Rainbow is needed now more than ever.
For more information and to access services, go to www.talktotherainbow.co.uk
Main photo by Emily Lloyd
Read more: Supporting LGBTQ+ young people at risk of homelessness
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