Tag: mental health

New Year & Office Location

Darling Mental Health is pleased to announce that we have a new practice location opening near Elm Park in Worcester!

All in-person appointments and services will be conducted at the new location beginning March 1, 2025 at 255 Park Ave, for which there is a free parking garage and building security from 8am-8pm. Our new office space will ensure that we can provide a physical bulletin board and resource center in our public waiting room as well as a conference room to be used for: in-person education and therapist trainings, drop-in support groups, and closed group therapy; services we hope to offer in only a few short months!

We are actively looking to hire new clinicians to be part of our values-based team focused on providing ethical sex therapy, gender-affirming counseling, and general mental health services for all ages and outpatient conditions. Clinicians do not need to be a specialist in sex or gender counseling, but should espouse the values we stand for in securing equitable access to care that affirms each and every person’s right to healthy sexuality and authentic gender identity/expression. Clinicians will have free access to training and supervision to increase skillsets in supporting clients who are seeking treatment with a sex therapist, gender specialist, and who fall in any aspect of the queer community with trans, intersex, and asexual inclusion as part of our public philosophy. We are a profit-share modeled company who partner with local organizations to evaluate and address needs in the Worcester community. Read the job description here and apply to join the team today!

In line with such a launch we are revamping the website and are changing the Resource Directory to: WooSex.org an online sex therapy resource directory created by a Worcester based clinician, with educational links about sexual health and gender diversity and resource networks from in- and outside of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; expect new design, user feel, and layout in February!

Additionally, a new waiting list application process has been developed for all those seeking outpatient mental health counseling with therapists who are trained and supervised on providing sex therapy, gender identity and trans-affirming counseling, trauma-informed care, as well as many other modalities for the people of Worcester. Our new EHR the Jane app has a HIPAA compliant request form to be put on the waiting list, we are expecting a 2 month turnaround to place you with an appropriate clinician with 15 min consults being scheduled with the Director by request. Your place on our waitlist will be confirmed within 3 business days.

We are joyfully looking forward to new developments and adventures in 2025 as we rise to meet the need of our most vulnerable populations and hope to create a new and welcoming in-person practice that comes to meet the needs of our diverse community.

May we find connection, support, and inspiration in the coming months!

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Autumn’s Arrival

As the Equinox strikes on Sunday, I encourage all to reflect on the celestial event that marks a balance between our daytime and nighttime hours as we in the Northern hemisphere shift properly into autumn. Temperatures are now cooling down, deciduous trees are beginning their celebration, and the harvest season goes into full swing.

Harvest times are a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the summer season’s accomplishments, the opportunities to celebrate and continue cultivation, and prepare for the quiet and often cold times that are coming. As September ends, I encourage everyone to mindfully engage in nature and take advantage of what each person has local to them.

For my own reflection and cultivation, I will be traveling to Lisbon to attend the World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH) conference “A Gender Diverse World in Global Unity” for which I hope to gather more knowledge, resources, and insights to better serve the trans & gender diverse community. Any colleagues who are similarly attending are encouraged to reach out and coordinate a meet!

Darling Mental Health continues to provide online trainings and we look forward to seeing new faces at upcoming events:
Family Interventions for Gender Diverse Minors – 9/21
Erotic Toys and Health – 9/28
Fantasies & kink – 10/12
Non-Monogamy & Polyamory – 10/26,
Compassion for Arabs – 11/9
Intersections with Dissociative Disorders – 11/23
If you would like to attend any three trainings and pay a package price of $200 please use the product BUNDLE option and identify which ones you wish to attend in check out; you will receive verification via email.

Additionally, the 2025 Curriculum is currently being developed. Speakers and educators who wish to be part of our curriculum are encouraged to reach out. All proposals that relate to sex therapy, gender-affirming care, or advocacy for minority groups are considered.

Email proposals/interest to collaborate to Jeremy@DarlingMentalHealth.com

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Prideful Labor Day

As September begins, the US celebrates a national holiday that honors the Labor Movement. Labor Day is a day to reflect and appreciate the social and union advocacy that resulted in legislation which has provided protections to laborers & the working class. No society can function healthily without a healthy labor force that has agency, voice, and the right to live, work, and pursue happiness!

Labor Day also marks the “unofficial” end of Summer and in Worcester it is the pre-cursor to Pride. Our Pride festival at the Commons will be in the afternoon on Saturday the 7th with evening block parties at Femme Bar, MB Lounge, and Electric Haze. For more scheduling information, including daily events for this upcoming week, please go to:

Page – Pride Worcester

Darling Mental Health will have a table at Pride and we look forward to seeing you this year with opportunities to connect in-person, network, collaborate, and answer any questions you may have about sex therapy, gender-affirming mental health counseling, and other services offered.

Meanwhile, Darling Mental Health is holding a Pride Sale on all online trainings, reducing the rate price from $30 to $20 per CE credit hour, $60 for each 3 hour course. The sale ends Sunday Sept. 8th at 12 PM.

Let’s go out and meet in the community, making better connections, and building a safer world for our queer youth!!

Happy Worcester Pride!!!

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Freedom Letter

Hello All,

As Today is the Fourth of July and the United States celebrates its independence from the British Empire I find myself reflecting on many things that are difficult to articulate, synthesize, and process. For different reasons there are many people in the US who are proud to be an American, for many there is pure shame; the rest of us are somewhere in-between not sure whether either emotion is fair to a people who have lost insight on how our systems operate.

What I do recognize and want to speak to is the sheer hypocrisy of our independence from British domination while the American colonies were themselves dominating the African/Black population they had enslaved and forced migration from their homes and lands. Not to mention the most silent genocide in humanity’s history against the Indigenous tribes that continued well into the 20th century with systemic practices of warfare (biological and technologically lopsided) and forced sterilization which is barely recognized in our history books. The history of the United States is covered in blood, and we were falsely told that ALL of the blood shed was justified and/or a divine right to be a nation of personal and religious freedom to self-determination.

Now we face a nation that is struggling to define what limits to power should exist for our leaders, what structures of governance actually help cultivate healthy and progressive movement to the future, and what transparencies and truth can actually be heard and trusted in a world of privatized news media and far-winged conspiracy theories. It’s exhausting and hard for so many of my clients, and I suspect every therapist is feeling it too.

How do we find hope in all of this? How do we as cultivators of good mental health find an authentic way to continue on and build structures of support that help and protect the weak and vulnerable without sacrificing our own resources to maintain self?

I’m not entirely sure. But I hope there is a future filled with more grace for our queer youth and less fear for their diversity and existence. I will continue to work towards that education goal and hope that the networks of resources continue to grow and build so that safe supports can be easily accessed.

For each person reading this I hope you are able to find time in the coming days and months to enjoy your lives, your families, your friends, and your options to express yourselves and find moments of celebration that are authentic to you and find ways to foster hope and courage for the future.

I hope today marks a day of positive shift as the season continues to flourish in the Summer heat; may we all find time to care for ourselves and ready ourselves for the future.

Hopefully,

Jeremy Darling

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Celebrate Pride Month in New England!

As the First of June 2024 hits and we begin to celebrate Pride month, let’s take some moments to reflect on the beauty of the season and the blessing of fair weather in New England:

Related Posts: June Advocacy & Pride Testing

This time of year is always abuzz with many different celebrations and large social events and is a busy time for conferences giving opportunities to connect, educate, and further hone one’s skills in advocacy for those who need our support. Anti-trans legislation is on the rise and combating that fear with education is the primary mission of Darling Mental Health. Working to develop a network of therapists, resources, and educational opportunities is our goal in furthering the health and wellness of all peoples in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Focusing on local efforts and engagements to community can be helpful ways to find joy and hope in the world. Darling Mental Health is dedicated to participating in and bolstering the initiatives of local/regional groups and is glad to be presenting at the New England Association For Family And Systemic Therapy’s “Cultivating Clinical Competency in Gender Affirming Care: Combating Anti-Trans Systems” Conference on the 7th of June: Hormones, Gender Diverse Teens, and Their Families

If you are a clinician, educator, advocate, or simply curious about therapist language and lensing please feel free to attend!

Pride Worcester activities and events can be found online at PrideWorcester.org with their currently planned schedule starting with “Barbie” on the Worcester Common June 20th 6PM and ending with the Festival on September 7.

Boston’s Pride for the People, a volunteer run organization will be having their pride on June 8th.

Regionally there will be corporate supported Pride Parades in Boston, Providence, and Portland on June 15th.

Boston Pride‘s website has a map of the locally connected/networked Pride’s throughout the State.

Please feel free to comment any events you are looking forward to or any advocacy efforts that you would like to highlight!!!

Happy Pride Month!

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