Becoming Who You Are: Exploring Gender, Sexual, and Identity Development
This group provides a safe place to help foster the development of a healthy LGBTQ+ identity, with no pressure, expectations, or judgement as members navigate their own path at their own pace.
The period of adolescence is all about growing up, becoming independent, challenging norms and expectations, and figuring out who you are and want to be. Many teens are focused on how others perceive them and how to fit in, or in some cases, how to stand out.
Sexual identity development is a complex, multidimensional, and often fluid process. Kids are discovering and declaring who they are at a younger age and in more public ways than ever before. However, the social messaging around identity development is still communicated as different equals deviant, weird, or bad.
For those who are exploring and discovering who they are, feeling different can lead to a decreased sense of self-worth, guilt, and shame, as well as isolation, a lack of social support, and missing close relationships with peers, family, and their social environment. Gender variance, as it relates to expressing and exploring gender identity and gender roles, is a part of normal development. Helping kids express and learn more about themselves in an affirming and accepting environment is the goal for this group.