LGBTIQA+ Spirituality and Religion Conversation Group
Reconciling faith with identity? Left a cult?
Dealing with religious trauma? Healing from the past?
Reclaiming, reinventing, reclaiming your beliefs, or yourself?
4th Saturday of each month, 11A-12:30P, PST (Pacific Standard Time)
FREE. DROP-IN. Via Google Meet.
1/27, 2/24, 3/23, 4/27, 5/25, 6/22, etc.
All religious/faith/spiritual backgrounds, all relationships to matters of S/spirit, those questioning, denouncing, or accepting, all backgrounds, past and present, all are welcome.
Video link to Google Meet: https://bit.ly/lgbtiqspirit (https://meet.google.com/ive-zgtq-omt)
Text/Email for more information: 323-834-9828; chaplain@alexanderyoo.com or therapy@alexanderyoo.com
Please let me know if you're planning to try it out by texting me a quick note.
ABOUT THIS GROUP:
Conversation, sharing of experiences, commiserating, listening. Not a therapy group, not a support group, but it will probably have supportive elements. I can provide topics or you can share your experiences impromptu. Be heard. Find others who will empathize and validate. (Note: Past and present therapy clients' confidentiality will continue to be protected in that I will not acknowledge said therapeutic relationship).
Please be kind, please offer feedback only with permission, and please try to respect others' experiences and beliefs. Please help to keep this space as safe as possible. If you have suggestions, please message me privately.
This group is welcoming of:
- Christians (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, etc.), recovering and/or current
- Wicca, magick, paganism, TST, non-religious religion, animism, earth-based religions, indigenous beliefs, and culturally-based spiritual practice
- Established, monotheistic, polytheistic, Eastern, Western, new, syncretic, alternative, structured, freeform, growing, and/or loosely-affiliated belief systems, churches, and faiths
- Those with religious trauma
- Those in recovery from religion
- Those celebrating their experiences with faith/spirituality/religion
- Those exploring reconciliation, reconstruction, reclamation, and/or integration
- All backgrounds, upbringings, current and past relationships to faith/religion/spirituality, adamant atheists, firm believers
- All are welcome.
By the way, if you'd like a list of resources on anything related to spirituality, religion, cults, spiritual abuse, recovery, reconstruction, reclamation, anything at all related to this set of topics, please ask! I would love to provide them.
FACILITATOR:
Rev. Alexander Yoo, MDiv, MA, MFT
Psychotherapist, clergy, healer
I have been a student, practitioner, adherent, and interested party of religion and faith my whole life. Despite being a religious scholar and theologian, I am a radical syncretist, a universalist who sees peoples’ experiences with and opinions about faith, religion, philosophy, and S/spirit (and life, period!) as an infinitely faceted gem. Everyone has a portion of the overall picture that only they see and know. One of the joys of undertaking existence with other Beings is to share the facet that we do see, know, and experience with others, and to receive in turn.
I extensively studied Shamanism and East Asian religions, indigenous beliefs, and movements, and their histories and practitioners through the present day. I have a Master’s of Divinity from United Theological Seminary studying Diverse Spiritualities. I am an ordained clergyperson and hospice chaplain (I help people die and help people converse about death). I am an enthusiastic, reluctant, consistent, and sporadic adherent and experiencer of different religions, spiritual expressions, ancestral beliefs, and connections to the Divine. (As an aside, I also specialize in con artists, DV/abusive relationships, cults, religious abuse, and what they do and do not have in common.)
All this to say: I love this stuff, and I love talking about this stuff, with friends, family, colleagues, patients, and clients. If you have any questions or would like to talk about this or any other topic, I'm all ears.