Matthew Reeves (he/him/his)

Anxiety goes beyond normal worrying. It can lead to physical symptoms like panic attacks and inflammatory diseases. Rather than battling the part of you that's anxious, we can work to understand it and learn why it's showing up. This curious approach can shift energy away from internal strife and towards internal peace.

Our bodies respond to threats automatically. When we are reminded of past dangers, our brains can re-live the experience. This is also true of emotional threats faced in childhood, resulting in a different sort of flashback, an emotional flashback. We can work to heal these wounds by “re-filing” memories so that remembering is not re-living and by creating new neural pathways that respond to situations and people in calmer, more secure, and more satisfying ways.

The challenges that members of sexual and gender minority communities encounter are many, varied, complex, intersecting, and real. They affect us physically, emotionally, relationally, socially, and existentially. As a member of this community, my goal is to transform the pain of marginalization, isolation, fear, and hatred into inner peace, connectedness, stability, joy, and, yes, pride.