Join us for our regular monthly meeting welcoming the entire spectrum of LGBTQ+ community, friends, families, and allies for education, rich conversation, and supportive community.
Our PFLAG general support meetings will be held both IN PERSON and VIA ZOOM.
Virtual meeting attendees still require RSVP. If you are new to Zoom, CLICK HERE to get set-up.
Please RSVP to rsvp@pflagmanhattanbeach.org
How Secrets Can Help Us and Hurt Us
with Esther Loewen, (she/her) Associate Marriage & Family Therapist
Many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community and our loved ones often struggle with keeping secrets from friends and family members. Esther will help us explore the benefits and drawbacks of secret keeping so that we can make better decisions for ourselves and our families.
About our presenter:
Esther (she/her) is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, an educator, and a public speaker. Hailing originally from Walla Walla, Washington, she transplanted to Redlands, California in 2019. Esther gives her heart and soul to creating inclusion by celebrating beauty, following curiosity, and showing up in courageous authenticity. Her through-line message is “you are enough.” Esther’s professional life has been filled with 16 years of ordained pastoral ministry in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, authoring a book about keeping and telling secrets, and earning two master’s degrees (MAGL from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and MAMFT from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University). In addition to serving as a therapist, Esther also produces and hosts the podcast "Transgender Woman Talking”, a show about life outside cisgender norms. She is married to her life-partner of 18 years, with whom she shares the joy of parenting their two brilliant, creative, energetic, and empathetic children.
Learn more about Esther and her work online HERE
A NOTE ABOUT VIRTUAL MEETINGS:
We will be utilizing Zoom features that provide the highest level of safety and confidentiality possible. Zoom is free to you and you need not have an account to join us. If you are new to Zoom, you can follow the links [here] for brief tutorials on all you need to know to sign on to a Zoom meeting with us. We ask that each of you that would like to participate in the on-line support, contact us in advance by email at rsvp@pflagmanhattanbeach.org to RSVP for the meeting. We will cut off RSVPs at 5 p.m. on the day of the meeting. All participants will receive a follow-up email with the link to the Zoom call and a password. For confidentiality’s sake, please do not forward these to another participant — they are welcome to contact us directly to receive the link.
We ask that youth who may want to join for our support groups to please be joined by a parent. Some heavy emotions can emerge in the course of our sessions and having a parent on-hand helps to ensure that the needs of any youth on the call are met.
There are some benefits to utilizing new tools like Zoom. We recognize that our typical evening support group meetings are not feasible for everyone due to work, family or other demands. If there is a need, we would like to offer an additional support group Zoom conference call sometime during the daytime hours. If you are interested in a daytime support group, email us at info@pflagmanhattanbeach.org and let us know what times might be more workable for you.
If you need more personalized assistance and support, we remain here for you. Email us confidentially and we will work with you to identify the best member of our team to assist with your individual needs.