Show Up Broken: You Don't Need to Be Fully Healed Yet

Alex: [takes a deep breath] Because trauma compounds. Being removed from your home is traumatic. Being in a system that shuffles you around is traumatic. Being queer in spaces that may not affirm or understand your identity? Another layer.The statistics around mental health for system-involved LGBTQ+ youth are heartbreaking. Higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicide attempts. But those aren't just numbers to me, they're kids with names and dreams and favorite songs.We build mental health support into everything we do, not as an add-on but as the foundation. You can't build a future if you're constantly in survival mode. Healing has to come first.But here's what's important: we don't pathologize their responses to trauma. When a kid has a panic attack because they're being moved to their seventh placement in two years, that's not a disorder, that's a reasonable response to an unreasonable situation. We validate that. We teach them to understand their own responses rather than being ashamed of them.JT: Your work embraces the messy, non-linear reality of healing and identity, something we talk about a lot in Between the Covers. How do you approach that messiness with Lighthouse?Alex: [smiles] Oh, we're all about the mess. Transformation isn't linear....