I am fundraising for a very important community mental health resource in Los Angeles, The Relational Center. As I finished my master's in social work, I completed a clinical internship with TRC from August 2021 to April 2022 that changed my life. It was a tremendous blessing to train at TRC as their values are in complete alignment with my own, so after graduation, I decided to stay on with TRC providing individual counseling and co-facilitating support groups. 

Since 2007, TRC has offered sliding-scale counseling to underserved, marginalized communities who are often not able to access mental health support. TRC is rooted in social justice, and the belief that therapy is not just a right, but a political act. TRC does not diagnose, or pathologize a client based on a prior diagnosis, but is committed to seeing the client as a multidimensional intersectional person who is deeply affected by interconnected systems of family, friends, community, and the larger systemic forces of oppression. TRC's therapeutic framework, Relational Gestalt, is quite revolutionary as it does not probe into the client's history outside of what the client feels comfortable in sharing or is relevant in that moment. The counseling is client-led, strengths-based, trauma-informed, culturally-responsive, and leans heavily on the here-and-now relationship between the therapist and client, which is a profoundly healing force in its own right. TRC also offers many low-cost and free support groups for clients and the community at large. TRC is committed to training the next generation of visionary, radically-inclusive therapists with a year-round clinical training program offered at very affordable rates so it is accessible to everyone. 

TRC does not accept outside funding which often has strings attached regarding reporting client data and measurable outcomes; this is not in alignment with respecting a client's agency & privacy, and additionally, healing cannot be quantified. TRC relies ONLY on community donations. Please help us in our shared mission of serving the well-being of in-need Angelenos and donate -- no donation is too small!

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." -- Audre Lorde

The Relational Center's 2022 Year-End Appeal

Every year we host a Year-End Appeal that offers our supporters one last opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation to The Relational Center before the end of the calendar year. Our goal for the 2022 Year-End Appeal is $75,000. These funds are critical for sustaining The Relational Center's community. With your support, we can continue to integrate individual healing and systemic cultural change through affordable comprehensive mental health services to low-income and marginalized folx. 

Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in loss, substance misuse, depression, isolation, and grief. Our aim is to continue providing inclusive mental health services to our communities during a time for healing. We have increased services over 40% since the pandemic began, as we offer both virtual and in-person counseling, including many groups that are free and open to the public. We are capable of doing this for under $150 per client per month – less than many people pay for a single session of therapy! Help us build stronger, more empathic communities that can change the world! Please donate today, in whatever amount you can, we are depending on you.