Blog - Living Lotus Therapy®

Chosen Family: The Heart of Pride, Community, and Survival

a man holding a placard — Photo by Antonio Herrera Palacios on Pexels.com

At Living Lotus Therapy, this year’s Pride theme is Chosen Family (also known as Found Family). For many people, the phrase recalls close friendships, supportive communities, and the people who show up when life gets hard. But for LGBTQ+ communities, chosen family is a legacy of survival, resistance, healing, and belonging. As we celebrate Pride this year, we also find ourselves living in a time when LGBTQ+ rights, healthcare access, and safety continue to face challenges across the United States and around the world. In moments like these, chosen family becomes an important protective factor.

The People Who Shaped My Work as a Clinician

By: Dr. Panicha McGuire, LMFT, RPT-S™

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For me, stepping into advocacy, education, and supervision did not happen all at once. It happened slowly, through relationships, through mentorship, through being challenged and supported by people who fundamentally changed the way I think about this work.

This field often places a heavy emphasis on credentials, theories, and expertise, but some of the most meaningful learning I’ve had came through watching how people move through the world. How they advocate. How they lead. How they hold boundaries. How they care for others without abandoning themselves. How they stay critical, relational, creative, and human within systems that often reward the opposite.

Hantavirus Anxiety After COVID-19

By: Maggie Chen, MSW & Dr. Panicha McGuire, LMFT, RPT-S™

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Headlines over the past two weeks have been plastered with news of a Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. Following the collective trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic, reactions have been understandably strong. Human brains are hardwired to look for patterns and for many, the pattern that stands out here is Rare Animal Virus + High Mortality + Superspreader Ship Conditions = Pandemic 2.0. Looking at the scientific data and at how our nervous systems may be reacting, we are here to help break this down and find the balance between vigilance and hyper-vigilance as we deal with uncertainty.