Existential Helping: A Holistic Approach to Supporting LGBTQIA+ Youth

Description

(June 2026) 

Supporting LGBTQIA+ youth who have experienced marginalization requires more than interventions—it requires presence, humility, and the ability to sit with uncertainty. Existential Helping is a relational framework that centers meaning-making, autonomy, and authentic connection, helping providers respond to youth experiences without minimizing, fixing, or rescuing. In this interactive webinar, participants will practice using Existential Helping to strengthen one-on-one engagement with LGBTQIA+ youth. Through guided reflection and experiential activities, participants will learn how to demonstrate empathy rather than sympathy, “hold space” during difficult conversations, and support youth in exploring identity, values, and purpose amid racial and anti-LGBTQIA+ trauma.

Participants will leave with:
• Skills to deepen trust and connection through presence and curiosity
• Techniques for holding space without problem-solving or pathologizing
• Practical tools to support youth agency, self-definition, and meaning-making

Nia Clark (MSW) has spent 20 years changing systems from within as a consultant, trainer, direct service provider, researcher, and LGBTQ+ youth advocate. From 2006-2014, she was a residential care counselor and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) trainer at The Home for Little Wanderers in Massachusetts. From 2015-2017 Nia was the Mentoring Coordinator at LifeWorks mentoring program at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and supervised nearly 50 active one-to-one matches between LGBTQ+ youth and adults each year. In 2016, she was the consulting producer of the Emmy-nominated MTV documentary, TRANSFORMATION, a film featuring herself and six trans & gender diverse youth. Nia is currently Senior Specialist of Strategic Outreach & Training at Human Rights Campaign Foundation where she creates and facilitates programming such as Voices for Equality – a 3-hour, in-person workshop that empowers LGBTQ+ advocates and allies to change the hearts and minds of others by sharing powerful personal stories with intention. She was additionally a contributing author to Oxford University’s 2022 textbook publication Social work practice with the LGBTQ community: The intersection of history, health, mental health and policy factors (2nd ed.).  A record-breaking three-time Point Foundation Scholar, Nia obtained her master’s degree in Advanced Clinical Social Work from Simmons University in Boston.

watch time: 110 minutes

Eligible Certificate of Completion time: 110 minutes