BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
What are the determinants of your mental health?
Join us for a community conversation to celebrate the release of the much-anticipated book, The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Publications, 2025). This guide examines the social determinants impacting the mental health of queer men—including internalized shame, heteronormative milestones, disenfranchised grief, and body-conscious culture—and offers therapeutic tools such as cognitive-behavioural techniques, Gestalt role-play, and psychodynamic inquiry to foster insight and resilience.
This event welcomes GBTQ folks, allies, and service providers.
Author: Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
Talk Back Moderator: JT Mikulka, LCSW
Schedule
3:00 Welcome and Digging Deeper Exhibit (Solo or interactive)
3:30 Moderator’s opening remarks
3:35 Talk Back
4:25 Audience Q&A
4:50 Closing remarks and book signing
5:30 End
Sign up here: http://rahiminnyc.eventbrite.ca/
To reserve a copy of The Mental Health Guide for Cis & Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Publications, June 1, 2025, paperback, $19.95) please write to us at contact@bgsqd.com with “please reserve Mental Health Guide for June 15 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Rahim Thawer (he/him) is a registered social worker (OCSWSSW), psychotherapist, and Canadian Certified Supervisor (CCS); he’s also a consultant, public speaker, and writer. He is the founder of Affective Consulting & Psychotherapy Services (est. 2014), through which he has delivered nearly 200 presentations and talks that inspire critical
conversations and reflection on mental health, interpersonal effectiveness, systemic oppression, and innovation in queer relationships.
Rahim calls Toronto home and teaches in Tuscaloosa, at The University of Alabama, where he is a full-time instructor and also enrolled in the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program. As a queer Muslim, his clinical work and scholarship consistently explore the intersections of mental health and systemic oppression. His doctoral research focuses
on how anti-racist, queer-affirming psychoanalytic frameworks can better support social workers, therapists-in-training, and organizational leaders.
He is the recipient of multiple awards that recognize his leadership and contributions to education, social justice, and anti-oppressive practice, including:
Rahim was a co-editor of Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer (Coach House Books, 2016), which was nominated for the Toronto Book Awards. He has also self-published four clinical guides addressing assessment, treatment planning, documentation, and countertransference.
Forthcoming Books:
1. The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Press,June 2025)
2. The Politicized Practitioner: The Essential Reader for Social Workers & Psychotherapists (Blue Cactus Press, November 2025)
3. Queer Muslims: On Faith, Family, and Healing (Co-editor; University of ReginaPress, April 2026).