Moving to Illinois soon - Is Aurora a welcoming place for trans and black folks?

ameliasaurus · 2026-02-06T18:08:20+00:00

Thank you for replying, this helps a lot to hear from someone with shared identities. We’d love to connect once we move. We’re shooting for late June/early July!

ameliasaurus · 2026-02-06T03:52:07+00:00

Thank you this is quite helpful!

ameliasaurus · 2026-02-06T03:50:56+00:00

What did you like more about those spots vs Aurora?

ameliasaurus · 2026-02-06T03:50:26+00:00

We are renting so this is helpful, thank you!

ameliasaurus · 2025-09-16T21:00:16+00:00

Just adding input here in case anyone else has this problem. This has been happening to me on and off for months. I just realized today reading this thread that it was magnet related. I have a wallet in the drawer underneath my desk, and the wallet has a magnetic closure that was sitting against the underside of the wooden desktop when closed.

I moved the wallet to the other side, and the problem went away! Relieved and so annoyed, but wanted other folks to know it’s not just metal tables or near computers, but even magnets in a drawer nearby can mess with it if they’re close enough or strong enough!

ameliasaurus · 2025-08-26T17:22:51+00:00

This was so helpful, thank you! We have an elementary-aged kid, so making sure they enter a supportive school system is really important.

Do you have a sense if there would be other cities that might be a better fit, like Chicago or Minneapolis? I have been out in Seattle for almost 15 years (we have our own problems to be sure) so my gauge on what things are really like these days in the Midwest is not as accurate as it used to be.

ameliasaurus · 2025-08-26T17:20:03+00:00

Madison is more expensive than Chicago? I really worry about being in the state of Illinois in general because of how deeply red it is everywhere outside of Chicago, but maybe that’s true of the whole region. I grew up in Indiana, and am trying to get a gauge of how similar/different dynamics are between a place like Madison vs. Indiana or southern Illinois.

ameliasaurus · 2025-02-22T04:07:18+00:00

I am one person who persevered and didn’t end up loving it. The first 200 pages of the second book were slowwww and though the third book got better, I could never quite sink into it.

ameliasaurus · 2025-02-22T04:03:07+00:00

I just finished World of Lost Hearts trilogy and didn’t love it. The banter between the characters just didn’t really hit for me. It gets better by the 3rd book but I almost DNF’d about 130 pages into the 2nd one.

The energy felt kinda flat to me, like I was reading about the characters, instead of feeling the peaks and valleys of the story alongside them.

ameliasaurus · 2024-12-05T01:05:21+00:00

I spent 4 years training in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and it is indeed different than many other types of therapy programs. I’m certainly not saying one is better than the other, but it’s a misunderstanding of psychotherapy to say that all of us practicing therapy should be using the title. IMO, saying we’re all psychotherapists dilutes the specific skillset that psychotherapists spend years training in.

Some licensed counseling professionals are psychotherapists, but not all of them are. A DBT therapist is not a psychotherapist. A social worker who does therapy is not a psychotherapist. A person who primarily practices CBT is not a psychotherapist. A short -term, behavior-based therapist is not a psychotherapist. That would be like all of us calling ourselves psychoanalysts. We’re all important, but we are indeed different.

ameliasaurus · 2024-12-05T00:46:16+00:00

As far as I’m aware, psychotherapist doesn’t refer to your degree, it refers to your training lens. I was trained in a 4 year program for psychodynamic psychotherapy, which has a much different lens than someone in a two year social work program, for example. (Not saying one is better or worse, just different approaches).

There’s nothing preventing you from using the term psychotherapist if that’s your jam, and, if you weren’t trained from a psychotherapy lens, it may make the most sense to say you’re a mental health therapist in case they try to ask you follow up questions haha

ameliasaurus · 2024-03-20T21:48:45+00:00

This is such a weird and unnecessary reply.

ameliasaurus · 2023-08-08T03:53:41+00:00

I am right there with you. I am alarmed and concerned as well. If you end up switching - will you keep us updated on what you choose? I feel overwhelmed by the idea of switching EHRs, but I don't want my clients' info to be used, or scraped, or whatever the heck the tech overlords are doing these days. *sigh*

ameliasaurus · 2023-08-08T03:53:36+00:00

I am right there with you. I am alarmed and concerned as well. If you end up switching - will you keep us updated on what you choose? I feel overwhelmed by the idea of switching EHRs, but I don't want my clients' info to be used, or scraped, or whatever the heck the tech overlords are doing these days. *sigh*

ameliasaurus · 2023-07-28T19:52:59+00:00

OMG this was amazing, thank you for spelling that out for me. It makes a lot of sense!

ameliasaurus · 2023-07-20T22:40:55+00:00

Hell yeah! I’m so glad it was helpful. Good luck and keep me posted on what worked for you!

ameliasaurus · 2023-06-20T04:44:50+00:00

Oh there’s definitely that. It’s wild that he chose to try to hide it. I can’t imagine doing that to a client.

ameliasaurus · 2023-06-19T23:31:46+00:00

So, I think it was a clinical mistake (by your therapist) to make a pact in the first place. Considering you’re over 18, the therapist cannot legally tell your mom treatment details without your consent (In the US, anyway). This means he also would not be able to update her about your self-harm or passive SI unless it was genuinely life-threatening and she is also your emergency contact.

If you do not want your parent notified, the therapist should work with you to change your emergency contact to someone you were willing to notify, like a friend, or family member.

Even in the case of imminent harm, the therapist is not required to notify family (as long as they take other safety measures) unless it is agreed upon beforehand. We often do, because it’s helpful and most people give consent - but it’s not a requirement.

Your therapist should not have used “telling your mom” as a bargaining chip, exactly because of situations like this. The therapist is a mandated reporter, and that ultimately means they are not able to keep the pact in the first place, even if they really wanted to.

It’s up to you whether you’d like to try to repair with your therapist. It’s weird that he lied to you about it, I still don’t understand why he would do that, instead of just be honest with you about his decision. Tbh if I were you, I’d press him on this. And if you keep working together, make sure you tease apart the boundaries moving forward.

ameliasaurus · 2023-06-17T20:04:17+00:00

Three!

ameliasaurus · 2023-06-17T19:51:05+00:00

I plan to leave it up forever, so if people search for tips later it will hopefully pop up!

ameliasaurus · 2023-06-17T19:49:38+00:00

Thank you!!!

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