The Midwest Inclusive
Care Conference

Encompass Mental Health is a counseling practice built on a simple idea: counseling for real life. We pride ourselves on not being stuffy or overly formal, instead focusing on care that meets people where they are, not where a textbook says they should be.

For years, our therapists have shown up in sessions where queer and gender non-conforming clients had good reason to expect judgment, and chose to offer something different instead — a place where they are affirmed and their identities centered, not side barred. Co-hosting this conference is a natural next step: if inclusive care changed the way we show up for individual clients, it can change the way an entire region of providers shows up, too.

The Transformation Project exists to support and empower transgender individuals and their families, and to educate communities across South Dakota and the surrounding region about gender identity and expression.

Through their Trans Resilience Fund, Prism Community Center, and years of direct advocacy work, they've seen firsthand what happens when trans people can't find a provider who understands them — and what changes when they can. They're co-hosting this conference because education is one of the most direct ways to close that gap: the more providers who walk away equipped to offer affirming care, the fewer people who suffer without it.