Our Story

The seed for Queer Care Collective Berlin (QCCB) was planted at a meet-up in the summer of 2023, but we have been dreaming of a different kind of care for a long time. Every single one of us has been at times disillusioned with the lack of accountability and criticism within the field of mental health (we’re sure you have too). Psychiatry and psychology have long been complicit in colonial, patriarchal, and hetero/cis-normative rhetoric. These institutions have profited from the idea that those who do not fit what has been deemed “normal” need to undergo “treatment” to be able to better function in what is undoubtedly a rather broken system. We believe that many diagnoses listed in the infamous DSM are quite reasonable responses to lived realities of structural oppression, violence, poverty, and other unjust experiences of our fellow citizens.

From that seed, a mighty tree has been growing. The care we are keen to provide our broader community starts with us. We are not colleagues coldly exchanging work ideas, we are a bunch of queerdos with soft hearts and big dreams trying to show up for one another and our fellow folx, while also teaching the skills to keep passing care forward. Psychology has often privatized care, keeping theories and tools behind closed doors and paywalls. We want to teach you what we know, so you can make a difference not just in your own life, but in that of others as well.

We’re approaching care with curiosity: how can we create more sustainable and accessible ways of helping each other? How do we move beyond the science-industrial complex and unveil the infinite ways of healing that have been silenced? What is normalcy and what does it mean to resist it? How do we develop communities that can rely on one another, lean on each other, dream together, and revolutionize?

We don’t have all the answers. But we are finally asking all the questions.