Episode 253: Briana Mills

Therapist and advocate Briana Mills was born with an extremely rare form of muscular dystrophy, and from a very early age, everyone but her mother reinforced the ableist idea that the world would never expect much from her. Throughout her youth, Briana didn't want anything to do with her disability; all she wanted was to fit in. But her participation in a youth leadership forum for marginalized students not only changed the way she viewed herself, it made her want to educate others. Briana shares how seeing therapist after therapist who knew nothing about disability inspired her to become a therapist herself, specifically so that she could serve other people like her. She also discusses her experiences as a disabled bisexual woman on the dating apps, and we have a great conversation about taking it upon yourself to educate others vs. somewhat-less-kindly telling people to educate themselves.

Check out Briana's website at https://www.brianamills.com/, and follow her on Twitter at @theBrianaMills and on Instagram at @brianamillslmft. And if you live in California and are looking for a therapist, make sure to reach out!

Also, while we don't have personal experience with it, it's worth noting per our conversation in this episode that there is a new queer-friendly dating app called Dateability that is specifically designed for the disabled and chronically ill communities! You can follow them on Twitter and Insta at @dateabilityapp, and sign up for an account at https://info.dateabilityapp.com/!