Seattle Mental Health & Community Resource Library

No one heals outside of history, land, or community.

Mental health does not exist separately from the conditions people are living within. In Seattle, those conditions include displacement, policing and incarceration, settler colonialism, ableism, racism, migration, housing insecurity, economic inequality, gendered violence, and the ongoing struggle for land, safety, belonging, and self-determination.

At Phoenix Rising Centers, we see therapy as one part of a broader ecosystem of care.

This library centers organizations, movements, educators, artists, and community networks in Seattle and the wider Puget Sound region that are building ways of caring for one another beyond individual treatment alone.

We have prioritized resources rooted in abolition, Indigenous sovereignty, disability justice, transformative justice, mutual aid, cultural healing, community power, and material support.

Some provide therapy or behavioral health services. Others provide housing, food, legal advocacy, peer support, political education, cultural connection, organizing, or simply another way of understanding what healing can mean.

Explore by Topic

Black Healing, Land
& Liberation

LGBTQIA2S+, Trans & Gender Liberation

Disability Justice

Indigenous Sovereignty, Land & Healing

Palestinian Liberation, Anti-War & Global Solidarity

Mutual Aid &
Community Care

Free to Read & Listen

Books We Recommend

Voices That Inspire Us

Black Healing, Land & Liberation

Organizations and community projects centering Black healing, self-determination, cultural belonging, land and housing, reproductive justice, material care, and freedom from punitive systems across Seattle and Washington.

  • Therapy Fund Foundation

    Therapy Fund Foundation

    Seattle-based organization working to remove financial and systemic barriers to Black mental health care through free therapeutic services, mental health education, advocacy, and access to culturally responsive clinicians. It also centers sustainable compensation for the therapists providing that care.

    therapyfundfoundation.org

  • Africatown Community Land Trust

    Africatown Community Land Trust

    Works to preserve Black presence in Seattle by acquiring and stewarding land for the Black diaspora community, building affordable housing, supporting cultural spaces, and resisting displacement from the historically Black Central District.

    africatownlandtrust.org

  • Wa Na Wari

    Wa Na Wari

    A Black cultural space in Seattle’s Central District building Black ownership, belonging, art, organizing, and community connection while developing Black-led responses to gentrification, displacement, and the loss of Black cultural space.

    wanawari.org

  • Black Future Co-op Fund

    Black Future Co-op Fund

    A by-and-for Black Washington organization investing in Black generational wealth, health, well-being, collective power, and self-determination. Its community-led funding model intentionally challenges extractive traditions in philanthropy and treats its work as part of a broader reparative project.

    blackfuturewa.org

  • Creative Justice

    Creative Justice

    A Seattle healing-centered arts organization working with youth and young adults impacted by incarceration and other oppressive systems. Its programs combine art, restorative and transformative justice, peer healing, material support, and organizing toward a future where young people are cared for rather than incarcerated.

    creativejusticenw.org

  • Freedom Project

    Freedom Project

    Works alongside people and families impacted by incarceration, systemic racism, housing insecurity, and structural violence. Its peer-led approach connects healing, re-entry, housing, racial equity, community accountability, and systems change while moving from punishment toward restoration and belonging.

    freedomprojectwa.org

  • Community Passageways

    Community Passageways

    Provides financial assistance for therapy, healing resources, and wellness initiatives, with a focus on expanding access to mental health care for Black women and girls.

    communitypassageways.org

  • Nurturing Roots

    Nurturing Roots

    A Black-founded urban farm in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood connecting food justice, community self-sufficiency, culturally relevant food, education, youth empowerment, and community gathering. Its work challenges inequity within food systems while creating space for people to grow and care for one another.

    nurturingrootsfarm.org

  • BLKBRY

    BLKBRY

    A Black-owned and Black-led reproductive justice and health equity organization providing culturally responsive, full-spectrum support around reproductive, prenatal, postpartum, and lactation care while building Black autonomy, community knowledge, and networks of Black providers and businesses.

    blkbry.com

  • Surge Reproductive Justice

    Surge Reproductive Justice

    Seattle-based reproductive justice organization working to end reproductive oppression while centering Black women, women of color, and queer and trans communities of color. Its work combines grassroots organizing, health justice, community-led research, and advocacy for bodily autonomy and collective well-being.

    surgereprojustice.org

  • Byrd Barr Place

    Byrd Barr Place

    A historic Black community organization in Seattle’s Central District combining material support with racial and economic justice advocacy. Its work addresses food, housing, financial stability, Black intergenerational well-being, political power, and the systemic barriers shaping who is able to remain and thrive in Seattle.

    byrdbarrplace.org

LGBTQIA2S+, Trans & Gender Liberation

Trans-led, Two-Spirit, queer, and gender-diverse organizations building safety, belonging, material support, bodily autonomy, and collective power across Seattle and the Puget Sound region, with particular attention to Black, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, disabled, immigrant, and other Global Majority communities.

  • Lavender Rights Project

    Lavender Rights Project

    A Black Trans feminist organization building community-rooted alternatives to systems that harm Black trans and gender-diverse people. Its work brings together housing justice, movement lawyering, organizing, political education, and collective safety, with an explicit commitment to decolonized systems of care and Black and Indigenous gender-diverse leadership.

    lavenderrightsproject.org

  • Queer The Land

    Queer The Land

    A Seattle collective grounded in the self-determination of queer, trans, and Two-Spirit Black, Indigenous, and other Global Majority people. Queer The Land responds to displacement and gentrification through collective land ownership, housing, resource sharing, community defense, and movement-building rather than treating housing insecurity as an individual problem.

    queertheland.org

  • Lifewerq Project

    Lifewerq Project

    A Coast Salish-region collective by and for Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-nonconforming Black, Indigenous, and other Global Majority people. Its work connects trans liberation with disability justice, reproductive justice, care work, community education, parent support, and culturally grounded approaches to birth and bodily autonomy.

    lifewerqproject.org

  • Alphabet Alliance of Color

    Alphabet Alliance of Color

    A Seattle and King County organization by and for queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and other Global Majority communities. Its work is explicitly rooted in mutual aid, transformative justice, shared power, non-hierarchical leadership, community care, and replacing systems that reproduce harm rather than simply gaining inclusion within them.

    alphabetalliance.org

  • Gender Justice League

    Gender Justice League

    A Seattle-founded organization centering Two-Spirit, trans, and gender-diverse people through direct support, organizing, leadership development, and policy advocacy. Its gender-justice framework explicitly includes incarceration and the prison industrial complex, homelessness, gentrification, reproductive justice, labor, racial justice, and economic justice.

    genderjusticeleague.org

  • UTOPIA Washington

    UTOPIA Washington

    A queer and trans Pacific Islander-led grassroots organization based in South King County whose work grows from the resilience, culture, and leadership of Queer and Trans Pacific Islander communities. Its programs span healthcare, arts and culture, youth work, advocacy, community care, and sex-worker organizing on the unceded ancestral lands of the Muckleshoot people.

    UTOPIA’s Sex Worker Empowerment Initiative is particularly aligned with this library’s anti-carceral framework, advocating decriminalization, harm reduction, worker autonomy, and community-based safety for queer and trans Global Majority, gender-diverse, and intersex sex workers.

    utopiawa.org

  • API Chaya

    API Chaya

    A Seattle organization supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking through culturally relevant, confidential services and community-based healing. Its work also focuses on building communities capable of preventing and responding to harm through leadership, collective learning, survivor autonomy, and accountability rather than relying solely on punitive systems.

    apichaya.org

  • Ingersoll Gender Center

    Ingersoll Gender Center

    A long-standing organization by and for transgender and gender-diverse people in Seattle, grounded in peer support, resource navigation, community organizing, and collective self-determination. Its trans-led peer support group has existed for more than four decades and continues to offer weekly community space alongside monthly in-person gatherings.

    ingersollgendercenter.org

  • TRACTION

    TRACTION

    A Washington trans-led organization building connection, belonging, cultural visibility, and practical support for transgender and gender-diverse communities. Its Project Open Arms helps trans people and their loved ones displaced by anti-trans laws and violence navigate relocation, community connection, employment, healthcare, housing networks, and resettlement in safer environments.

    tractionpnw.org

  • Lambert House

    Lambert House

    A Seattle LGBTQ+ youth center offering community, peer connection, meals, mentoring, resource navigation, leadership opportunities, and dedicated programming for transgender and gender-questioning young people. Its weekly Tranz Youth Group gives trans and questioning youth a recurring space to connect both online and in person.

    lamberthouse.org

Disability Justice

Disabled-led organizations, collectives, and community initiatives challenging ableism alongside racism, incarceration, institutionalization, economic exclusion, and other systems that determine whose bodies and lives are supported. Disability justice asks us to move beyond accommodation alone toward collective access, interdependence, self-determination, and liberation.

  • Amplifying Voices of Incarcerated Individuals with Disabilities (AVID)

    Amplifying Voices of Incarcerated Individuals with Disabilities (AVID)

    A Disability Rights Washington program working to end abuse and neglect of disabled people incarcerated in Washington. AVID explicitly connects disability justice with racism, incarceration, solitary confinement, trans justice, and collective liberation while centering the leadership of people most harmed by carceral systems.

    disabilityrightswa.org/programs/avid

  • Disability Rights Washington

    Disability Rights Washington

    A disabled-led advocacy organization working across Washington to protect the rights, autonomy, dignity, and community inclusion of disabled people. Its work includes legal advocacy, systemic litigation, deinstitutionalization, community living, disability justice, and challenging systems that isolate or control disabled people.

    disabilityrightswa.org

  • Open Doors for Multicultural Families

    Open Doors for Multicultural Families

    A King County organization working at the intersection of disability, race, culture, language, and community power. Open Doors supports multicultural people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families through culturally responsive advocacy, systems navigation, self-advocacy, leadership development, and community support.

    opendoorswa.org

  • Disability Empowerment Center

    Disability Empowerment Center

    A disability-led Center for Independent Living serving Seattle and King County. Its work is grounded in disabled people having the autonomy and resources to make decisions about their own lives, live in community, connect with peers, and challenge barriers to inclusion rather than being segregated or institutionalized.

    disabilityempowerment.org

  • King County Disability Consortium

    King County Disability Consortium

    A coalition of disabled people and community organizations working together to confront inequity and create systemic change across King County. The Consortium provides a space for collective advocacy around the policies, institutions, and material conditions shaping disabled people's lives.

    kingcountydisability.org

  • Disability Mobility Initiative

    Disability Mobility Initiative

    A Disability Rights Washington initiative led by and alongside nondrivers challenging transportation systems designed around car ownership. Its work connects mobility to access to healthcare, employment, food, education, community, and public life while centering disabled people and others who cannot or do not drive.

    disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility

  • Northwest Access Fund

    Northwest Access Fund

    A disability-led organization addressing the economic barriers that keep disabled people from accessing assistive technology, mobility devices, home modifications, adapted vehicles, and other resources needed to participate in community life. It also offers disability-informed financial coaching and benefits support.

    nwaccessfund.org

  • Rooted in Rights

    Rooted in Rights

    A disability-led storytelling and media project of Disability Rights Washington that creates accessible videos, writing, and campaigns by and about disabled people. Its work challenges ableist narratives while giving disabled people tools and platforms to tell their own stories and organize for change.

    rootedinrights.org

  • Office of Developmental Disabilities Ombuds

    Office of Developmental Disabilities Ombuds

    A statewide independent advocacy program supporting people with developmental disabilities when they experience problems with services, rights, safety, or institutional systems. The office investigates concerns, supports individual advocacy, monitors services, and recommends systemic change.

    ddombuds.org

  • PAVE

    PAVE

    A Washington organization supporting disabled children, youth, adults, and families through advocacy, education, self-determination, systems navigation, and leadership development. Its work can be especially useful for families navigating special education, transition services, disability systems, and community-based supports.

    www.wapave.org

Indigenous Sovereignty,
Land & Healing

Indigenous-led nations, organizations, and community initiatives sustaining culture, land relationships, traditional knowledge, housing, family wellbeing, material care, and self-determination across Seattle and the wider Puget Sound region.

  • Duwamish Tribe

    Duwamish Tribe

    The Duwamish people have lived in the lands and waterways of present-day Seattle since time immemorial. Through the Duwamish Longhouse and Tribal Services, the Tribe sustains cultural knowledge, community gathering, education, social services, and the ongoing political, cultural, and economic survival of Duwamish people.

    duwamishtribe.org

  • Real Rent Duwamish

    Real Rent Duwamish

    A Seattle grassroots solidarity initiative that invites people who live and work on Duwamish land to make ongoing payments directly to Duwamish Tribal Services. One hundred percent of Real Rent goes to the Tribe without donor restrictions, turning land acknowledgment toward material redistribution and support for Duwamish cultural vitality.

    realrentduwamish.org

  • United Indians of All Tribes Foundation

    United Indians of All Tribes Foundation

    A Seattle Native-led organization providing cultural, social, educational, youth, elder, and community programs through Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. Daybreak Star itself grew from Native activists’ 1970 occupation of land at the former Fort Lawton, creating a lasting urban Native land base in Seattle.

    unitedindians.org

  • Seattle Indian Health Board

    Seattle Indian Health Board

    A Native-led community health organization providing medical care, behavioral health, substance use support, Traditional Indian Medicine, housing assistance, family services, and other programs for Seattle’s urban Native community. Its model places Indigenous knowledge and traditional healing alongside clinical care rather than treating Western medicine as the only source of health knowledge.

    sihb.org

  • Chief Seattle Club

    Chief Seattle Club

    A Native-led housing and human services organization supporting urban Native people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. Its work combines housing, material support, cultural connection, community, and Native values while working toward a Seattle where homelessness is no longer treated as inevitable.

    chiefseattleclub.org

  • Mother Nation

    Mother Nation

    A Seattle Native-led organization providing culturally grounded healing, advocacy, mentorship, housing support, and community care for Native women and families. Its work supports people navigating gender-based violence, homelessness, trauma, and displacement through Native Elders, ceremony, traditional medicines, kinship, storytelling, and ancestral knowledge.

    mothernation.org

  • Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services

    Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services

    An Indigenous-led Seattle organization supporting Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander families during pregnancy and early childhood. Its work includes Indigenous birthkeeping, family support, home visiting, storytelling, community education, and guaranteed-income initiatives rooted in abundance, kinship, and collective wellbeing.

    hummingbird-ifs.org

  • Na’ah Illahee Fund

    Na’ah Illahee Fund

    An Indigenous-led Seattle-based fund moving resources to Indigenous grassroots leaders and organizations across the Pacific Northwest. Its work connects Indigenous self-determination with land and water protection, food sovereignty, climate justice, cultural continuity, economic justice, and community-led redistribution rather than conventional top-down philanthropy.

    naahillahee.org

  • Indigenous Wellness Research Institute

    Indigenous Wellness Research Institute

    Based at the University of Washington, IWRI works to advance Indigenous health and wellness through Indigenous knowledge, scholarship, and decolonizing approaches to research. Its stated work centers the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to define and build health and wellness through Indigenous knowledge-building and community partnership.


    iwri.org

  • Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits

    Seattle Urban Native Nonprofits

    A collaborative network strengthening Native-led organizations across King County through shared information, advocacy, relationship-building, and collective action. The network connects organizations working across health, housing, culture, family care, economic opportunity, education, and community development while building collective power within Seattle’s urban Native community.

    seattleurbannatives.org

Palestinian Liberation, Anti-War & Global Solidarity

Palestinian-led and solidarity organizations connecting mutual aid, cultural survival, anti-war organizing, divestment, political education, and resistance to occupation, militarism, displacement, and colonial violence across Seattle and Washington.

  • Seattle Gaza Mutual Aid

    Seattle Gaza Mutual Aid

    A Seattle-based mutual aid network working through long-term relationships with Gazan families. It coordinates direct financial assistance, basic needs, medical and mental-health referrals, cultural programs, and support for Palestinian refugee families, including the Meera Centre for Children and Families in Cairo.

    seattlegazamutualaid.org

  • Falastiniyat Seattle

    Falastiniyat Seattle

    A grassroots collective of diasporic Palestinian feminists in Seattle organizing at the intersection of Palestinian liberation, gender justice, and anti-colonialism. The collective has organized local cultural and political events while connecting Palestinian freedom with broader feminist and anti-imperialist struggles.

    echox.org/directory/falastiniyat

  • Nidal Seattle

    Nidal Seattle

    A Seattle Palestinian liberation organization whose name, Nidal, means “struggle” in Arabic. Its current work includes community-building, cultural gatherings, political education, boycott campaigns, and local organizing in solidarity with Palestine.

    nidalseattle.com

  • Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle

    Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle

    The Seattle chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace organizes Jewish communities in solidarity with Palestinian freedom through political education, ritual, organizing, protest, and divestment campaigns. The chapter has worked in coalition with Palestinian-led groups in the Puget Sound region for more than eighteen years.

    jewishvoiceforpeace.org

  • WA: Cut Ties

    WA: Cut Ties

    A Washington campaign led by Washington for Peace and Justice with Jewish Voice for Peace Seattle and a broad coalition of labor, faith, racial justice, and community organizations. The campaign focuses on public divestment from corporations and financial holdings connected to Israel’s military occupation and war in Gaza, while centering Palestinian political leadership in Washington.

    cut-ties.org

  • Seattle DSA Palestinian Solidarity & Internationalism Working Group

    Seattle DSA Palestinian Solidarity & Internationalism Working Group

    A Seattle organizing space connecting Palestinian solidarity with wider anti-war and anti-imperialist work. Its projects have included BDS campaigns, political education, coalition-building, campaigns targeting war profiteers, and an internationalism reading group engaging thinkers such as Frantz Fanon.

    seattledsa.org/committees/palestinian-solidarity

  • Seattle Anti-War Coalition

    Seattle Anti-War Coalition

    A coalition of Seattle-area anti-war groups organizing against U.S. militarism and ongoing wars. Its recent work has included Palestine solidarity, opposition to U.S. military involvement in the region, advocacy around BDS, and solidarity organizing connecting Palestine with struggles such as Congo.

    actionnetwork.org/groups/seattle-antiwar-coalition

  • Global Solidarity Network Seattle

    Global Solidarity Network Seattle

    A volunteer-run mutual aid organization based in the Seattle area connecting local material care with broader struggles for Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Land Back, reparations, bodily autonomy, and police accountability. Its Hold the Line initiative explicitly frames these struggles as interconnected rather than separate causes.

    gsnseattle.org

Mutual Aid & Community Care

Mutual aid is not charity. It is one way communities respond to abandonment, isolation, and harm by redistributing resources, building relationships, and meeting needs together. This section highlights Seattle-area networks and organizations practicing solidarity through food access, emergency support, housing and climate justice, QTBIPOC community care, and other forms of material survival.

  • Seattle Community Fridge

    Seattle Community Fridge

    A volunteer-run mutual aid network operating community fridges and pantries across Seattle and surrounding areas. Their work is rooted in the belief that food scarcity is a myth and that everyone deserves direct access to food without surveillance, gatekeeping, or shame.

    seattlecommunityfridge.org

  • Global Solidarity Network Seattle

    Global Solidarity Network Seattle

    A volunteer-run mutual aid organization connecting neighbors with emergency food support, clothing, furniture, rent and utility assistance, and other forms of direct resource redistribution. Their work also links local mutual aid with broader struggles for reparations, global solidarity, and collective survival.

    gsnseattle.org

  • Seattle Mutual Aid Coalition

    Seattle Mutual Aid Coalition

    A grassroots mutual aid network organizing meal programs and direct community support in Seattle. Their organizing is action-oriented and rooted in the idea that communities do not need to wait to be rescued in order to care for one another.

    seattlemutualaidcoalition.com

  • Seattle Mutual Aid Collective

    Seattle Mutual Aid Collective

    A queer- and trans-operated collective focused on mutual aid, emergency preparedness, local resilience, and resource sharing. Their work centers vulnerable community members and strengthens community capacity to respond to crisis together.

    caphillcommunity.org

  • Got Green

    Got Green

    A collaborative network of community organizations serving the Virginia Peninsula, helping connect residents with housing, food, healthcare, financial assistance, and other essential resources through coordinated community support.

    gotgreenseattle.org

  • Alphabet Alliance of Color – Community Care Fund

    Alphabet Alliance of Color – Community Care Fund

    A by-and-for QTBIPOC community organization whose Community Care Fund supports needs including housing, transportation, food, medical care, and mental health care. Their model reflects mutual aid as relational, community-led support rather than institutional charity.

    alphabetalliance.org

  • Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR)

    Mutual Aid Disaster Relief (MADR)

    A grassroots disaster relief network grounded in solidarity, mutual aid, and autonomous direct action. While not Seattle-specific, MADR offers an important framework for understanding community-led survival, especially as climate crisis and disasters increasingly shape local wellbeing.

    mutualaiddisasterrelief.org

Free to Read & Listen

These articles, guides, podcasts, and online resources are freely available and have shaped many of the conversations around trauma, liberation, disability justice, community care, and collective wellbeing.

Books We Recommend

These books have shaped how we think about trauma, relationships, identity, community, and liberation. Many are written by practitioners, researchers, organizers, and community leaders whose work continues to influence our practice.

Voices That Inspire Us

The way we understand care has been shaped by many voices.

Some are therapists and researchers. Others are organizers, educators, artists, writers, and community leaders. They come from different disciplines and lived experiences, yet they share a commitment to understanding how people heal, how communities care for one another, and how systems can either support or constrain our wellbeing.

While we don't necessarily agree with every perspective or recommendation they offer, their work has challenged us to ask better questions, think more critically, and remain accountable to the communities we serve. We hope you find something here that sparks curiosity, offers language for your own experiences, or invites you to see the world a little differently.

Trauma, Relationships & the Nervous System

Liberation, Community & Social Change

Disability Justice & Collective Care

Gender, Queerness & Trans Liberation

Indigenous Knowledge & Decolonial Futures

Trauma, Relationships & the Nervous System

  • Resmaa Menakem

  • Lisa Feldman Barrett

  • Bruce Perry

  • Allan Schore

  • Stephen Porges

  • Bessel van der Kolk

  • Sue Johnson

  • Dan Siegel

Liberation, Community & Social Change

  • Adrienne Maree Brown

  • Mariame Kaba

  • Prentis Hemphill

  • Bell Hooks

  • Angela Davis

  • Ruth Wilson Gilmore

  • Dean Spade

  • Jennifer Mullan

Disability Justice & Collective Care

  • Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

  • Mia Mingus

  • Patty Berne

  • Alice Wong

Gender, Queerness & Trans Liberation

  • Alok Vaid-Menon

  • Tourmaline

  • Raquel Willis

  • Dean Spade

Indigenous Knowledge & Decolonial Futures

  • Patty Krawec

  • Robin Wall Kimmerer

  • Nick Estes

  • Winona LaDuke

This library is always growing.

We know no single resource can meet everyone's needs. As our community grows, this library will continue to evolve alongside it.

If there's a resource, organization, or educator you believe should be included, we'd love to hear from you.

After all, no list like this can ever be complete. These are simply some of the people whose work continues to challenge, expand, and deepen our thinking. As we learn from new voices and communities, this collection will continue to grow.