It was unlike any other sexual health care center I'd ever been to
One, it's completely hollistic so they offer a whole range of services
from yoga to meditation to counseling to pilates
and all the other stuff that we as trans people know that we need
so to talk to somebody about our hormone levels, to talk about hormone levels and interactions
What I want people to know about CliniQ is that it exists and we're expanding
and we want to grow, and if they have any concerns at all about their sexual health care
and about their kind of wider health care then please do call in to CliniQ
We've grown from a very small start with a very small attendence
to actually a really quite a large group of service users
that attend us regularly
and new people as well
and that is an important progression of building up trust within the community
In terms of my role, it's about HIV prevention, HIV testing and also coordinating
people's HIV care after they've tested positive, and ensuring people have the best HIV
care possible
On any given Wednesday we can see maybe between 20-30 people
it might be for counselling, it might be for caterwork support, it might be for sexual health testing
or treatment
We've got a really popular acupuncture service as well
and yoga classes, which tends to maybe bring people into a sexual health clinic
when they necessarily wouldn't want to come to a sexual health care service otherwise
it works really nicely
And our partner services in terms of Stonewall Housing Advice
it's once a month
and also access to referrals to Galop the LGBT anti-violence charity for
help with hatecrime and other areas of violence
Counselling at CliniQ can offer a space to have a non-judgemental, affirming
trans affirming and non binary affirming space to speak
So that you don't have to explain yourself
and you can just trust in that CliniQ will understand
a little bit already
when you're coming in to see us
It can almost be a space for exploring
empowering, almost like a flowering in gender identity
rather than necessarily confusion
it can be about going through stages of growth
and growing into your skin, really
It's a place for me to network
and connect to people
meet new people
When I came here
I was unhappy with my hormones
and I just thought that the whole idea of this trans clinic
which was actually an NHS clinic
exclusively for trans people
and trans issues
was just a bit of a dream, really
and my first time I went there and after I left
I felt like I was walking on air!
I was just so happy and felt so good and had a really solid sort of sense of
well-being and that I have been listened to and heard
I needed some proper counselling from people who understood it
which I knew I couldn't get from a normal doctors
and also them having a specialist nurse who checked me out
made sure everything was okay and if I have any problems
that even might be a problem, I just pop myself down there on a Wednesday
and it gives me a full check-out
Very often after you've been two or three times
you find yourself engaging with other people
it gives you a sense of belonging
it actually is a little haven for our community
and the other thing I would say is that the people
the range of the people that go to the clinic
is wider than any of the other groups I've ever been to
Without CliniQ I don't know where we would be
because we'd be useless
You know when you go to a regular hospital and sometimes
they are not really trained in this department
so they are clueless
But with CliniQ everyone is friendly
supportive, sympathetic, respectful
It's heaven!
We're coming up to our 5 year anniversary
of a continued service of CliniQ
and we've grown such a lot
and what we are looking for in the longer term is to have a more dedicated space
where we can offer services, a wider range of services
for the communities
and at the moment we don't have the funding to deliver the services
so sustainability for the longer term
what we need is the funding to be able to do that
and the future of CliniQ does depend on our growth
and on our expanding to other areas
