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Identity House. Thirty-one years after and we're still growing in many personal directions since 1971.

Identity House was born out of a collective consciousness, when gay community was more a future dream and less a common reality. It is said, by some, that we were an experiment in Gestalt theory and practice, supported by The New York Institute For Gestalt Therapy. We were people who were or wanted to be health professionals, counselors, group leaders and therapists, assisting others in some of the same processes that were happening to us.

In gay humanity from A to Z or LGBTF we offered drop in counseling, topic groups with a voluntary participation and referrals to short-term counseling or psychotherapy, for small donations or sliding scale fees. What ever you could afford when your closet space was becoming too tight. No one has ever been turned away because of finances.

We are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender or sympathetic. And we are volunteers. We are taught to make an art out of peer counseling, providing clarity, compassion, information, community referral and comfort, whenever possible. Our training grounds are short-term, usually once-weekly supervision groups, running 12 weeks; where practice issues, political consciousness, agreements and disagreements are shared. This is a training that is of mind and heart; we develop our skills and work on ourselves at the same time.

We base our decision making upon the process of consensus, a process that cannot be experienced casually. We become adept in one-on-one counseling, couples counseling, and group facilitation, as a single or on-going process. We provide ourselves with training opportunities as well as offering workshops to the community.

We call General Membership meetings to vote for voluntary placement in positions in our Clinical and Executive branches. These elections are based on skill, need, and may be one to two years in length. We also use these meetings to vote on organizational changes, which may affect our policy, procedure and direction.

Early on, some of us became meteoric, leaving Identity House to add to our community constellation while fulfilling other needs: FLF (Lesbian Liberation Front), H.C.C.C. (Homosexual Community Counseling Center), I.H.I. (Institute For Human Identity), to name a few. In the beginning there was a greater need in the community to focus on coming out and frustrations within or without relationships. Today we meet all the human issues and the feelings that affect the LBGTF community today. We are now Internet website accessible at http:/www.IdentityHouse.org. We are also E-Mail available at IdentityHouse@IdentityHouse.org. We share our communication skills with and at other agencies and learning institutions.

Today we offer walk-in peer counseling at our current home at 39 W. 14th Street, Suite 205 (2nd floor), between 5th and 6th Avenues. As well as therapy referrals, groups and workshops, short-term groups (usually 8 weeks in length), men and women's conferences, yearly social events and the I-Gallery, which is an ongoing and changing photography exhibition space for the LGBT community. If you are interested in becoming a peer counselor, group facilitator or contribute on an artistic or administrative basis call or write us and we will let you know of our Identity House Member Orientations. Our house phone is (212) 243-8181and our mailing address is P.O. Box 572, Old Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10011