Geek Culture Community Care

Welcome to a light-hearted post with different ideas of how you can focus on wellness tailored to your geeky interests!

Self-care means so many different things to people.

It can mean anything from finding 30 uninterrupted minutes to pay your bills to taking a lavish bubble bath. But self-care also has a counter part: community care.

Community care.

Community care came out as a term mostly as a critique towards self-care seeming too isolating and catered towards complete independence. We rely on each other (our emotional, financial, and social support systems) way too much for self-care to be realistically sufficient when it comes to wellness.

Having a secure tight-knit tribe along with a fantastic self-care regime is something to strive towards. The balance of self- and community care is going to be different for everyone based on your unique needs.

Geek culture community care.

If you’re reading this and identify as a geek or gamer, good news! Geek culture is bursting with community care opportunities. Anything that makes you feel a sense of belonging, connection, and understanding in a group setting counts. Last year I made a “Geeky Wellness Packet” or zine if you will, that includes ways to brainstorm both self- and community-care related to geek culture.

Here are some examples of what’s in it:

 

The Geeky Wellness Packet

The packet is more catered toward the Austin area but there will be a link to download it further down this post. Wherever you are- around the world or just somewhere else in Texas- you can take a look at the download and make changes to fit your area.

For folks in Austin wanting a printed packet I’ve placed them in various geeky stores around town including Haven Con last year, and of course you can find them in the office lobby where I work. Think of it as a treasure hunt!

How does this help you?

Hopefully the packet gets your creative juices flowing for what makes you feel good, gets you excited, and helps you get connected with others. One of the benefits of community care is to not feel so alone when you’re feeling down. It’s about being part of something larger than yourself. You don’t have to have a packet to take stock of how you already are participating in geek community care.

And if that doesn’t feel like enough, feel free to do more research or reach out to a counselor who knows a lot about geek culture, like me!

Here is a download of the whole packet for free: Geeky Wellness Packet. No email list subscription required, but if you want to follow my blog you can choose to do so here.

If discussion about self- and community- care is bringing up some feelings you’d rather not deal with on your own, I’m accepting new clients at this time in south Austin. Reach out through email here or use my contact form here to schedule a free in-person consultation with me.

Julia Stamman, LPC

Hi, I’m Julia! I’m an LPC (licensed professional counselor) practicing in South Austin. I understand the personal importance of a therapist groking my lifestyle, so I started helping others who identify as geeks, gamers, and/or misfits. Over time, I realized that I’m passionate about attachment-related trauma, social anxiety, and neurodiversity. On this blog, I write on topics like the overlap of alternative culture and mental health, and how to find services catered to these lifestyles.