When Mosha Trout and her partner opened her pro-LGBTQ+ therapy practice in 2019 in Athens, Ohio, she was a little worried about meeting the first client. At her old job, clients would ask to sit in on therapy sessions with their kid based on the way Trout looked.
But this new client in this new practice looked at them and visibly had a sigh of relief, recalled Trout, who uses she/they pronouns. At the end of the session, the parents wrote Trout a check outlined in rainbow.
“ That really started [this] journey for me,” the Kentucky native said. “I always say, ‘Wherever I go, queer people find me.’”
Growing up as a queer person in Appalachia, Trout recognized the needs of the local LGBTQ+ community from within. But as her practice took on more adult LGBTQ+ clients, she also observed that many of them struggled to keep a job and maintain their public benefits while navigating trials with their mental health.
Now, she owns and operates a unique wellness camp called Rocksprings Wellness that helps rural clients do exactly that while building independent living skills and vital support networks.
A space that strikes a chord
Rocksprings Wellness’ campus is located south of Athens, surrounded by a forest. The space, which includes 20 cabins, was originally bought by the former lead guitarist of Jefferson Airplane, Jorma Kaukonen, as Fur Peace Ranch, a workshop space for aspiring guitarists.
Later, a woman turned it into a wellness camp, Trout said. The original plan was to partner her therapy practice with the woman’s wellness camp, but Trout started to envision something grander and separate from her practice.
“ I could see the big vision of what it could be,” Trout said. “A space for people to learn, to be seen, to be welcomed where they are and nothing more.”
Trout bought the property in June 2025 and was operational by August 1 of that year, they said.
After a Rocksprings Wellness employee told Trout that they were living out of their car, Trout opened up the 20 tiny homes on the campus for employee housing, as well as emergency and transitional housing.
People are offered 30-day leases, and they “always have space available,” Trout said.
‘There’s gonna be a death toll.’
The U.S. social safety net ends up trapping a lot of people in an endless cycle of poverty, Trout observed. Strict requirements lead to people kicked off of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps) if they worked over a certain amount of hours. They can also lose benefits like Medicaid if they earn too much money, regardless of whether they can afford health insurance on their own.
The social safety net became even more precarious last year when the Trump administration pushed new regulations that require 20 hours of work or training experiences just to receive food stamps, Trout said.
LGBTQ+ Americans – especially those in the transgender community – are at higher risk of falling into the working-poor cycle than their cisgender and straight counterparts, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Coupled with high rates of mental health and substance-use issues and a lack of independent living skills like cooking and budgeting, it can be tough for people break the cycle.
“People are just gonna fall off the map,” Trout said “There’s gonna be a death toll.”
Trout, a licensed professional clinical counselor, created a workforce program at Rocksprings Wellness to help break that cycle, offering job skills and career transition training. Having low-cost housing on site is also meant to help improve clients’ quality of life.
Not only does the campus treat clients of all backgrounds, but it helps them keep their benefits along with providing a living wage. If all goes well, clients eventually graduate to a respectful workplace and stable housing with the life skills to maintain their independence.
“This was kinda like my protest, quite honestly,” Trout said. “It’s the one thing that I have control over in the world that is trying to erase queer people.”
Funding amid local and national suspicion
Rocksprings Wellness is a for-profit organization. Trout said they are able to make ends meet through insurance billing and partnerships with businesses in the community. A large house on site is used as an Airbnb for additional revenue, and Trout has also personally invested money.
The workforce development program is not dependent on grant funding because Trout worries that if a grant dries up, the program could disappear. . However, Trout said they do seek grant funding for nonessential programming, such as a clinical peer-run programs treating substance-use and mental health disorders.
“Having the clinical aspect in the workforce opens up a lot more doors,” Trout said. “There’s not a lot of limitations around it.”
Still fighting stigma
Although Athens has an LGBTQ+ community presence, some people view Rocksprings Wellness with doubt and hesitation.
“We’ve been called a cult, which is just gross,” Trout said. ”Here I am providing these services, and people are so hesitant because it’s being run by a woman or a queer person.”
But Trout is resilient. She opened up her own therapy practice after being shunned by her colleagues in both therapeutic and corporate worlds. She studied the poverty cycle and understands the systems that keep people down – but she also knows how to “hack” those systems both for her benefit and her clients, she said.
“ I know what it’s like to grow up in Appalachia, to be a queer person in Appalachia. I know what it’s like to not have community,” Trout said. “I’ve learned how to navigate systems, or I would’ve never survived.” 🔥
Ignite Action
- To learn more about Rocksprings Wellness, click here.
- To follow Rocksprings Wellness on Instagram, click here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
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