Reader,

Let’s talk about burnout.

Not the “take a bubble bath and you’ll feel better” kind. Not the kind that can be fixed with a weekend off, a mini getaway, or logging off for a couple of days and calling it rest (i must confess i do this last one though).

I mean the deep, embodied exhaustion that comes from holding space for people surviving trauma and oppression every single day—while living through those same systems ourselves. Oppressive systems that are not only in the news, but also in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our bodies.

And here’s the truth we’re often not taught:

Western models of boundaries were never made for ALL of us.

They were created in systems that prioritize the individual over the collective (regardless of your identities), disconnection over relationship, and self-preservation over community care.

Which is why so many of us—especially those of us from the global majority, and those of us with lineages of relational healing—struggle to apply the kind of “rigid boundary” advice we’re given in trainings, in supervision, even by our own therapists.

It doesn’t always feel right. And it doesn’t always work.

And it often leaves us feeling more cut off than protected… or like we’re “not doing boundaries right.”

But here’s what decolonial care teaches us:

👉🏽 Boundaries don’t have to be walls.​
They can be rooted in relationship, fluidity, and reciprocity.

👉🏽 Self-care doesn’t have to mean disconnection.​
It can mean being in circle, naming what’s real, and grieving together.

👉🏽 You don’t have to perform neutrality in the face of oppression.​
We can show up with our whole selves and protect our energy.

This means checking in with our own capacity—without guilt.

It means asking:
​Is this boundary protective, or punitive?
Is it rooted in care, or control?

It means letting go of the idea that “good” therapists are endlessly available, emotionally neutral, and able to keep working through collapse (and/or apolitical).

Burnout is not a personal failure.

It’s a systemic consequence. And preventing it requires structural and energetic change.

It requires choosing our humanity over productivity:
Our softness over stoicism (or toxic professionalism).
Our connection over self-sacrifice (or “always putting the client first”).

It requires us to decolonize the way we think about boundaries altogether—and to trust that tending to ourselves is part of the work.

We are not just therapists performing care.
We are people inside the very systems we’re trying to resist.

And how we care for ourselves—and each other—is part of the practice.

With care,

Silvana

​​Liberatory Letters | The Practice of Liberation | Decolonize Your Practice​

PS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters here.

PPS.
​The next Community Liberation Session will take place on:
BIPoC clinicians: Apr 20 — 3 pm PT / 6 pm ET
white clinicians: Apr 23 — 2 pm PT / 5 pm ET
This is a virtual gathering space for therapists, healers, and space-holders practicing decolonization and liberation as a lived, relational commitment — not just a framework.
​sign up here​

PPPS.​
​The POL goes out in two weeks.
Monthly, longer format, personal letters, read about decolonizing the personal and practicing liberation. Each letter includes prompts for reflection, a 10-minute practice to integrate knowledge, a book recommendation.

​​​​

⬆️ Let's connect!