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Liberatory Letters

Bridging the Gap, part 5

Published almost 2 years ago • 2 min read

Reader,

For the last three of weeks I’ve shared with you the 7 steps to bridge the gap between your and your client’s identities.

There are 7 steps to bridging the Gap:

  1. Self-Reflection ✔️
  2. Listening Actively ✔️
  3. Building Authentic Relationships ✔️
  4. Acknowledging Power Dynamics ✔️
  5. Commit to Ongoing Learning
  6. Memorizing is not the same as understanding
  7. Compassion over empathy

This week I am unpacking step 5, Commit to Ongoing Learning:

Committing to Ongoing Learning is about recognizing that decolonizing mental health isn’t a one-time act or a box to check. It’s an evolving, never-ending commitment to growth. It means constantly interrogating your biases, seeking out new perspectives, and critically engaging with social justice movements. This isn’t about memorizing facts about a community or culture; it’s about challenging the systems of power that shape your worldview. Stay rooted in activism, be willing to unlearn, and let your clients’ lived experiences guide your learning process.

Decolonizing mental health isn’t a one-off event, it’s an evolving journey that requires constant learning, reflection, and action. Here’s how to commit to continuous learning in therapy:

  • Stay Humble: Recognize that you’ll never “arrive.” Understanding your clients is an ongoing process that requires radical humility, radical openness, radical candor, and radical curiosity. You don’t know what you don’t know.
  • Center Clients’ Voices: As much as the client is always the expert in their own story, don’t expect them to educate you about their lived experiences. Learn from the educators, there’s a lot of us out there (you'll find us if you're looking + train the algorithm to find us!)
  • Challenge Your Assumptions: Regularly question what you’ve internalized from colonial systems and mainstream therapy approaches. Ask: “What knowledge is missing? Whose voices are, again, being left out?” AND also question your own upbringing: What was colonial and oppressive about it?
  • Educate Yourself Continuously: Stay informed about intersectionality, privilege, and oppression (and liberation, radical imagination, decolonial healing if you have the time). Engage with thought leaders from marginalized communities, and actively seek out resources that challenge traditional therapeutic frameworks.
  • Embrace Feedback: Allow clients and colleagues and friends (especially the ones who hold minoritized identities) to offer feedback on your practice and your gaps. Practice humility and openness in accepting it, knowing it’s necessary for growth.
  • Focus On And Amplify Marginalized Voices: Center your ongoing learning around resources and voices that have historically been erased or ignored by dominant therapeutic models. And look for them beyond academia, books, and journals… because you’ll find them speaking out loud on social media, patreon, and resisting in that part of your town that continues getting gentrified.

What does Committing to Ongoing Learning have to with Decolonizing the Mental Health and Wellness Industrial Complex?

In short, by continuously learning and unlearning, you’ll be better equipped to foster an anti-normative healing environment that is responsive to the evolving needs of your clients.

How are you Committing to Ongoing Learning in your healing space? Hit reply and let me know!

I’ll tell you more about step 6 of Bridging the Gap (Memorizing is not the same as understanding) in the next weeks.

☀️ In community,

Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice​

PS. Starting next year I will be offering workshops on the various ways of having inclusive and affirming practices🔥 not causing unintended harm to our clients ❤️‍🩹 and healing in community 💫
Click on the topic that interests you the most to make sure you are the first to know about these workshops:

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Liberatory Letters

I'm Silvana, decolonization and liberation consultant and educator for therapists, healers and space holders.

I help therapists, healers, and space-holders bring decolonial and liberatory values into their work—so you’re not just saying you’re aligned… you’re actually practicing it. ⬆️ More integrity, more connection, more liberation. ⬇️ Less burnout, less performative wokeness, less colonial residue. If you want a practice where marginalized clients feel safe, seen, and honored—and you want to feel more grounded and intentional in your work—subscribe and join a growing community of practitioners doing this work differently. You practice can be liberatory-- let's get you there!

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