Reader,

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that burnout and moral tension were among the main concerns for therapists wanting a liberatory practice.

I ran a few more polls amongst the participants of the Community Liberation Sessions.

Here’s where things landed when I combined all of them:

• 🌱 Deepen my liberatory practice in concrete, practical ways — 38.9%
• 🔥 Process burnout, moral tension, or frustration with restrictive systems — 27.8%
• 🤝 Be in community with clinicians who share liberatory values — 27.8%
• 🫶 Listen, reflect, and hold space for others — 5.6%
• 🗣 Ask my own clinical or ethical questions — 0%
• 🧠 Think through real dilemmas inside oppressive systems — 0%

I want you to notice something with me:

People are not coming for answers.
They’re not coming for traditional consultation.
They’re not even primarily coming to “problem-solve.”

They’re coming for:

• practice
• processing
• community

That’s a shift. And it makes sense.
Because what does it mean to be a therapist right now, working inside oppressive systems while the world is burning?

• It means holding other people’s pain while navigating systems that actively constrain care and add extra layers of chaos.
• It means witnessing harm while feeling limited in how you can respond.
• It means carrying moral tension that doesn’t resolve neatly at the end of a session or the day.

Of course burnout is present. But burnout is not the whole story.

What I see here —so far— is something deeper:

• A desire to live and practice differently, not just survive the systems we’re in.
• A desire to integrate liberatory values in real time, not just understand them intellectually.
• A desire to not do this work alone.

I am curious...

• What are you done doing in the name of “coping”?
• What have you normalized that is actually harming you?
• If burnout isn’t the problem… what do you think is?

Reply to one or all questions, I read all emails you send.

With care,

Silvana

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

PS.
​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​

PPS.​
The next edition of The Practice Of Liberation goes out next week.
​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.​
In the April issue I reflect on reclaiming my voice through reconnecting with ancestral healing—and what it reveals about the limits of western therapy when it becomes the only path we’re offered. Subscribe here​

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⬆️ Let's connect!