Reader,

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This is the third of five letters on building healing connections grounded in awareness of power and oppression (healing connections with clients and in your community). Read on!

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When we talk about healing, it’s easy to get caught up in ideas rooted in individualism and Western frameworks… after all, that is what we learned in school right?

But for so many of us—clients and therapists/healers alike—healing isn’t just a personal journey. It’s deeply tied to your history, your communities, and the wisdom of those who came before you.

How do we honor true healing?

You step outside the narrow, eurocentric dominant narratives of what healing “should” look like. As measured by a questionnaire or as taught in your internship/grad school/practicum/CMH job.

You recognize that healing practices have existed for generations across cultures.

You decenter Western mental health models that to ignore, dismiss, or appropriate collective care, rituals, and traditional practices.

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Here’s why this matters:

1. Healing Is Collective

Individual healing is powerful, but it exists in a vacuum. I'm certain you come from communities where healing happens in connection with others—in community gatherings, family traditions, or rituals that honor shared experiences. When we create space for these practices in the therapy room, we’re saying, “Your ways of healing are valid and worthy.”

2. Ancestral Wisdom as Resistance

In a world shaped by colonization and systemic oppression, honoring ancestral wisdom is a radical act of resistance. It’s the way in which you reconnect with knowledge passed down through generations, while resisting the systems that try to erase them.

3. Challenging the “One-Size-Fits-All” Model

Western mental health assumes there’s one right way to heal, but you know that’s not true. Healing isn’t just about talk therapy or worksheets. Sometimes it’s sitting in silence. Sometimes it’s gathering with loved ones. Sometimes it’s dancing, crying, meditating, or creating art. When you honor diverse ways of healing, you expand what healing can look like for your clients.

4. Centering the Client’s Wisdom

Your clients carry their own knowledge, shaped by their cultures, communities, and lived experiences. As a therapist/healer, part of your work is to step back and make space for that wisdom to shine. This might mean asking questions like, “What traditions or practices would you like to reclaim for yourself?”

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So, what can this look like in practice?

• Ask clients what cultural traditions and practices they want to honor.
• Make space for rituals or practices that clients may want to bring into the room or make room for traditional healers they may want to bring to their care team.
• Check your own biases and assumptions about what “real” healing and treatment progress should look like.

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This work isn’t about taking on the role of an expert in someone else’s culture—it’s about being a witness and a partner in your clients’ healing journey.

How do you honor ancestral and community wisdom in your work with clients? Reply to this email and let me know.

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In community & true healing,

Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice​

PS.

This journey is ongoing. If you're ready to take the first steps to name the power imbalance in the room sign up for my (last) free Monthly Consultation session for BIPoC clinicians (catch the encore of all of this year's meetings in December) and for white clinicians.

PPS.

If you’re ready to go deeper into decolonizing your practice, sign up for a 1:1 Decolonized Consultation session. I have a couple spots left this year.

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Let's connect!