Reader, If you’re feeling numb, tired, or even nothing in the face of so much violence around us... please hear this: You are not failing at being a healer. You are not apathetic. You're eye rolls don't mean you don't care. You are a human being whose nervous system is carrying more than it can process at one time. And that matters. When we acknowledge our numbness, our fatigue, our nothingness—we are not failing. We are noticing. We are honoring our body’s need for protection. For care. And this noticing itself is a kind of healing. Too often, we’re told that the right response to overwhelming pain is to “push through,” to keep grinding, to find the coping skill that will help us remain productive, efficient, and functioning... "decreasing symptoms is a good thing" But that is not care. That is capitalism speaking through the language of therapy. Decolonial healing refuses this. It says: You are not here to be endlessly resilient. You are not here only to survive the next crisis (and teach your clients how to survive the next crisis) so you (all) can keep working. Decolonial healing invites us to honor our limits, to rest, to stop normalizing the grind of productivity and coping as a measure of our worth. And it asks us to model this to our clients, too. To say out loud: “This numbness, this exhaustion, is not brokenness. It is wisdom. It is a nervous system saying no.” Because if we can learn to trust even the quiet moments of nothingness, we can begin to imagine care beyond productivity. And that is a powerful step toward liberation. 🌱 Reflection Prompts
🔥 Hit reply and share your reflections with me, I want to know what's happening in your world! Here's to more decolonial care and less (none) performative healing, In solidarity, Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice PS. Last call for 1:1 Decolonial Consultations at the current rate ($220-- price goes up in the fall). PPS. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, you can subscribe here. PPPS. And forward this email to a peer as well! PPPPS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters here. ⬆️ Let's connect! |
I help clinicians, healers, and coaches incorporate decolonized and liberatory values in their practices so that you can have a practice and/or service-based business that is truly affirming and welcoming to clients who hold marginalized identities.
Reader, A quick update on what I've been up to: 💻 A minicourse on how to better understand your and your clients' intersectionality using this wheel of power and privilege. ☀️ Last chance to book a 1:1 Decolonial Consultation at the current rate ($220).Get clarity in your practice without bypassing systemic grief.Support your clients more deeply without abandoning your own liberation.Clinicians are using this space to pivot their decolonial work in uncertain times — so they can show up...
Reader, Decolonial work is not a bullet point on our CVs. It’s not a new certificate. It’s not a panel you spoke on. It’s not another framework to master before we’re “ready.” Unlearning colonialism as a therapist, healer or space holder isn’t something you climb. It’s something we soften into. Because here’s the truth: We don’t decolonize by centering academic hierarchies or professional prestige. We don’t get free by measuring ourselves through the same systems that have always decided who...
Reader, Grief. Grief and more grief. Grief is the thing. When we commit to decolonial healing, we cannot bypass grief. We can’t skip over the ache, the heaviness, the heartbreak that comes when we finally see what colonialism, capitalism, and oppression have taken from us, and from the people we serve. Decolonial grief is not a side note in the work. It is the work. Grief is the teacher that helps us unlearn and deprogram what no longer serves us—internally, relationally, collectively. It...