Reader,

I know things are hard right now.
And not in a vague “I'm sorry, times are tough, and I see you” kind of way.

I mean hard in the sense that many of us are simultaneously navigating increasing insurance constraints, cuts to treatment length, funding changes, institutional pressures, and entire populations of clients losing access to care.

In the state where I’m licensed, some therapists are being removed from state insurance panels, leaving clients scrambling and clinicians trying to absorb the fallout of decisions they never made in the first place.

And that’s just one example.

Because oppressive systems are not always loud.

Yes, sometimes they are overt.
But sometimes they are hidden inside rules, regulations, productivity expectations, funding streams, paperwork, professionalism, and endless pressure to prove our worth.

I also know many of you are carrying quieter tensions.

• Being criticized for being private pay and not taking insurance, while simultaneously working hard to redistribute resources in ways that actually make sense for your practice and your life.
• Being told you are charging too little and that you “don’t know your worth” because you have a steep sliding scale, even when that pricing model genuinely aligns with your values and sustainability.
• Being told you have no boundaries when you can honestly see one more client.
• Being told you’re too rigid when, in reality, your nervous system can only sustainably hold two clients a day.
• Being criticized for being too political. Or being criticized for not being political enough.
• Being told you ask too many questions, you’re making things too complicated instead of focusing on “just therapy.”
• Being expected to somehow heal people while also navigating systems that make healing harder every day.

It. Is. Exhausting.

And if you are feeling tired, conflicted, or disillusioned at times, I hope you know that none of those feelings automatically mean you are doing something wrong.

I want therapists to know this:

I trust your discernment.​
​And more importantly, I trust your intentions:

1. I trust that most of you are doing your best to build practices that are sustainable, not practices designed to satisfy everyone except yourselves.
2. I trust you are asking difficult questions because you genuinely want to reduce harm, not because you want to perform being “good.”
3. I trust you are trying to align your values with your work while navigating realities that are messy, imperfect, and often unfair.

I also think professional conditioning runs much deeper than we talk about.

Years of training can teach us to over-function, over-explain, over-accommodate, over-responsibilize ourselves, and believe that if we could just work harder, care more, or become more skilled, we could somehow outsmart oppressive systems.

We can’t. At least not individually.
And unlearning all of that takes time, sometimes years...
Sometimes decades.

Sometimes we don’t even realize what we’ve internalized until our bodies begin protesting it through exhaustion, resentment, cynicism, anxiety, grief, or moral injury.

I hope your practice increasingly reflects who you are INSTEAD OF you constantly reshaping yourself to fit the imposed values of oppressive mental health systems.

Because I do not think liberation is about becoming a perfect therapist.
I think it is about becoming a more aligned human being.
One small shift, one boundary, one conversation, one question, one season at a time.

And maybe perseverance is not pushing through indefinitely.
Maybe perseverance is simply refusing to let oppressive systems fully dictate who you become inside them.

So I’m curious:

Hit reply and let me know. I may not always respond immediately, but I do read and genuinely appreciate the reflections you share with me.

With liberatory care,

Silvana

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

PS.
​This is also one of the reasons I created “Start Here: A 4-Step Framework To Begin Decolonizing Your Practice”. We spend time exploring professional conditioning, understanding what gets in the way of change, and distinguishing between the pressures we've inherited and the values we actually want our practices to embody. Because meaningful change rarely happens by trying to overhaul everything at once. It often begins by identifying one place where your practice feels misaligned and giving yourself permission to start there.

​Sign up here​

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