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!
Safe spaces or Brave spaces?
Reader,
Not too long ago I shared with you my thoughts on safe spaces and brave spaces within community settings.
I mentioned that while my wish is to create a safe environment for people, I cannot guarantee that no harm will ever occur. Why?
- All of us have grown up with biases that we strive to unlearn throughout our lives.
- Even with good intentions, well-meaning comments can still cause harm.
- Our privileged identities prevent us from fully understanding the experiences of people who hold systemically marginalized identities
I can do my best to establish a supportive framework for a group (one example here) and ask you to hold me accountable in regularly reviewing and refining that framework. However, I cannot control everyone’s actions and reactions, so harm may still occur.
But I also shared with you that my focus is on offering decolonized repair:
- Repair where there is some space to discuss intentions
- Repair that prioritizes the impact our words, behaviors, or omissions have on others.
Communal repair takes place within an embodied brave space. A space where:
- I’m curious about people’s intentions and how they affected me
- I allow myself to be vulnerable, express fear, and share my feelings of hurt and anger
- I check in with myself (intellectually, emotionally, physically, and energetically) before responding and interacting with others
- I respect my own pace and honor the way my nervous system and brain function
But an embodied brave space is also a space where the person who caused the rupture is:
- open to listen to the hurt they caused
- aware that they may become defensive or triggered, and recognizes that being triggered is not the same as being unsafe
- willing to be uncomfortable and understands that causing harm does automatically make them a bad person
- able to apologize AND to explain the corrective action they will take
What does this have to do with decolonizing your practice?
It has everything to do with it! You are at the core of your practice, and how you engage with your clients, either individually or in a group, is an aspect of the practice that we should all decolonize. How we engage in repair and how we acknowledge our role in causing a rupture (with clients, colleagues, friends, etc) should be a behavior that we constantly strive to decolonize.
How are you seek repair when someone has caused a rupture? How do you engage in repair when you have caused a rupture?
Hit reply and let me know. I would love to share your insights with this community!
Thanks for being here,
Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice
PS.
As some of you may know, my friend Ariana and I have been working on a project that combines our professional and personal interests. Ariana is focused on helping therapists build anti-oppressive private practices, while I'm all about helping therapists incorporate decolonized and liberation focused valued in their practices. And at the intersection we created Radical Practice Podcast, a podcast dedicated to creating strong, healthy, profitable, values-driven, untraditional, and decolonized practices.
We will be launching soon and would love it if you followed us on IG for now. Stay tuned for more announcements!
PPS.
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Liberatory Letters
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!
Reader, A quick update on what I've been up to: 🌻 Community Liberation Sessions, the next meetings take place in May, and you're welcome to join live (with a limited replay available.) This is a virtual gathering space for therapists, healers, and space-holders practicing decolonization — in real time.Learn more below or here. 💻 Decolonizing Mental Health Therapy: Examining power, identity, and practice, a 3-hour workshop (with CEUs) in collaboration with Therapist To Therapists.Learn more...
Reader, A quick note—honoring my bandwidth… This Monday, the second Community Liberation Session for BIPoC clinicians took place. And tomorrow (Thursday), we gather for the second session for white-identified clinicians. Someone recently asked: "What space do I join if I’m half white and half BIPoC? Here’s my answer—one that might help you decide which space to join, and also support you if you’re thinking about offering your own affinity spaces: who are affinity spaces for? With care,...
Reader, We meet next week for the second round of Community Liberation Sessions.These are affinity spaces. The group of BIPOC clinicians will meet on Monday, Apr 20 — 3pm PT / 6pm ETThe group of white-identified clinicians will meet on Thursday, Apr 23 — 2pm PT / 5pm ET So… why affinity? Because shared identity can create shared context and accountability.And shared context can create something we don’t often get elsewhere: Less explaining, less code-switching, less managing how we’re...