Reader, Here’s the truth: there is no such thing as decolonial therapy. Therapy, as we know it, is inherently colonial. It was built inside systems designed to pathologize, regulate, and discipline. Systems that have been invested in “fixing” us rather than liberating us. But there is decolonial healing. And that’s what we’ve been doing for generations. Long before therapy. Long before licensure. Long before CEUs. Long before Western psychology even existed. Decolonial healing is ancestral. It is collective. It is relational. It is the knowledge that survived despite erasure. This is your wake-up call. I am not invalidating the good you do as a therapist. I am not dismissing the ways you care for your clients. But I am saying this: when we pretend therapy itself is decolonial, we risk causing inadvertent harm. Because we keep funneling people back into a structure that was never designed for our liberation. It’s not your fault you’ve been practicing this way. The real culprit is a system that convinced us that healing only counts when it is billable, credentialed, licensed, or certified. But we can do this differently. We can honor therapy as a tool, not a savior. We can name its limits. We can hold space for what our licenses allow while not confusing that with what liberation requires. And we can root our practice in something bigger than therapy—something older, wiser, more connected to our communities and ancestors. Because therapy will never be the revolution. But you can be part of the lineage of healing that moves us toward it. 🌱 Reflection Prompts
🔥 Hit reply and share your reflections with me, I want to know what's happening in your world! Here's to healing beyond therapy, 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...