Reader,

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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 is valid and who isn’t.

There are so many ways to do this work.

Some of us arrive here through books and theory.

Some of us arrive here through memory, grief, art, land, language, resistance, rupture.

Some of us were never given the luxury of learning this in a classroom—we lived it.

Unlearning colonialism makes space for the kinds of knowledge that aren’t easily cited in APA format… (or MLA, Chicago style, you name it.)

It honors what is felt, what is passed down, what is woven into culture and story and body.

It centers intergenerational wisdom, intuition, lived experience, ancestral teachings, and the quiet knowing that comes from surviving systems built to silence us.

That’s not less valid.

That’s the heart of it.

So if you’ve ever questioned your “credibility” because your learning didn’t come from a lecture hall, pause.

Ask whose definition of credible you’re holding.

Because decolonial work in healing spaces isn’t black and white.

It’s not neat.

It’s not linear.

It is contradiction.

It is tension.

It is the sacred “both/and.”

It’s the knowing that we can hold nuance.

We can honor many truths.

We can value scholarship and sweat.

Theory and intuition.

Boundaries and compassion.

Let’s all sit with that.

All of us.

This is the invitation:

Uncenter the structures that taught you your voice didn’t count.

Unlearn the idea that wisdom only flows top-down.

Remember—your experience is not less sacred because it isn’t published.

And model this for your clients!

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🔍 Reflection Prompts

1. What forms of knowing have I unconsciously been taught to see as “less valid”?
2. What kind of wisdom do I carry that doesn’t come from a classroom or training?
3. How does it feel to hold space for multiple truths instead of one “right” way?
4. What would it look like to trust my own lived experience and intuition more fully in my work?
5. Who are the elders, ancestors, or community members that have taught me without ever needing a degree?
6. Where in my practice or identity do I feel pulled to prove my legitimacy—and what systems taught me to feel that way?

🔥 Hit reply and share your reflections with me, I want to know what's happening in your world!

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Here's to authenticity in all ways of knowing,

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In community,

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Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice​

PS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters here.

PPS. Sign up for a 1:1 Decolonial Consultation here before the price goes up in July by the end of the (northern) summer. Therapists and healers have been using this meeting to process how their work is pivoting to incorporate grief in all its iterations and to ground and remain grounded during during these extra uncertain times.

PPPS. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, you can subscribe here.

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⬆️ Let's connect!