Reader,

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I’m working with a new therapist… I’ve been in and out of therapy for 26 years… but this time around, I actually stopped to ponder some of the questions in the intake packet: How is your mental health? Are you experiencing sadness, anxiety, etc.?

What I wanted to say was something like:

I wanted to say all of that because right now, the world has me struggling.

But here’s the truth:

My mental health is actually very good (i.e., my system is deeply connected to reality).

Why?

Because I can feel all the feelings I’m supposed to feel in the face of oppression and injustice.
I can grieve.
I can rage.
I can welcome (and stay curious about) numbness as one part of the healing process.
I can resist the pull to normalize what is intolerable.
I can question whether coping is just another way of normalizing oppression.

That is not poor mental health.

That is right relationship with an oppressive reality.

And yet—grad school taught us the opposite.

We were trained to see emotional distress as pathology, stripped of political context.

Ok, maybe your program mentioned systems of oppression… but how much emphasis did they place on the political, communal, and collective nature of distress?

How deeply did they teach you to address that differently in the therapy or healing room?

We were told that “good mental health” looks like neutrality, coping, symptom reduction, functioning, productivity. Highlight on symptom reduction.

We were not told that good mental health might look like refusing to normalize violence.

We were not told that feeling deeply during collective trauma is a sign of vitality, not illness.

It is not your fault if you didn’t know this.

It is not your fault if you didn’t practice this.

The real culprit is a system that de-politicized… and continues to, for the most part, for the biggest part… de-politicize mental health and taught/teaches us to see clients’ feelings as challenges to “address.”

The antidote?

Reframing.

Renaming what we’ve been taught to minimize or pathologize.

Telling yourself—and telling your clients:

✨ Feeling deeply is not a failure.

✨ Feeling “uneasy” in response to injustice is a sign of health.

✨ Your humanity is intact because you feel.

That is decolonial healing.

That is decolonizing mental health.

🔎 Reflection Prompts

1. When have I mistaken my own ability to feel as a “problem” instead of a strength?
2. How did grad school or the mental health system shape my understanding of what “good mental health” looks like?
3. How can I begin to normalize for my clients that feeling distress in response to violence and injustice is healthy?
4. What new language can I use in my practice to affirm this truth?

Let me know what came up for you!

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With care and clarity,

Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice​

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PS. If these are the kinds of reflections that stir something in you—the ones that ask us to slow down, unlearn, and rebuild what liberation can mean in our daily lives—then come be part of The Practice of Liberation.​
It’s a dedicated space for therapists, healers, and space-holders who are ready to move beyond the checkbox version of “best practices” and engage with the raw, messy, vulnerable, deeply human, and liberatory work of truly healing ourselves as we help others heal. It’s a space for those who know that liberation isn’t a theory—it’s a daily practice, a remembering, a rebuilding of personal and professional.
Inside The Practice of Liberation we unravel colonial conditioning, hold space for systemic grief, and imagine new ways to practice that honor our clients and our humanity. You’ll get guided reflections, embodied exercises, and grounded conversations that don’t fit into public social media posts or polished trainings—plus a monthly list of resources (books, articles, talks, etc.) to keep your practice resourced and alive.

​Subscribe now and, as a thank-you for supporting this work before the end of the year, you’ll receive 30% off a 1:1 consultation session.
​(Regular rate is $240 — with 30% off, your session is $168 when booked before December 31.)

Read more about The POL here​

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