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!
🌱 What if “not okay” is the healthiest response?
|
Reader, 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: “My mental health is… honestly, pretty uneasy. I experience some degree of sadness almost every day—like 2/10 on a good day and 8/10 on a bad day. Anxiety too, but not as bad—maybe 2/10 on a good day and 6/10 on a bad one. I keep hyperstartling a lot, too… isn’t that normal??
But right now, it’s not majorly impacting my daily functioning… (you know, the way we therapists document things in our notes).”
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. 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
Let me know what came up for you! With care and clarity, Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice 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. 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. Read more about The POL here ⬆️ Let's connect! |
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, We talk a lot about “success” at the end of the year — how much we achieved, how much we accomplished, how many milestones we hit. But if we’re honest, most of us inherited a definition of success that was never ours to begin with. Success, for many of us, was shaped by systems that taught our families that safety had to be earned. That rest was conditional. That slowing down was dangerous. That productivity was proactivity.There is nothing wrong with wanting more: more ease, more...
Reader, A quick update on what I've been up to: 🛋️ The Practice of Liberation, a slower, more intimate space where I share how I’m decolonizing my work, my relationships, and myself in real time.This space grew from the same heart as Liberatory Letters, but moves at a gentler, more vulnerable rhythm — one that centers practice, reflection & the person, not just the profession.It’s for those of us ready to live liberation, not just think about it.You can learn more about it in the P.S. below...
Reader, A quick update on what I've been up to: 🛋️ The Practice of Liberation, a slower, more intimate space where I share how I’m decolonizing my work, my relationships, and myself in real time.This space grew from the same heart as Liberatory Letters, but moves at a gentler, more vulnerable rhythm — one that centers practice, reflection & the person, not just the profession.It’s for those of us ready to live liberation, not just think about it.You can learn more about it in the P.S. below...