When the world’s walls feel like they’re closing in

Reader,

A quick update on what I've been up to:

💻 A mini course on how to better understand your and your clients' intersectionality using this wheel of power and privilege.
It's all about connecting to better serve others. Newsletter readers will find out first when it's released.

When the world is on fire (again), your system will want to do what it has always been trained to do: retreat into survival mode. Your sessions may feel less effective, your presence less sharp, your words less flow-y. You may even get attached to the script that you’re not “on top of your game.”

But let me tell you this: It is not your fault.

The real culprit is the system of oppression that thrives when we’re in survival mode. It wants us hopeless, scattered, anxious, and disconnected, so we can’t imagine or create liberation. It asks us to measure healing by progress notes, productivity, and “coping skills.” It tells us therapy is about making people functional in a dysfunctional world.

Here’s the truth: therapy—liberatory therapy—is not about coping harder. It’s about acknowledging how external forces drag us back into survival mode and naming that as systemic, not personal failure.

So when the walls feel like they’re closing in?

The antidote is slowness. Space. Breathing room. Not hustling for more coping skills, not pretending we’re unaffected, but modeling groundedness and resistance by refusing to rush and cope in a pre-determined way.

In liberatory practice, we don’t measure progress by symptom checklists. We measure it by our collective ability to stay human in an inhumane world.

✨ We don’t heal by pushing harder, we heal by slowing down together. Survival mode is not the end of the story, it's where the system wants you to be. Let’s resist the grind and reclaim space for care, for ourselves and our communities.

Survival. Mode. Is. Not. Liberation!

⭐️ Reflection Prompts

When I notice myself slipping into survival mode, what does my body do?
When I notice myself slipping into survival mode, what do I ask clients to do?
How do I usually measure “progress” with clients—and how might I shift that lens toward groundedness and humanity instead?
What small act of slowness can I model in my next session?

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

Here's to resisting through pauses and spaciousness,

In solidarity,

Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice

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PPPS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters here.