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!
When You’re Holding Others... while you're falling apart (from the archives)
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[from the archives] Reader, This is something that keeps coming up in conversations with other clinicians: and it's even more relevant now in 2026... even though i wrote this a while back How do we keep showing up for our clients when we’re moving through so much ourselves? When the world feels like it’s on fire, and we’re holding stories that mirror our own pain? Let’s be real: Being a therapist or healer in a chaotic world (to say the least) often means holding other people’s grief while trying to manage your own. You show up to session after session, heart open. You offer presence, validation, tools, reflection. And sometimes—maybe often—you’re quietly navigating the same pain your clients bring into the room. ☁️ Burnout. 🌍 Local and Global violence. 💔 Disconnection. 😞 Rage. Helplessness. Fear. Your exhaustion is not a flaw—it’s a response to holding too much, too often, in a system that doesn’t hold us in return. Yes, a system that doesn't hold us in return... And in a decolonial framework, we stop pretending that healers must be above the suffering. We reject the myth that professionalism means disembodiment. So what does a decolonial approach look like here? It looks like this: 🌀 We make room for the full human behind the healer. You don’t have to be unaffected to be effective. You just have to be honest—with yourself, your community, and your capacity. 🌱 We reject the extractive model of care. You’re not a resource to be drained. You’re a person in motion. The more you treat yourself like someone worthy of care, the more your work reflects that. 🧯 We don’t just cope—we locate. We ask: Where is this pain coming from? Who benefits from me burning out? What narratives tell me I can’t fall apart and still be a good therapist? 💬 We tell the truth in spaces that can hold it. Maybe that’s in consultation. Maybe it’s in community. Maybe it’s just in your journal today. But truth-telling is part of our liberation. Because here’s the truth: You are not a machine. You are not a savior. You are a human being called to hold complexity—and you get to be complex too. In a decolonial model of care, we don’t perform perfection and we don’t try to fix clients. ✨ We practice presence. 💫 We let go of isolation. And we remember that even while we heal others, we are allowed to be healing too. Here's to holding our own complexities and to resisting through healing 🔥 In solidarity, Silvana PS. You've just read one of my most-read letters — sadly one that still feels very relevant. Can you believe it's from April of 2025?? PPS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters 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!
February 2026 Reader, I belong to the subgroup of clinicians who became therapists because they went to therapy and… it worked! Therapy helped me so i wanted to help others though therapy… does that sound familiar? I joined an undergraduate program in psychology in 2004. I completed my clinical psychology internship at the local Air Force hospital in 2009. Of course I didn’t love the specialty classes. Of course I was lit up by philosophy and psychology, literature and psychology, sociology...
Reader, I’ve been reflecting on the fact that my prescheduled emails told you I was in deep rest mode, and now I’m questioning that. I think the news — and the pace and volume of it — really took a toll on me, and I’m still recovering from it. I don’t think I achieved deep rest.That is okay in the sense that this is useful information: more is happening ⇒ systems are escalating ⇒ it’s harder to return to any kind of baseline ⇒ this informs me about what may also be happening for the...
You’re receiving this pre-scheduled message while I’m deep in rest-mode (yes, actual rest; yes, again).So if something major is happening in the world right this minute, this email won’t reflect it — but I’m still holding you with care across whatever landscape you’re in. Reader, Some of the people I started following this year — and learning from... They’re not your conventional therapy resources. Far from it. None of them are “therapists” in the Western sense, but they are community...