Reader,

This is the time of year when my body and psyche start making the transition toward the end of the (gregorian) year. We can call it “entering Q4” if you want, although I’m not sure my body has ever heard of Q4 and agreed to participate.

This is also the time of year when my need for slowing down is at its highest. If I interpret that through a purely Western capitalist productivity lens, I can very automatically and easily tell myself that I’m being lazier, less productive, less motivated, less focused. But if I step back and remember that I am not all Western, I can remember this IS a time for slowing down.

I notice this in my personal life. (I’ll write more about the personal in The Practice of Liberation)
I notice this as well in my professional life. And when I step back I realize that I don’t want to stop meeting with clients or clinicians. It doesn’t mean I want to stop writing Liberatory Letters or The Practice of Liberation, and it certainly doesn’t mean I’m becoming less committed, less productive, or less prolific. Or universe forbid, less of a therapist or educator.

When I step back I see that this is a time when I want to start assessing how my (gregorian) year has been. I want to slow down enough to be thoughtful about what I want to carry into the next year and what I want to leave behind: clients, practices, expectations, modalities, projects, ways of working, and maybe even some ideas about who I think I’m supposed to be professionally…. and it’s ok, we never stop growing, right?

And the key word for me here is thoughtful. Thinking carefully is something that, for me, takes time. I don’t want to make decisions simply because the calendar says it’s time to plan the next year, or because everyone around me is suddenly talking about goals, launches, strategy, and what they’re going to accomplish next.

I want to notice what is actually happening first. What has this year asked of me so far? What has nourished me? What has drained me? What am I continuing because it still matters, and what am I continuing because I’ve gotten used to carrying it?

And I wonder if this is happening for you or your clients too. What if you (or your clients) are doing this in ways that don’t look like “end-of-year reflection.” Maybe you (they) are tired, “less motivated,” questioning relationships, work, treatment goals, routines, or expectations that seemed perfectly reasonable six months ago. Or maybe you (they) are simply reaching the point in the year when your (their) bodies realize they want a change in pace.

I wonder how often we interpret that as a problem to solve instead of information to pay attention to.

Hit reply and tell me: how are you experiencing this change of season, and is it showing up in your practice with your clients?

With liberatory care,

Silvana

​​Liberatory Letters | The Practice of Liberation | Decolonize Your Practice​

PS. If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t heard from me lately, this is part of the answer: I’ve been working on something that makes complete sense at this time of my professional season. Over the past month, instead of writing my usual newsletter, I wrote 12 emails that I called Widen the Frame. If you’re not ready for Healing Is An Ecosystem yet, start there. Widen the Frame is designed as a gentle introduction to the idea behind HIAE: that sometimes we need to widen the frame of what we understand as healing before we can see what else might be possible.

PPS. Healing Is An Ecosystem takes the idea of widening the frame much further. The field guide is for clinicians who are ready to look beyond the therapy room and consider the conditions surrounding a person’s healing: material circumstances, community, culture and ancestry, spirituality, relationships, the body, identity, creativity, ecology, politics and systems, and more. It asks you to consider not only what you can provide as a clinician, but what else might belong in someone's healing ecosystem. You can think of Widen the Frame as the doorway, and HIAE as the place where we spend more time exploring what we find once we walk through it.

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