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!
You Will Cause Harm. Here’s How to Be a Healer Who Repairs It.
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Reader, You’re Not a Bad Therapist if You Mess Up* You’re also not a bad therapist if you microaggress your clients. You’re human—but you’re responsible. We need to say this out loud: Not because you’re cruel. Not because you’re careless. But here’s the part no one says (but liberation demands): You’re not a bad therapist when you rupture. You become harmful when you avoid repair. You are not to blame for this. You were trained to think in binaries:
And binaries make us freeze. They trap you in perfectionism. And when guilt is in the room, clients lose space to name their hurt. The real culprit is the system that trained you, really. Us therapists are conditioned to:
Most programs teach microaggressions the way they teach fire safety: Don’t do it. Not: Here’s what you do when you inevitably will... Microaggressions aren’t tiny. They’re accumulations. So when you microaggress a client, yes: You messed up. It landed. It hurt. And it matters. But feeling like a “bad therapist” doesn’t heal anything. Here’s how we do it better—liberation aligned, not perfection aligned. When you rupture, you have a choice: (A) Collapse into guilt or (B) Move toward repair from a place of connection and responsibility Repair is not about proving you’re one of the “good ones.” Because the goal isn’t to never cause harm. The goal is to build the kind of therapeutic relationship where clients feel safe enough to tell you when you did. That is decolonial healing. That’s liberation in practice.
*Adapted from an older Liberatory Letter. I pulled it from the archives, I've reworked it with the clarity and language i move from now.
✨ REFLECTION PROMPTS Use in supervision, journaling, or consultation circles:
✨ PRACTICE: A 10-Minute Liberatory Repair Rehearsal This is the kind of practice we do inside The Practice of Liberation — not just thinking about liberation, but rehearsing it in the body. Set a timer for 10 minutes. You only need a notebook and your breath. STEP 1 — Name the rupture (2 minutes) Write down a moment — big or small — where you misattuned, missed someone, or caused harm. (If your system floods, pause, breathe, shake your hands out, and re-enter.) STEP 2 — Separate shame from responsibility (3 minutes) Create two columns:
Notice which statements contract your body and which expand it. STEP 3 — Write a one-sentence repair opener (3 minutes) Write a sentence you could actually say to a client, colleague, peer, or supervisee that:
Example structures:
This practice is not hypothetical. It builds a muscle memory for repair. STEP 4 — Say it out loud once (2 minutes) Yes, out loud. Speak your repair sentence slowly. If you tremble? Good. Repair is a relational practice — your nervous system is part of the work. STEP 5 — End with a grounding sentence (30 seconds) Choose the sentence that feels most true:
Let your body hear it. With liberatory care, Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice PS. If this conversation is landing in your body — if you feel the tension of responsibility mixed with relief — this is exactly the kind of work we go deeper into inside The Practice of Liberation. It’s my paid newsletter where I share the deeper, more vulnerable, more politically honest teachings that don’t fit on social media… and where your learning is resourced, held, and supported. 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!
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