I help clinicians, healers, and coaches incorporate decolonized and liberatory values in their practices so that you can have a practice and/or service-based business that is truly affirming and welcoming to clients who hold marginalized identities.
Your specialties are special
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Reader, Let’s talk about specialties. How many times have you minimized your own: told yourself they weren’t that special, felt imposter syndrome creep in, overperformed just to prove you’re enough, while secretly feeling like you’re still underperforming? Yeah. That’s not personal failure. That’s systemic oppression talking. (actually systemic oppression + a nervous system struggling to regulate due to… the world) That’s what happens when our minoritized identities as therapists, healers, and space holders are devalued, dismissed, or tokenized. Recently, I was talking with a clinician about the mess Medicaid is in right now in parts of our state (and how it’s been impacting clinicians and clients alike)… (and if you don’t live in the US: Medicaid is the state insurance, supposedly supporting low income individuals who usually have multilayered challenges + fewer to very little resources). We started brainstorming other income streams, which meant naming and leaning into our specialties. And here’s the truth: ✨ Putting yourself out there is vulnerable. ✨ Asking for help is vulnerable. ✨ Naming what makes you powerful is vulnerable. But vulnerability doesn’t make you weak, it makes you a model. When you share your specialties openly, you’re showing other providers what it looks like to reject invisibility. When you ask your community for help during financial stress, you’re refusing the lie that we must survive in isolation. And here’s the decolonial truth: You are not to blame for doubting your gifts. The real culprit is a system that told you therapy and healing only counts when it’s generic, certified, standardized, billable, and stripped of your lived experience. The antidote? 🌱 To reclaim what makes you you. 🌱 To center your specialties, even when the system calls them “too niche” or “not evidence-based.” 🌱 To remember that liberation isn’t about being palatable—it’s about being whole. Your specialties are not liabilities. They’re medicine. ⭐️ Reflection Prompts
🔥 Hit reply and share your reflections with me, I want to know what's happening in your world! Here's to embodying our medicine, In solidarity, Silvana @ Decolonize Your Practice PS. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, you can subscribe here. PPS. And forward this email to a peer as well! PPPS. You can read previous Liberatory Letters here. ⬆️ Let's connect! |
Hi! I'm Silvana.
I help clinicians, healers, and coaches incorporate decolonized and liberatory values in their practices so that you can have a practice and/or service-based business that is truly affirming and welcoming to clients who hold marginalized identities.
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, not just 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...
Reader, Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to balance community care with self-preservation. Because here’s what keeps coming up: Someone emails asking if I know of a healer, or a training, or a resource, and I pause. I want to help. I do want to help. That’s who I am. That’s who many of us are. But also:I can feel that tiny pull of hesitation. Because to respond—to curate, to think, to connect the dots—is labor. Often unpaid (emotional) labor. And then the spiral begins:If I don’t...
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.I've been developing it slowly, at the pace that feels right for my body and my identities. That is the essence of the mini course.If you read this newsletter, you'll find out first when it's released! 🛋️ A deeper space for those ready to do the daily work of unlearning, remembering, and living liberation, everywhere.Keep...