How I Decolonize My Practice
On Decolonizing My Therapy Practice
My therapeutic work is rooted in the belief that healing is not separate from justice. As a queer, Gestalt-oriented, somatic therapist influenced by liberation psychology, I don’t approach therapy as a place to “fix” pathology but as a space to unearth wholeness - often buried beneath systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, colonization, and capitalism.
What Decolonizing Therapy Means to Me
To decolonize my practice means:
Refusing to treat mental health as separate from social, political, and historical conditions
Naming systemic harm - white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, colonization—as core contributors to distress
Understanding trauma as both individual and collective, both personal and structural
Honoring resistance, joy, grief, rage, and ancestral resilience as integral parts of healing
Acknowledging my own positionality as a white, cisgender therapist and the privileges I hold within systems of power - and actively working not to replicate the harm those systems produce in the therapy room
How I Practice Equity and Relational Awareness
In our sessions, I pay attention to:
Power dynamics in the therapeutic relationship
Cultural and historical context shaping your experiences
Your capacity to consent, challenge, and set boundaries
The ways trust, safety, and authenticity are co-created over time
I may also:
Invite somatic awareness as a path to reconnecting with what’s been silenced or severed
Self-disclose thoughtfully when it serves the relationship and reduces hierarchy
Stay transparent about my own (un)learning and biases
Commitments to Anti-Oppression and Ongoing (Un)Learning
My work includes:
Studying non-Western, Indigenous, and ancestral frameworks for healing
Examining how colonialism and white supremacy shaped the origins of psychology and psychotherapy
Actively unlearning internalized racism, cissexism, classism, and patriarchal conditioning
Seeking feedback, supervision, and community with other liberation-focused practitioners
A Non-Linear, Lifelong Process
Decolonization is not a checkbox or a brand. It’s a practice - a living, shifting process. I ask myself regularly:
What am I centering?
Who gets to feel safe here?
Whose knowledge is honored?
What am I willing to risk or unlearn?
This work requires humility, relational accountability, and a deep trust in our inherent capacity to heal in connection. I don’t believe I hold the answers,but I do believe in the wisdom you carry, the stories in your body, and the possibility of transformation through relationship.