The hisotry of therapy is heavily based on a colonizing, patriarchal, and appropriative foundation. However, in my practice I root in the practices of liberation focused therapy.
Psychology has a harmful legacy of oppressing those who do not fit its norms. It was built largely through white supremacist, patriarchal, and colonizing ideas of “health”, along with appropriated practices. Though the field has come a long way, this legacy of harm continues to affect things today.
Liberation Focused Therapy as a white Therapist
It is my job to continue to practice decolonizing myself and my practice. I embody this by working to identify and dismantle the values, privileges, and ways of being that I have internalized and experienced by growing up as a white person in a white supremacist society. I am then able to bring that growth and understanding into my self as a person and a therapist.
It is my commitment and practice to engage in ongoing dialogue, decolonizing-self work, training, and education outside of my services. I do this in order to grow as a person and practitioner. Additionally I do this to be able to provide therapy that upholds, affirms, and celebrates the sacred gift of difference. To honor and uplift the many ways of being in this world, while rejecting white colonizing worldviews as the ideal or “normal” way of being.
What does Liberation Focused Therapy Look Like
When you work with me, I will practice my commitment to hold space for your worldviews and cultural identities. We will explore how they impact your self and life’s path. You may discover gifts and places of connection from your cultural legacies. At the same time, you may realize experiences of suffering related to your cultural expectations. You may also seek to reconcile places where your identity and needs do not align with your culture and ancestry. We will work together to find your voice and vision, how they relate to your legacies, and how to integrate those on your path.
Every culture has gifts and shadows. It is also my job to help you explore the shadows of your legacies. These may be places where you have experienced wounding from your culture and ancestry. You may fear losing connection to your family, ancestry, and culture through your healing journery. We will explore ways of aligning with your unique self and staying integrated with your culture. We will also create space to integrate all that you have reclaimed, and grieve and release that which does not serve.
This also means that in working with me, I will offering healing practices for the impact of living in a society that centers and idealizes white, patriarchal, colonizing worldviews and identity (through all the layers), and imposes abuses, harm, negativity, and invisibility on those who do not assimilate or embody those worldviews and identities.
Healing Practices for the Trauma of Oppression
I practice from an understanding that experiences of oppression can be covert as well as overt. They can be shrouded in gaslighting and hard to describe. Or they can be clearly escalated in layers of harm and violence. Additionally, I practice from a trauma -informed perspective. I can understand how oppression impacts your present day self, as well as the effects of generational legacies of oppression. This creates multidimensional layers of suffering that deserve care, support, and healing.
At the same time, I practice from a belief in the healing power of centering and uplifting the incredible sacredness that you hold within you – from your own being and from all those who have come before you. This core is so much more than anything that has been done to you. It is from connecting to and uplifting this place within, where we can find the internal support to heal even the most painful of places.
In this way, I hope to provide a space for you to experience your own path of healing and transformation. It is my hope to support you in discovering your unique, very necessary, and truly sacred way of being in this world.
I offer a variety of services in my virtual therapy office that can support you on your journey:
- For solo journeyers, I offer individual therapy. We will work together to identify the places where you are out of balance. And, support you in reclaiming your sense of joy, self-love, aliveness, and self-knowing.
- For partners, I offer couples therapy. We will create a path of more clear and aligned communication. You’ll learn practices to deepen intimacy with each other and your own selves.
- I specialize in supporting LGBQA and TGNC folx. I also offer a variety of therapy modalities, including: online virtual therapy, spiritual therapy, somatic therapy, expressive arts therapy, and ecotherapy
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