Wove Therapy

A psychotherapy practice in NYC that specializes in providing intersectional, compassionate care for all.

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The Weight of Stigma: Oppressed People and Mental Health Stigma

Mental health stigma is a public health crisis as it impacts all individuals; however, the people who bear the brunt of this stigma are those whose identities and experiences are marginalized and minoritized. Stigma surrounding mental illness and mental health services doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It intersects with racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, classism, and other forms of oppression, creating a toxic environment that damages the mental health of those already navigating systems created to oppress them. When we examine how stigma affects marginalized groups, it becomes clear that addressing mental health disparities requires dismantling the stigma at both interpersonal and structural levels.

Stigma as a Structural Force

Historical abuses in research and healthcare shape how marginalized communities interact with mental health systems. From the Tuskegee syphilis study to forced sterilizations and unethical psychiatric experiments (all of which were done primarily if not exclusively on Black people), there’s a deep-rooted mistrust that cannot be ignored. This legacy continues to inform how individuals from marginalized groups perceive and experience stigma, including fears of being pathologized or exploited if they seek help.

The US Department of Labor defines structural stigma as “punitive or discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that negatively affect the stigmatized group”-- a definition that, while limited, helps shine a light on how the laws and policies in place are rooted in white supremacy. Stigma is not merely a set of negative stereotypes. It is embedded in policies, institutions, and cultural narratives that define who/what is valued and who is marginalized. This form of stigma restricts access to mental health care, education, housing, and employment — all of which are critical to psychological well-being.

For example, research shows that BIPOC- who are minoritized and not the minority- often receive lower-quality mental health care and are more likely to face barriers such as language access, cost, and culturally insensitive providers. These systemic issues are not just logistical obstacles; they are manifestations of stigma that convey the message that these communities’ mental health does not matter.

Internalized and Community-Level Stigma

The damage doesn't stop at policy. Structural stigma seeps into community dynamics, creating within-group hierarchies that mirror broader societal biases. According to Misra, S., et al. (2021), BIPOC may internalize eurocentric beauty standards, leading to colorism, texturism, and fatphobia that negatively affects those with darker skin tones — a form of intra-community stigma that has real psychological consequences.

Similarly, individuals in marginalized communities may internalize stigma related to mental health, viewing it as a personal failing rather than a legitimate health issue. This internalized stigma leads to shame, isolation, and reluctance to seek help. In Misra, S., et al. (2021) systematic review of stigma among Asian, Black, and Latinx Americans, researchers found that self-stigma, fear of burdening family, and emotional suppression were common and culturally reinforced. A study conducted by Frost and Castro published in 2024 found that living under the constant threat of being judged, rejected, or discriminated against because of both one's identity and mental health status results in chronic stress. This is often referred to as “stigma-related stress,” and it can manifest through experiences like microaggressions, expectations of rejection, or internalized devaluation of one’s identity.

Coping mechanisms to systemic stress such as rumination, hypervigilance, and emotional suppression paired with individual and community stigma exacerbates adverse mental health outcomes in marginalized people. These responses not only increase the likelihood of developing depression and anxiety, but also erode a person’s ability to regulate emotions over time. For those navigating intersecting stigmatized identities — such as being both queer and disabled, or Black and low-income — these stressors are compounded.

Resistance, Resilience, and the Path Forward

Despite the weight of stigma, marginalized communities have developed powerful forms of resistance and resilience. Community connectedness, cultural pride, and collective healing practices serve as protective factors that buffer against the psychological toll of stigma (Frost & Castro, 2024). 

To reduce the mental health burden of stigma, interventions must go beyond awareness campaigns. They must address the structural roots of stigma — including inequities in access, provider bias, and cultural incompetence — while also validating and empowering the lived experiences of marginalized individuals. Cultural competence in mental health services, participatory research methods that avoid further stigmatization, and the inclusion of community voices are essential for this change.

Conclusion

Stigma toward mental illness is not evenly distributed. For marginalized communities, it is deeply intertwined with histories of oppression, systemic inequality, and ongoing discrimination. To promote mental health equity, we must confront stigma not just as a personal attitude but as a structural barrier — one that harms, isolates, and dehumanizes. Only then can we begin to heal the wounds it leaves behind.

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Navigating Mother’s Day as A Single Parent

Parenting, at its core, is one of the hardest roles a person can take on. Despite one’s hopes or beliefs about achieving the best parenting techniques, child rearing is unpredictable and requires a healthy supply of patience, flexibility, and quick problem-solving- to name a few things. Single parenting is uniquely tricky in that one person (depending on the levels of community support they may have) has to become every single component of what is usually a team project.

It makes sense that holidays such as Mother’s Day are bittersweet, complex, and possibly downright uncomfortable. While it’s meant to be a day dedicated to the appreciation and celebration of one parent by the rest of the family, for single parents it is seldom celebrated in that way. When there's no partner to help the kids plan surprises or to offer heartfelt thanks, the day can feel more like any other—except with higher emotional stakes. This time can stir up unpleasant emotions such as exhaustion, loneliness, or disappointment. 

However, that doesn’t mean Mother’s Day as a single parent can’t be meaningful and filled with celebration. Compassion, flexibility, and imagination are our friends! Here are some helpful suggestions to consider and redefine your own relationship with the holiday as a single parent:

1. Let go of the “Mother’s Day” Script

Release yourself from perfectionist expectations. We live in a society in which we internalize pressure to assimilate and be homogenous. There are no two parents having the same experience of the day and it is not a personal failure that anyone’s Mother’s Day is more nuanced and messy than the perfect days depicted in Hallmark movies and sitcoms. If you find yourself comparing your day to a social media highlight reel, I offer instead taking a moment to breathe and take in your own experience: the good, the uncomfortable, and the uncertain, and thank yourself for all of it. Your value as a parent is not defined by how Mother’s Day unfolds or whether you celebrated in a socially acceptable way. Give yourself permission to let the day be what it is. Whether it’s quiet, chaotic, joyful, or messy– it’s yours.

2. Celebrate Yourself

One of the most radical acts a single parent can take on Mother’s Day is to celebrate themselves intentionally and unapologetically. That might mean buying yourself flowers, ordering your favorite meal, or reaching out to your support system to relieve caretaking and focus on yourself for a moment of the day. Offering yourself time to reflect on all that you do for your family without any caveats that get in the way of self-compassion. 

3. Reach Out to Your Support System

This day can look like anything you can possibly imagine! Do you want to spend it with friends, family, fellow single parents and their children? Do you want to plan a collective or solitary activity for part of the day? I’m a big fan of intentionally planning one community activity in a way that is equitable to celebrate yourself and the people around you, however, planning a solo moment might be just what you need.

4. Get the Kids Involved in Simple Ways

If your children are old enough, involve them in celebrating with you—even in small, age-appropriate ways. Kids often want to do something special, but may not know how or feel unsure without guidance. You might gently suggest they draw a picture, write a note, or help make a simple breakfast. It’s okay to lead a little; teaching them how to show appreciation is a life skill in itself. If they are too young to be involved, don’t hesitate to create your own moment. Take a photo, write a letter to yourself, or start a new tradition. Those beautiful, soft moments will be all meaningful to look back on for years to come.

5. Give Yourself Grace

It’s okay if the day doesn’t feel magical. It’s okay to experience pain, grief, frustration, and other unpleasant and uncomfortable emotions. Greet yourself in your entirety with love and compassion, trying to soften any judgement that may surface with curiosity and gratitude. You’re doing something incredibly hard, and mixed feelings are an appropriate response to a complicated and layered human experience.

Conclusion

As a single parent, Mother’s Day is going to look uniquely distinct from many of our expectations for this holiday. Finding a way to celebrate may be challenging and bring about many uncomfortable and unpleasant emotions. It is helpful to, as much as possible, show oneself compassion, flexibility, and curiosity while navigating a holiday and celebration that may reflect the complexity of being multiple different types of caregiver to one’s children. Sometimes, the best we can do is all we can do, and it’s okay that the reality and expectations do not match.

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Exploring Identity: Therapy for Self-Discovery and Acceptance

White supremacy has corrupted the world, fueling in all of us a desire to police ourselves and others by an impossible standard of who we should be—smarter, thinner, more successful, more likable. With all this pressure, it’s no wonder so many people struggle with accepting themselves as they are, especially when our survival within the system depends on this kind of self-loathing. As Octavia Butler said, there is no magic bullet, however, therapy can become one kind of solution; it can be a space in which a person can intentionally reflect and imagine a different world that breaks out of that cycle. Beyond addressing stress, anxiety, or depression, therapy is also a powerful tool for self-discovery and self-acceptance.

Why Self-Acceptance Matters

At its core, self-acceptance means embracing all of yourself as neutrally as possible. You are neither a good or a bad person, you are a person who sometimes makes decisions that have a good impact on you and your environment and sometimes make decisions that have an adverse impact on yourself and others. It doesn’t mean ignoring flaws or giving up on growth. Instead, it’s about recognizing that you’re worthy just as you are, regardless of mistakes, setbacks, or what others think.

Studies show that people with higher levels of self-acceptance are more resilient to life’s curveballs. For example, a 2016 Serbian study found that individuals who practiced unconditional self-acceptance (accepting themselves no matter what), a practice stemming from Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), were less likely to experience intense anxiety or depression when faced with criticism or rejection. That kind of inner stability is like having an emotional safety net—you bounce back faster because your sense of worth isn’t tied to outside approval.

Therapy as a Space for Self-Discovery

One of the most powerful things therapy offers is a safe space to explore who you are beneath the noise of expectations. Through conversations, guided exercises, or creative outlets, therapy helps you uncover parts of yourself you may have ignored or buried. Therapy is like holding up a mirror, but instead of judging what you see, you’re guided to understand it.

For instance, a study conducted in Guangdong, China and published in 2021 found that group paint therapy sessions helped college students open up emotionally, reflect on their experiences, and, ultimately, increase their levels of self-acceptance. When you put your inner world onto paper—literally—you see yourself in new ways. This process makes it easier to understand your feelings, values, and even the parts of yourself you’ve been hiding.

Transforming Your Relationship With Harsh Self-Criticism

I think what most people often experience as a singular, individual (and thus, isolating) quality or trait is having an inner critic and judge, however, most of us have internalized critique and judgment in order to anticipate and prepare for potentially hurtful or unsafe situations. Most of us have parts of ourselves that will come up and say things like I did that wrong or they must think [insert painful belief] about me when we are faced with the anticipation of something scary and uncomfortable, or while we ruminate or look back on past experiences wishing we could change them. Depending on the style of therapy (and the style of the therapist), therapy can be a space in which you re-discover your relationships with the critic and judge so that in place of black-and-white thinking and perfectionism, you can have a nuanced, compassionate, and loving relationship with yourself that centers around yours and our collective humanity.

A 2016 study conducted in Romania showed that self-acceptance is closely linked to healthier, more rational thinking. People who accept themselves unconditionally are less likely to buy into rigid or self-destructive beliefs like “I must be perfect” or “I’m worthless if I fail.” Instead, they can see mistakes as part of the human experience—not a verdict on their value. Imagine how freeing it would feel to treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you’d offer a close friend. That’s exactly what therapy teaches you to do.

Self-Acceptance As An Ongoing Journey

This is probably the hardest pill to swallow about therapy and self-acceptance: unfortunately, it is not a one-and-done achievement. It’s a lifelong practice. Even with therapy, you’ll face new challenges that test how you see yourself. But the difference is, you’ll have the tools to respond with compassion instead of criticism.

Over time, therapy can help you:

See yourself more clearly in all your beautiful complexity

Let go of the need for constant approval

Build resilience to manage the distress that may show up as anxiety, depression, and stress

Live more authentically and confidently.

Conclusion

Therapy isn’t about “fixing problems” or “curing illness”—it’s about discovering yourself and learning to accept that person fully. Whether through talk therapy, creative outlets like art, or approaches like REBT, the goal is the same: to help you understand yourself better and treat yourself with unconditional acceptance.

A fellow alum from undergrad tagged a commuter MTA train with a statement that I come back to often: In a world that profits off your self-hatred, loving yourself is a radical act. To that, I will also add, a person who knows themselves and accepts themselves is ungovernable in white supremacy.

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The Impact of Systemic Oppression on Mental Health

Systemic oppression is not only a sociopolitical issue—it is a significant determinant of mental health. From discriminatory policies to chronic marginalization, individuals whose identities have been historically oppressed are left to contend with disproportionate emotional and psychological labor that has a lasting impact across one’s lifetime and generations to come. This becomes even more nuanced as one considers how multiple minoritized and oppressed identities compound with folks at the intersections of multiple identities to have uniquely challenging experiences that only become less and less comprehensible to the mainstream the more oppressed identities a person embodies. Mounting evidence reveals that systemic and structural racism, along with other forms of oppression, directly contributes to widespread mental health disparities across racial, ethnic, gender, and socio-economic lines. For instance, the systematic hunt of Black and Brown people by ICE is not only about immigration, it is also about reproductive rights, gender-affirming care, marriage equality, and economic justice– we cannot consider only one identity when we discuss oppression. 

What Is Systemic Oppression?

Systemic oppression refers to the deeply embedded and enduring patterns of inequality that are reinforced by institutions, laws, policies, and social norms. According to Braveman et al. (2022), systemic and structural racism are not merely individual acts of prejudice, but pervasive conditions that restrict opportunities, perpetuate inequity, and harm health through long-standing institutional practices such as residential segregation, unequal education funding, environmental injustice, and biased policing. These structural disadvantages often go unnoticed by those not affected, yet they set the stage for profound psychological consequences for marginalized communities.

Chronic Oppression as Psychological Trauma

The psychological impact of oppression goes beyond stress—it can be traumatic. Research using the Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS) demonstrates that discrimination can elicit symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including anxiety, hypervigilance, and intrusive thoughts. Williams et al. (2023) found that individuals who experienced racial trauma scored significantly higher on TSDS measures, with symptoms strongly correlated with depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Unlike traditional conceptions of trauma as single, discrete events, the trauma induced by systemic oppression is chronic and cumulative. This is particularly harmful for individuals with multiple marginalized identities. Intersectionality—being both a racial minority and LGBTQ+, for example—can compound psychological distress. The accumulation of discriminatory experiences from various sources creates an ongoing state of emotional vigilance and erosion of self-worth.

Additionally, part of the systems working exactly as they were intended to, capitalism and white supremacy co-create a sense of urgency; meshing self-worth and identity with employment. Poverty is perceived as a moral failure instead of a deliberate structural outcome, leaving people to experience cycles of shame, overwork, and burnout for the promise of social mobility and financial security. 

Mental Health and Structural Racism

As noted by Shim (2021), the social determinants of mental health—conditions like housing, education, employment, and exposure to violence—are largely shaped by structural racism and social injustice. These determinants influence both the prevalence and severity of mental illness across racial and ethnic lines. For example, Black and Latinx communities have significantly lower access to mental health services, with nearly 70% of Black adults and 67% of Latinx adults reporting no treatment for mental health issues. 

The mental health field itself has a history of structural racism. Shim (2021) outlines how psychiatry once pathologized normal responses to oppression. Diagnoses like “drapetomania,” invented in the 19th century to describe enslaved people’s desire to escape captivity, are clear examples of how the profession was used to rationalize racial subjugation. Today, although the language has changed, structural inequities persist in mental health research, education, and clinical care. Certain psychiatric diagnoses are more frequently applied to BIPOC- often inaccurately- due to racial bias in the diagnostic process. The tendency to misattribute symptoms as inherent cultural or biological differences (essentially leaning into the invention of race and eugenics), rather than acknowledging systemic stressors, leads to misdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, and poor treatment outcomes. 

For example, Cameron (2007) conducted a study with 117 participants that showed white non-hispanic individuals made up 24.4% of the participant pool diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD), whereas 43.3% of hispanic boys and 34.4% of Black boys made up the rest of the participant pool. Grimmett, et al. (2016) notes that a major factor for the overrepresentation of Black american boys in the oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) diagnostic category is the direct result of diagnosing white children presenting the same symptomatology with a lesser, less stigmatizing and temporary diagnosis of adjustment disorder which requires to be reviewed and changed after six months of treatment. This is but one example of how the Mental Health Industrial Complex is structurally designed to stigmatize and pathologize behaviors, which can have a lasting impact on the individual’s sense of self and how they are perceived by their environment- whether it be navigating the school system or searching for employment. 

Addressing the Harm: Toward Mental Health Equity

To effectively combat the mental health effects of systemic oppression, it is crucial to move beyond individual-level interventions. Mental health equity requires dismantling the root structures that uphold injustice. This includes:

Expanding Definitions of Trauma: Incorporating chronic oppression into diagnostic frameworks is essential to ensure marginalized populations receive appropriate care and recognition of their experiences.

Cultural Humility and Structural Competence: Mental health professionals must commit to ongoing education about the systems that shape clients' lives. Recognizing how structural forces influence individual symptoms is a foundational step toward equity in care.

Policy Advocacy: Real change must be supported by systemic reforms—such as equitable access to housing, education, and healthcare—that address the social determinants of mental health.

Community Healing Initiatives: Culturally grounded and community-based healing models that acknowledge the collective trauma of oppression can offer more effective support than Western, individual-focused approaches.

Conclusion

Mental health does not exist in a vacuum, in fact, it directly correlates to how we relate to the world as much as how the world relates to us. Our current environments have been shaped by decades of systemic oppression. Recognizing the trauma embedded in social injustice is not only a clinical imperative but a moral one. As Shim (2021) aptly states, achieving mental health equity is inseparable from the pursuit of social justice.

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The Significance of Termination Sessions in Therapy

“Termination” is the word used to connotate the end of a therapeutic relationship and the process of ending a counseling experience. It can feel like a particularly harsh word, often associated with abruptness and finality, and at times, death. Although there is a chance that termination sessions within the realm of counseling can be harsh and final, termination is a very important part of the therapeutic process and can be quite healing.

Reasons for Termination

Whether you are leaving therapy entirely, going to work with a different therapist, or pausing sessions for the time being, taking time to acknowledge this transition with your current therapist can provide opportunities that are often not an option outside of therapeutic relationships and the therapy space. 

There are many reasons that termination may come up in your therapy journey, including internal and external factors that are planned or unplanned.  Depending on the contributing factors, termination sessions may look different, but the overall theme of keeping your best interests in mind as the client should remain throughout the termination process.  

Some reasons for termination may include:

Client-initiated

The client-therapist working relationship does not feel like a good fit

Not being pleased with the progress made in treatment or therapist’s therapeutic approach

Wanting to live life without therapy

Moving outside the geographical scope of therapist’s license

Changes to insurance or financial situation impacts the affordability of therapy

Not being willing or able to commit to therapy at this time

Therapist-initiated

Therapist believes continued treatment would be harmful to client in any capacity

Therapist is no longer competent to continue working with client (due to client’s treatment needs changing or personal matters that may inhibit their ability to provide therapeutic services e.g., illness, burnout, etc.)

Licensure status changes or planned retirement approaches

Therapist’s life events inhibit their ability to practice as client’s therapist (e.g., maternity leave, moving abroad, etc.)

 Mutually-initiated

Client’s therapy goals are achieved

Limited number of sessions as initially agreed upon have been fulfilled

 Benefits of Termination Sessions

The idea of terminating therapy or a therapeutic relationship can bring up a wide range and mixture of positive and negative emotions pertaining to the work you have done, the therapeutic relationship formed, and the transition from one part of your mental health journey to another.  During termination sessions, there is an opportunity to address and process these feelings with your therapist, including feelings you may have regarding your therapist.  No matter how you feel towards your therapist or how long you have been working together, there is insight to be gained in recognizing the importance of the therapeutic relationship and how you are relating to them.  If done ethically and competently, termination sessions ultimately allow you a) an opportunity to reflect on previous therapy sessions and acknowledge your progress and what you have learned, b) to create a sense of closure in your relationship with your therapist and say goodbye, which is not always an option in relationships outside of therapy, and c) to recognize your future plans and how you can apply what you have learned in therapy moving forward.  

Termination sessions are not always easy, but they can help to consolidate and integrate counseling gains to be used in the next chapter of life and to model healthy boundaries and endings to relationships.  Termination sessions, when implemented effectively, provide an opportunity for continued personal growth.  However, it is up to you as the client to show up for termination sessions and to be honest in talking through your feelings regarding terminating in order to take advantage of this opportunity.

Abrupt Termination in Therapy

Sometimes, therapy termination is unpredictable and abrupt.  If you are unable to complete the termination process due to your therapist or your own life circumstances, or if you choose to leave the therapeutic relationship without going through the termination process, it can be harmful to you and your mental health journey.  It is important to acknowledge that in any termination circumstance, it is incredibly valid if you experience feelings of anger, grief, sadness, betrayal, abandonment, confusion, disgust, regret, relief, excitement, etc. upon terminating therapy and the therapeutic relationship.  These feelings may come up immediately, with time, or not at all.  If you notice these feelings coming up, it may be helpful to talk about it with your next therapist as you continue your therapy journey.  A therapist with your best interest in mind will be open to discussing the impact of your previous therapists.  They can help you process your feelings regarding termination and possibly help to illuminate how your relationship with your previous therapist may be impacting you and current therapy sessions.  If you are not continuing treatment with a new therapist, it may still be helpful to think about your relationship with the therapist you have terminated with and how it impacts you or relates to relationships outside of therapy.  You can also dedicate time to honoring the termination of your therapy sessions on your own by reflecting on what you have learned in your therapy journey thus far.

Conclusion

Termination can be a scary word and a scary process.  In therapy, termination sessions have a lot of potential benefits, but they are not always planned, and they do not always go according to plan.  If you are approaching termination within the realm of the therapy process, perhaps you can regard these sessions and your therapeutic relationship as a container to practice, experience, and get to know how you approach endings, transitions, and new beginnings.

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The Importance of Cultural Competence in Mental Health Outcomes

Like most aspects of our society and the systems in place to ensure ‘order’ among people, the mental health industrial complex is no exception to the premise that there is one objectively healthy way of being (white, wealthy, able-bodied, cishet, Christian, patriarchal) and everything else can be interpreted as pathology or illness. As a result, so much of the way mental health is conceptualized in the work professionals do is rooted in maintaining the status quo and weaponizing or vilifying oppressed peoples’ natural nervous system reactions to oppression.

The truth is mental health is not experienced in a vacuum—it is deeply shaped by cultural values, social conditions, and historical contexts. Thanks to abolitionists throughout history, the colonized world has become increasingly more aware of white supremacy and its impact on the most vulnerable people. As a result, cultural competence has become an essential consideration in improving mental health outcomes. Cultural competence refers to the ability of practitioners and systems to provide care that is respectful of and responsive to the cultural identity, beliefs, and practices of clients. Without this nuance, individuals risk misdiagnosis, disengagement from treatment, and exacerbation of mental health disparities.

Why Culture Matters in Mental Health

Culture shapes how people understand, express, and cope with distress. According to Ogundare (2019), in many non-western societies, depression is often experienced through physical symptoms like fatigue or headaches as opposed to feelings of sadness or worthlessness- which dominate western and global north depictions of depression. Similarly, the understanding and expression of psychosis may vary depending on culture and social norm. For example, in the same study by Ogundare published in The Journal of Health and Social Sciences, he describes how psychosis in the western world often involves technology and a fear of being surveilled, whereas many cultures from the Global South may experience psychosis as related to the supernatural or spiritual world. These differences highlight the danger of applying Western diagnostic categories universally without considering cultural nuance.

Furthermore, misdiagnosis is one of the most significant risks of ignoring cultural context. When clinicians interpret symptoms solely through their own cultural lens, they may misunderstand patients’ experiences. For example, what may be a culturally normative spiritual belief in one community might be misinterpreted as delusional in another. Such errors can have devastating consequences, leading to unnecessary medication, stigma, or mistrust of the healthcare system.

The Limits of Standardized Evidence-Based Practices

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is widely promoted as the gold standard for mental health interventions. Yet, as Laurence Kirmayer (2012) points out, the research base informing EBP often excludes cultural minorities and relies heavily on white western populations. This gap means that treatments validated in majority populations may not be effective—and it is also often irrelevant—for marginalized groups. Furthermore, standardized measures of treatment success frequently ignore culturally valued outcomes such as community connectedness or spiritual well-being. Cultural competence bridges this gap by emphasizing adaptation of evidence-based treatments to cultural contexts and by expanding what is considered a successful outcome. However, tensions remain within the mental health field: EBP seeks universal generalizations, while cultural competence threatens white supremacy (objectivity and individualism) by de-centering standards in favor of nuance. While EBP can give us a sense that there is a tried-and-true way to be healthy, it is important to note that this is an illusion to streamline mental health services for profit and productivity.

True successful mental health outcomes for the global majority requires more than naming these discrepancies within EBP— it requires skill building. Therapy is itself an artform that requires training that challenges professionals to integrate with nuance what we know to be “objective” with the reality that there is no such thing as objectivity. A systematic review of cultural competence training for mental health providers published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice in 2022 by Wippold and Becker found that cultural competence programs can significantly enhance practitioners’ attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Despite positive results, many trainings focus narrowly on race and ethnicity while neglecting other critical dimensions such as religion, immigration status, or socioeconomic background, gender or sexuality. Addressing this gap is vital because individuals’ identities are complex and intersecting, and cultural competence must extend beyond any single dimension of diversity.

From Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility and Safety

While cultural competence is important, some scholars caution against viewing it as a skill set to be mastered. Kirmayer (2012) and others argue for approaches like cultural humility, which emphasizes an ongoing process of self-reflection, openness, and recognition of the clinician’s limited understanding of a client’s cultural world. Similarly, the concept of cultural safety shifts attention to systemic issues, urging practitioners and institutions to acknowledge historical injustices and power imbalances that shape clinical encounters. These perspectives remind us that cultural competence is not a box to check but a lifelong practice requiring institutional support, continuous training, and systemic change.

Conclusion

Cultural competence is not just an ethical imperative but a practical necessity in improving mental health outcomes. When mental health providers account for cultural influences in diagnosis, treatment, and communication, they can foster trust, increase treatment adherence, and reduce disparities. Conversely, when culture is ignored, the risks include misdiagnosis, disengagement, and worsening inequities.

Ultimately, integrating cultural competence with evidence-based practice offers the most promising path forward. This integration requires expanding the evidence base to include diverse populations, training providers to deliver culturally responsive care, and addressing structural inequities that underlie health disparities. By doing so, mental health services can better serve the diverse communities that depend on them.

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Decolonizing Our Relationship with Nature

Living in New York City, the “concrete jungle,” can feel nature-depriving.  Whether this feels ~natural~ to you or you feel your cravings for greenery and open skies fester the longer you live here, it may bring up questions regarding your relationship with nature.  Research shows that one’s connectedness with nature, land, and the environment has a positive impact on one’s overall wellbeing and sense of self (Keaulana et al., 2021).  How has colonization impacted our relationship with nature, and how might we decolonize our relationship with nature?

Colonial Mindset

The first European settlers saw the environment as commodity to reach their economic aspirations.  They exploited the land to the point of complete exhaustion, void of concern about using the land and natural resources carefully.  Gold and silver were mined to depletion, rivers and waterways were poisoned along with the flora and fauna, and forests were destroyed.  A colonizer’s view of a map does not include people nor nature, but territory to be claimed.

Eurocentric colonial and neocolonial regard towards the environment harms the environment as well as the people.  Colonized mindset impairs the relationship between people with their surroundings and with each other.  Colonial thinking is characterized by greed, exploitation, and hoarding lands without consideration for anything else including the inhabitants, the future of the environment, nor any and all forms of life.  “Land hoarding” began after colonization in connection with economic growth.  Colonial thinking has environmental growth and economic/technological growth at odds.  It disrupts, obliterates, and severs people’s relation with the environment, externalizing nature (environmental matter) as a thing to be used, exploited, commercialized, fetishized, and colonized by humans.  Human relations are also removed as investors (land hoarders) continue to hoard land while the people of the area are struggling to survive.  As seen in today’s capitalist society, relationships amongst people have been deeply deprioritized in the need to work and earn money for survival.  In colonial mindset, subject-object power relation is imposed, defined by mastery, appropriation, and domination (forced labor, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, rape, etc.).  Colonialism is violence.

Preservationist Mindset

After the closing of the frontier in the 1890s, there was a romanticized notion of colonial conquest from the past.  As endorsed by Roosevelt who said that untouched wilderness “taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision,” it became quintessential to the spirit of the American frontiersman.  This led to the establishment of the first National Park, Yosemite National Park, the first land set aside specifically for conservation in the United States.  It is easy to be fooled that the mindset which supports the preservation of land is entirely contrasting to the mindset that involves conquering and civilizing it.  However, both are inherently racist, involving violence towards indigenous communities and the assumption that they have no influence on the land they are being cut off from, assuming “nature” as completely removed and separate from their relation and existence as people.  

National Parks were once the sacred homelands of indigenous nations who were displaced, tortured and killed in the name of “conservation”.  Indigenous care management of their environments were and continue to be completely overlooked, with current events bringing indigenous knowledge of controlled burns to the forefront of anticolonial discourse.  In reality, indigenous inhabitants would also use controlled burns to create a space they wanted to observe, apparent in the now overgrown and disappearing vistas of Yosemite National Park upon their forced displacement.  Their active land management was not seen as agriculture, their homelands viewed as wasted, unproductive lands which was legitimated by God to dispossess from the indigenous people and given by God to European settlers in order to tame and to cultivate.  Additionally through this lens, it is believed that indigenous humans must be removed from nature in order to be saved (i.e., colonization of the United States as well as ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestinian homelands).  

The invisibility of indigenous practices, the thought that humans must be removed from nature in order to save it, and the belief that “pristine, virgin wilderness” must be quarantined from an inherently destructive humanity is rooted in white supremacy.  

So how do we decolonize our relationship with nature?

There are many ways to decolonize our relationship with nature, and it is helpful to gain an understanding of indigenous thinking and their relationship with nature by listening to indigenous voices.  The purpose of gaining understanding is not to romanticize indigenous practices and regard indigenous people as distinct from others, leading to fetishization, dehumanization, and racial hierarchies from “leftist” spaces which stems again from white supremacy.  It is important to recognize these distinguishing relationships with nature through a cultural context built on different belief systems.  Indigenous communities see that we are connected with nature as inseparable and integral to ourselves.  We as people do not develop separate and distinctly from the natural world, but out of the natural world.  We are continuous with our local ecosystems, and by taking care of our environments we are taking care of ourselves.

As a non-indigenous human on my own journey decolonizing my relationship with nature, I urge you to keep being curious about your relationships with others, your environments, and yourself, and keep gaining awareness and unlearning the voices of the oppressors.  Share the labor.  Share the much-needed rest.  Share the love.

Some helpful starting points for decolonizing your relationship with nature:

Go outside.  Go on a walk and look around you, at nothing in particular, and observe the natural world.  Notice the function and the beauty, how it impacts its surroundings and how its surroundings impact it.  How have you related to this space?

Be curious and explore.  What have you learned about the natural world in the voices of the oppressor?  Think about your own judgment on what is clean and what is dirty, and distinguish between those judgments and what is safe and unsafe.  Play with dirt, take off your shoes, stretch in open air.

Acknowledge nature is all around us.  Nature is us, and we are nature.  This shows up as indoor plants and parks, playfulness, seedlings at the base of cement buildings, music, the food we nourish ourselves with, the flow of water, natural rhythms of our bodies, sunlight, babies and children, natural materials, etc.  By recognizing nature, you continue to relate and build your relationship with the environment and yourself.

Land acknowledgment.  Continue to recognize the violence faced by indigenous people through colonization.  Do your research.  Look at maps.  See how indigenous communities have been and continue to be forced aside for settler purposes.  Acknowledge your own contributions to colonization and whose land you are living on.  If you reside in what is politically known as New York City, you are existing on Lenapehoking, the ancestral lands of the Lenape peoples. Contact Us

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The Importance of Representation within Mental Health Care

The mental health field has historically centered whiteness.  From the very beginning, leaders in psychology were almost exclusively white, heterosexual men.  The impacts of this narrow viewpoint are seen and felt in the racist, sexist, homophobic foundations of psychological concepts, theories, and diagnoses (e.g. hysteria, conversion therapy, etc.).  Devastatingly, diversity in mental healthcare continues to be largely lacking.  A striking example includes as recently as in 2021, the American Psychological Association acknowledged that the organization “ignored the opportunity to take a formidable stand to address poverty, racism, and social concerns affecting African Americans, despite the strong advocacy of our members, some of whom consequently left the organization.”  Although the mental health field is moving towards addressing long-standing health and wellness disparities and embodying the importance of tending to diverse identities and experiences, lack of representation of marginalized identities within the mental health field continues.  This lack of representation includes but is not limited to race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and abilities, along with the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.  

Representation within the mental health field is deeply impactful, meaningful, and necessary in many ways:

1. Acceptance and belonging.  Representation communicates what is socially acceptable and valuable.  Strong mental health stigmas remain within many non-dominant cultures, attaching shame and guilt to working with a mental health professional and upholding therapy as being for affluent white folk or those who are “crazy” or “damaged”.  These stigmas are largely informed by colonizer narratives of what is considered acceptable and a long history of trauma for BIPOC communities experiencing and witnessing attempts at trusting Western people/practitioners, lack of accessibility, and maltreatment of marginalized groups.  These stigmas are further enforced through pre-existing representation of mental health care as WASP-y clients receiving treatment from WASP-y therapists.  

By seeing mental health professionals who share your identities, these stigmas are challenged and the message is communicated that you are not alone, you belong, and you do not need to feel shame for who you are or for seeking help.  Marginalized folk are often left out of the mental health discourse and are less likely to seek and receive mental health care than their white counterparts.  We are only as strong as our most vulnerable, and seeing more representation within the mental health field can increase the visibility, accessibility, and possibility for vulnerable populations to receive the care they deserve.  It is only then that we can all reach our fullest potential.

2. Empathy, understanding, curiosity, confidence, and community.  When working with a therapist with shared or similar identities, one may feel a greater sense of empathy from their therapist, which is an essential part of effective therapy.  It is common for marginalized individuals to feel a sense of shame regarding their minority status.  With clear and unwavering representation, clients may feel that there is more room for their experiences and perspective to be heard and not judged.  Further curiosity and growth may be facilitated by a therapist who shares various identities and experiences.  Empathy allows clients to feel understood without having to explain every detail of their experience and attuned to such that they feel seen without having to justify and defend themself from ignorant biases.  Representation thus helps historically marginalized folk feel more confident and in community with all of their identities.

3. Protection against harm.  While therapy can save lives, it can also cause and perpetuate deep-rooted harm.  Therapy is relational work.  It requires a sense of safety and trust in order to be useful, and that sense of safety and trust can be broken.  Representation can help minimize being questioned and judged in a demeaning way, often experienced as microaggressions or blatant, outright discrimination.  Underrepresented communities seeking mental health care are already up against various barriers in the current health care system, as well as barriers of mistrust from the past in which the medical industrial complex has created a sense of danger regarding itself when it comes to treating marginalized communities.  This is seen through well-documented mental health disparities including BIPOC individuals disproportionately receiving diagnoses of greater severity and less appropriate care than white individuals.  Representation can help to address the very real fear that marginalized communities have in regards to seeking help and receiving mental health care. 

Conclusion

As it often goes, representation is extremely important and impactful within mental health care. Not only can representation facilitate greater feelings of belonging and acceptance, but it can be a key factor in marginalized communities seeking out and receiving the appropriate care we all deserve.  Representation in itself is often an act of intersectional, multicultural, trauma-informed, decolonial, anti-oppressive care. It is imperative to continue to push for diverse narratives, multi-faceted humans, to be heard and embraced within the mental health field.  We will thrive when we all thrive.  Contact Us

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Consultation Preparation:10 Questions to Ask Therapists

The process of searching for a therapist can be grueling and overwhelming. Between navigating insurance availability, therapist options, evaluating your own availability, and even trying to understand why therapy feels necessary, it makes sense for many people to struggle finding a therapist. And to top it off, while agency settings prioritize pairing clients and therapists based on mutual availability alone, most private practices will have consultation calls.

That free fifteen to twenty minute consultation call can be both a blessing and a burden for people seeking therapy. On the one hand, it is a helpful opportunity to assess whether you and that prospective therapist connect and whether that therapist can help you, and on the other hand…well…how do you know from a short call if that person can help you or not? What should you ask? How much of yourself do you want to share off the cuff? From a therapist that has been on the other side of many consultation calls, I will share with you some questions that can be very helpful to keep in mind as you prepare to speak with the therapists you have found in the hopes that you can match with the best one for you.

Questions about Experience

1. What is your experience working with [insert what you hope to address in therapy] and what treatment have you found to be the most effective when supporting people through similar concerns?

This question helps you get a better sense of the therapist’s experience and comfort level supporting the particular concern you would like to address. The question prompts a prospective therapist to share the treatment modalities they use and the kind of tools and interventions they like implementing during treatment.

2. What are your current credentials and what professional development are you working on?

Are you working with an intern, a limited permit holder or a professionally licensed therapist? Knowing this information can help you determine whether you want to work with a person who is highly specialized in a specific modality or presenting problem, or whether you want to work with someone to learn more about yourself.

Questions about Identity and Worldview

3. How do you view your own role as therapist in relation to treatment?

This is a really juicy question that will help you get a sense of the therapist’s self-awareness and positionality. Some therapists view themselves as the keepers of solutions to peoples’ presenting problems, while others may view their role as more of a facilitator, a mirror, an investigator, or even as a caregiver. I invite curiosity of what you might be looking for in a therapist and how their response to this question feels for you.

4. What is your political identity? What are your views of systems in relation to mental health?

Possibly a controversial question, however, I think it is very important- specially for oppressed and marginalized people- to ask this question because at the end of the day, all therapists are people first. Our trainings and academic programs teach us about implicit and explicit biases, however, they do not demand us to challenge our own worldviews. There are well-meaning trauma therapists who are also zionists, capitalists, and pathologizing. If you want to work with someone who is aligned with you in how they make sense of the world around them, the only way to find out is by asking!

5. What is your relationship to the carcereal system and your role as soft police/mandated reporter?

Along the same lines as the previous question, it can be really helpful- specially for Black and Brown people, for immigrants, for trans people, and for community organizers to know how self-aware a prospective therapist may be of their role as systemic surveillance agents (which is an unquestionable truth by default of how licensure, mandated reporting, and breaches to confidentiality are written in laws and codes of ethics). Self-awareness of their role informs how often and how curious therapists are of their own biases and their positionality within the mental health industrial complex and their therapeutic relationships.

Questions about Treatment

6. How would you describe a typical session between us?

Does the therapist like to keep an agenda? Does the therapist wait until you start talking? Will there be educational components? Will there be role-playing or writing prompts? Therapy can look so many different ways even within the same modality! It will be helpful to understand how the therapist uses the tools they have at their disposal on a regular basis.

7. How would you navigate disagreement or rupture between us?

This can be a very helpful question to help you understand if the therapist is going to call out when they interpret a sense of distance between you two, or if they will wait for you to express your disagreement- whether directly or indirectly. There are benefits and setbacks to both approaches, so it is a matter of what you may respond to best. Disagreement is a common and normal part of all human relationships and you are likely to experience it with your therapist regardless of how well you click; therefore, it is helpful to know how the therapist will navigate those moments to help you understand if their methods would be helpful for you to learn how to move through disagreement and distance in your relationships outside of therapy.

8. How often would we be able to check in about my progress and responsiveness to our work together?

This question can be contingent on insurance requirements, but it is also an opportunity for you and the therapist to discuss the frequency of treatment progress reflection to help you know what to expect. Typically, check-ins will take place every six months with treatment plan reviews, however, some therapists may have three-month or even monthly check-ins in place.

9. How would you navigate our treatment if you realized after we have been working together that I may benefit from more specialized interventions which you cannot provide?

What this question is asked is about what therapists call scope of practice. How self-aware is the therapist of their own strengths and limitations with the work that they do? How do they disclose not knowing something and how do they determine it is time to terminate or transfer for your own benefit?

Housekeeping Questions

10. What are your fee, lateness, cancellation, transfer, and termination policies?

Helpful logistical things that often get forgotten about. Are you someone who struggles with timeliness? Then maybe you cannot work with a therapist who has a strict no-lateness-accepted policy. Do they have flexibility with fee payment if you are resource-insecure? How will they let you know that they need to terminate or transfer you to another provider? These are all helpful things to know about the logistical elements of therapy.

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The Importance of Cultural Competence in Mental Health Outcomes

Like most aspects of our society and the systems in place to ensure ‘order’ among people, the mental health industrial complex is no exception to the premise that there is one objectively healthy way of being (white, wealthy, able-bodied, cishet, Christian, patriarchal) and everything else can be interpreted as pathology or illness. As a result, so much of the way mental health is conceptualized in the work professionals do is rooted in maintaining the status quo and weaponizing or vilifying oppressed peoples’ natural nervous system reactions to oppression.

The truth is mental health is not experienced in a vacuum—it is deeply shaped by cultural values, social conditions, and historical contexts. Thanks to abolitionists throughout history, the colonized world has become increasingly more aware of white supremacy and its impact on the most vulnerable people. As a result, cultural competence has become an essential consideration in improving mental health outcomes. Cultural competence refers to the ability of practitioners and systems to provide care that is respectful of and responsive to the cultural identity, beliefs, and practices of clients. Without this nuance, individuals risk misdiagnosis, disengagement from treatment, and exacerbation of mental health disparities.

Why Culture Matters in Mental Health

Culture shapes how people understand, express, and cope with distress. According to Ogundare (2019), in many non-western societies, depression is often experienced through physical symptoms like fatigue or headaches as opposed to feelings of sadness or worthlessness- which dominate western and global north depictions of depression. Similarly, the understanding and expression of psychosis may vary depending on culture and social norm. For example, in the same study by Ogundare published in The Journal of Health and Social Sciences, he describes how psychosis in the western world often involves technology and a fear of being surveilled, whereas many cultures from the Global South may experience psychosis as related to the supernatural or spiritual world. These differences highlight the danger of applying Western diagnostic categories universally without considering cultural nuance.

Furthermore, misdiagnosis is one of the most significant risks of ignoring cultural context. When clinicians interpret symptoms solely through their own cultural lens, they may misunderstand patients’ experiences. For example, what may be a culturally normative spiritual belief in one community might be misinterpreted as delusional in another. Such errors can have devastating consequences, leading to unnecessary medication, stigma, or mistrust of the healthcare system.

The Limits of Standardized Evidence-Based Practices

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is widely promoted as the gold standard for mental health interventions. Yet, as Laurence Kirmayer (2012) points out, the research base informing EBP often excludes cultural minorities and relies heavily on white western populations. This gap means that treatments validated in majority populations may not be effective—and it is also often irrelevant—for marginalized groups. Furthermore, standardized measures of treatment success frequently ignore culturally valued outcomes such as community connectedness or spiritual well-being. Cultural competence bridges this gap by emphasizing adaptation of evidence-based treatments to cultural contexts and by expanding what is considered a successful outcome. However, tensions remain within the mental health field: EBP seeks universal generalizations, while cultural competence threatens white supremacy (objectivity and individualism) by de-centering standards in favor of nuance. While EBP can give us a sense that there is a tried-and-true way to be healthy, it is important to note that this is an illusion to streamline mental health services for profit and productivity.

True successful mental health outcomes for the global majority requires more than naming these discrepancies within EBP— it requires skill building. Therapy is itself an artform that requires training that challenges professionals to integrate with nuance what we know to be “objective” with the reality that there is no such thing as objectivity. A systematic review of cultural competence training for mental health providers published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice in 2022 by Wippold and Becker found that cultural competence programs can significantly enhance practitioners’ attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Despite positive results, many trainings focus narrowly on race and ethnicity while neglecting other critical dimensions such as religion, immigration status, or socioeconomic background, gender or sexuality. Addressing this gap is vital because individuals’ identities are complex and intersecting, and cultural competence must extend beyond any single dimension of diversity.

From Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility and Safety

While cultural competence is important, some scholars caution against viewing it as a skill set to be mastered. Kirmayer (2012) and others argue for approaches like cultural humility, which emphasizes an ongoing process of self-reflection, openness, and recognition of the clinician’s limited understanding of a client’s cultural world. Similarly, the concept of cultural safety shifts attention to systemic issues, urging practitioners and institutions to acknowledge historical injustices and power imbalances that shape clinical encounters. These perspectives remind us that cultural competence is not a box to check but a lifelong practice requiring institutional support, continuous training, and systemic change.

Conclusion

Cultural competence is not just an ethical imperative but a practical necessity in improving mental health outcomes. When mental health providers account for cultural influences in diagnosis, treatment, and communication, they can foster trust, increase treatment adherence, and reduce disparities. Conversely, when culture is ignored, the risks include misdiagnosis, disengagement, and worsening inequities.

Ultimately, integrating cultural competence with evidence-based practice offers the most promising path forward. This integration requires expanding the evidence base to include diverse populations, training providers to deliver culturally responsive care, and addressing structural inequities that underlie health disparities. By doing so, mental health services can better serve the diverse communities that depend on them. Contact Us

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Exploring Identity: Therapy for Self-Discovery and Acceptance

White supremacy has corrupted the world, fueling in all of us a desire to police ourselves and others by an impossible standard of who we should be—smarter, thinner, more successful, more likable. With all this pressure, it’s no wonder so many people struggle with accepting themselves as they are, especially when our survival within the system depends on this kind of self-loathing. As Octavia Butler said, there is no magic bullet, however, therapy can become one kind of solution; it can be a space in which a person can intentionally reflect and imagine a different world that breaks out of that cycle. Beyond addressing stress, anxiety, or depression, therapy is also a powerful tool for self-discovery and self-acceptance.

Why Self-Acceptance Matters At its core, self-acceptance means embracing all of yourself as neutrally as possible. You are neither a good or a bad person, you are a person who sometimes makes decisions that have a good impact on you and your environment and sometimes make decisions that have an adverse impact on yourself and others. It doesn’t mean ignoring flaws or giving up on growth. Instead, it’s about recognizing that you’re worthy just as you are, regardless of mistakes, setbacks, or what others think.

Studies show that people with higher levels of self-acceptance are more resilient to life’s curveballs. For example, a 2016 Serbian study found that individuals who practiced unconditional self-acceptance (accepting themselves no matter what), a practice stemming from Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), were less likely to experience intense anxiety or depression when faced with criticism or rejection. That kind of inner stability is like having an emotional safety net—you bounce back faster because your sense of worth isn’t tied to outside approval.

Therapy as a Space for Self-Discovery One of the most powerful things therapy offers is a safe space to explore who you are beneath the noise of expectations. Through conversations, guided exercises, or creative outlets, therapy helps you uncover parts of yourself you may have ignored or buried. Therapy is like holding up a mirror, but instead of judging what you see, you’re guided to understand it.

For instance, a study conducted in Guangdong, China and published in 2021 found that group paint therapy sessions helped college students open up emotionally, reflect on their experiences, and, ultimately, increase their levels of self-acceptance. When you put your inner world onto paper—literally—you see yourself in new ways. This process makes it easier to understand your feelings, values, and even the parts of yourself you’ve been hiding.

Transforming Your Relationship With Harsh Self-Criticism I think what most people often experience as a singular, individual (and thus, isolating) quality or trait is having an inner critic and judge, however, most of us have internalized critique and judgment in order to anticipate and prepare for potentially hurtful or unsafe situations. Most of us have parts of ourselves that will come up and say things like I did that wrong or they must think [insert painful belief] about me when we are faced with the anticipation of something scary and uncomfortable, or while we ruminate or look back on past experiences wishing we could change them. Depending on the style of therapy (and the style of the therapist), therapy can be a space in which you re-discover your relationships with the critic and judge so that in place of black-and-white thinking and perfectionism, you can have a nuanced, compassionate, and loving relationship with yourself that centers around yours and our collective humanity.

A 2016 study conducted in Romania showed that self-acceptance is closely linked to healthier, more rational thinking. People who accept themselves unconditionally are less likely to buy into rigid or self-destructive beliefs like “I must be perfect” or “I’m worthless if I fail.” Instead, they can see mistakes as part of the human experience—not a verdict on their value. Imagine how freeing it would feel to treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you’d offer a close friend. That’s exactly what therapy teaches you to do.

Self-Acceptance As An Ongoing Journey This is probably the hardest pill to swallow about therapy and self-acceptance: unfortunately, it is not a one-and-done achievement. It’s a lifelong practice. Even with therapy, you’ll face new challenges that test how you see yourself. But the difference is, you’ll have the tools to respond with compassion instead of criticism.

Over time, therapy can help you:

. See yourself more clearly in all your beautiful complexity

. Let go of the need for constant approval

. Build resilience to manage the distress that may show up as anxiety, depression, and stress

. Live more authentically and confidently.

Conclusion Therapy isn’t about “fixing problems” or “curing illness”—it’s about discovering yourself and learning to accept that person fully. Whether through talk therapy, creative outlets like art, or approaches like REBT, the goal is the same: to help you understand yourself better and treat yourself with unconditional acceptance.

A fellow alum from undergrad tagged a commuter MTA train with a statement that I come back to often: In a world that profits off your self-hatred, loving yourself is a radical act. To that, I will also add, a person who knows themselves and accepts themselves is ungovernable in white supremacy. Contact Us

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Myths About Therapy Debunked

While the field of psychology and mental health therapy has been around for thousands of years, the topic of therapy remains a social mystery shrouded with speculation, assumption, misunderstanding, confusion, and fear. Views on therapy and mental health as a whole vary widely based on cultural background, socioeconomic positionality, and lived/shared experience individually as well as within one’s immediate community (such as family, neighborhood, and school). Let’s get into some of the myths about therapy and get into the nuanced truths about it.

Myth:Therapy is the same as talking to a friend

Nuance: There can be overlapping aspects between talking to a friend and talking to a therapist- namely, that it is comforting and validating to be witnessed by another person. However, a therapist is trained to be inquisitive and notice patterns. Therapists are also trained to consistently reflect on their own biases and their own hopes/goals/agenda for clients. Talking to a therapist offers valuable insight of one’s own experience, whereas venting or seeking advice from a friend centers the relationship and not just one person’s perspective. Friends will offer their own thoughts and opinions where therapists will help you learn more about your own perspective and how to communicate with others in a constructive and compassionate way.

Myth: Therapy is not confidential

Nuance: A lot of people fear or reject therapy, in part, because of the previous myth that a therapist and a friend are practically interchangeable. Your friend very well may share conversations had privately with other people, however, therapists are trained to maintain confidentiality with certain limitations that have to do with safety. Therapists are keepers of everything that happens in their sessions, only sharing as little information as possible with supervisors or colleagues in order to make sure they are providing the best and most effective care possible to their respective clients. Therapists are trained to never use names, birthdays, addresses, or other identifying information when seeking consultation from fellow professionals; and we all have an ethical obligation to protect client information. A therapist will never share the content of their sessions with the people in their lives. If you know a therapist and ask them about their work, the most they will give you is how they are feeling after working and will likely keep it deliberately vague. This is because therapeutic work is not possible when the client does to feel safe and comfortable being vulnerable and confidentiality eases some of those fears.

Myth: Therapy is for people who are severely mentally ill/only “crazy” people go to therapy

Nuance: According to Mental Health America, 1 in 5 adults meet criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition, which roughly means around 23% of the adult population can be considered “mentally ill”. However, according to a 2020 study published in Jama Network Open, the number of people who actually meet the criteria for a diagnosable condition from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V) is much higher at 86%, based on the sample study. From a decolonizing therapy perspective, the purpose of diagnosis is to pathologize (to treat something as unhealthy) appropriate responses to systemic oppression in order to ensure society continues to prioritize productivity, which is essential for the upholding of capitalism and the benefit of those in positions of power. This myth actually helps the perpetuation of individual inferiority when we notice ourselves “losing productivity” as a result of stress, anxiety, depression, or addiction. Therapy is a tool of self-awareness, compassion, and re-humanization– all the qualities which White Supremacy rejects in order to sustain itself. The truth is that every single person, regardless of how good/well/content they might be with life, will benefit enormously from therapy.

Myth: Therapy will fix all my problems/I won’t experience distress once I’m done

Nuance: This is something a lot of people struggle with that keeps them from starting therapy or continuing treatment after they have started. This belief can be better understood from a white supremacy perspective as it creates a binary understanding of the human experience- that you are healthy and thus you have no problems or experience suffering anymore OR you are unhealthy and thus remain “stuck” in a cycle of perpetual suffering- which is ultimately limited and dismissive of our natural complexities. Therapy is a space to become more self-aware, to understand and navigate accountability and personal/collective responsibility with compassion and nuance, and to develop the appropriate coping tools to manage one’s own natural complexities. That means unpleasant emotions, stressors, things outside of one’s control, unfairness, and suffering will continue to show up in one’s daily life. Therapy teaches us acceptance of this fact and flexibility to navigate each moment with care.

Myth: All therapists are the same

Nuance: There are requirements for all graduate and training programs across the board that create a level of congruence and perceived sameness among therapists, however, the most consistent determinant of therapeutic success regardless of modality or theoretical orientation is the therapeutic relationship. That is because therapists are human beings first- therapy is a job like any other job. Just as people do not always like each other for explicit or unexplained reasons, not every client is going to mesh well with every therapist. As a result, it is important that, when seeking therapy, people take a moment to reflect on what they hope to gain and what is important to them. If your way of viewing the world is social justice- or feminist-centered, you will not vibe well with a therapist who claims an apolitical stance in their work. It is not a deficit on either party, it just means you are incompatible. If dreams play a large role in the way you make sense of the world, you may benefit from a therapist who not only adopts a more psychodynamic framework, but one who also enjoys dream interpretation. In Spanish there is the expression that translates to: “for all the tastes, there are colors” [para gustos, hay colores], which I believe is highly applicable to finding a therapist. If you and your therapist do not connect well, that is ok! You deserve to find the person that you feel safe enough to be vulnerable.

Conclusion:

There are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about what therapy is and is not, how it can be helpful, who needs it or who can access it; and those all serve to keep people from becoming more self-aware and receiving the support and resources they need in order to survive and thrive. The biomedical model (understanding illness as only based on biology, genetics, or bodily function/dysfunction) severely limits how people relate to all aspects of their health, particularly regarding mental health because it emphasizes that only certain people require treatment and that means something about them is fundamentally wrong/sick. Therapy can be so much more than addressing illness, it can be a tool for re-humanization and re-imagination of what life could be beyond white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.

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The Role of Community in Healing from Trauma

Our understanding of trauma within the mental health field has grown and expanded over time, arguably in great part due to our more nuanced understanding of intersectionality (Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, 1989) and Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs (Dr. Vincent Felitti and Dr. Robert Anda, 1995–97). While trauma is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-V) as “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” (APA, 2013), we know from the ACEs studies that chronic exposure to physical and emotional abuse or neglect and exposure to community violence have a detrimental impact on individuals’ mental health and development. A more holistic definition of Trauma is the “results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being” (SAMHSA Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative, 2012).

While trauma has long been understood as an individual experience, social justice frameworks have helped us understand how trauma is as much an individual as it is a collective experience. For instance, many minoritized people come from lineages and communities that have endured chronic colonial violence: the impact of multi-generational colonial violence is generational trauma. Colonization and capitalism are the cause for climate change, and its impact results in community trauma whenever there is a mismanaged flood, fire, or pandemic. The many wars and genocides over the course of human history are also ecocides that favor profits over humans and nature. The Mental Health Industrial Complex (MHIC) emphasizes individualist models as the only evidence-based treatments to heal and relate to one’s traumatic experiences differently, however, there is strong evidence that shows the importance of community in healing from trauma.

Ways Community Helps

Normalization and validation: Shared experiences help survivors see their responses as natural and valid, countering shame and self‑blame.

Empowerment through mutual support: Peer roles emphasize equalized relationships where both giving and receiving support contribute to recovery — not just isolation Stand TogetherPsychiatry Online.

Practical guidance and resource navigation: Peers and community groups help newcomers find services, learn coping tools, and rebuild daily life routines.

Reduced stigma and isolation: Peer and community connection counters the withdrawal and self‑stigma that often accompany trauma.

Social Support Networks

Longitudinal research demonstrates how perceived social support strongly predicts trauma recovery. Individuals with greater overall support show marked decreases in presentation of PTSD symptoms at higher rates than individuals without support networks (Sippel et al., 2024). It is estimated that 70–95% of the world population has experienced at least one traumatic event. Despite the fact that exposure to trauma does not necessarily mean a person will go on to develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, this staggering percentage of exposure demonstrates how suffering truly is a shared experience among all human beings. Social support networks offer us opportunities to empathize with one another and develop resilience.

Peer Support Over a Shared Experience

Peer support — delivered by individuals with lived experience of trauma — offers unique benefits. A scoping review of trauma survivors affirms that peer support provides hope, guidance, and socioemotional reinforcement that professional services may not always be able to provide. Qualitative interviews from survivors, caregivers, and clinicians highlight that peer support helps people feel less alone and offers a unique opportunity for healing by being witnessed and witnessing each other in a shared painful experience. A 2021 meta‑analysis published by BMC Psychiatry found that peer‑support interventions — especially self‑management and structured group programs — yield meaningful improvements in recovery, empowerment, and coping skills, with effects often comparable to clinician‑led care in certain domains. Peer‑delivered trauma‑specific programs, such as peer‑led Seeking Safety, can reduce PTSD symptoms and support long‑term functioning, even in settings with limited access to professionals.

Intersectionality of Healing in Community

There are many wonderful frameworks developed by Black and Indigenous psychologists with the intention of directly addressing colonial and racial trauma among their own communities. In 2020, Chioneso et al. published a framework titled Community Healing and Resistance Through Storytelling (C-HeARTS) that combines storytelling with community interventions in order to empower groups toward developing shared narratives and cultivating critical consciousness. In 2021, Lakota social worker Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart and her team developed a pilot program titled Iwankapiya which consisted of Historical Trauma and Unresolved Grief Intervention (HTUG) combined with group interpersonal therapy to address the high levels of substance use and suicidality that affect Indigenous people in the United States Empire at disproportionate rates. These are necessary and nuanced frameworks that offer the most marginalized and minoritized populations an opportunity to collectively validate and affirm their experiences, build individual and community resilience, and develop new, anti-oppressive shared narratives that empower communities.

Conclusion

Recovery from trauma is not simply a clinical journey — it is deeply relational and social. Community, peer groups, and supportive networks offer validation, resilience, and a sense of belonging that clinical interventions alone rarely provide. While individual therapy can be helpful to provide person-specific coping tools and help an individual learn how to make sense of their own experiences and narratives, the true markers of healing is about our ability to be in community with one another. Human beings are inherently social creatures, and we require each other in order to survive and thrive.

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Summertime Therapy Reflections

Summer time is here and with it comes hot weather, longer periods of daylight, and the harvest of a great variety of fruits and vegetables. Summer time in our society also means breaks from school and university for a lot of people in addition to an increase in social activity with the more permissive weather. For many, summer is longed for the remainder of the year and represents increased quality time with loved ones, outdoor activities like beach days, and a sense of feeling energized and eager to be outside. However, in the context of our system and the enforcement of routines that prioritize work, navigating summertime zoomies with scheduled responsibilities can easily become a precarious balancing act that can lead folks to sit out plans they are eager to partake in or forgoing scheduled responsibilities in favor of these seasonally limited activities.

Therapy, like work, can become a scheduled routine that feels manageable during the rest of the year and is tough to manage during the summer and possibly the holiday season in the fall/winter as well. Knowing this, I hope to offer some perspective to help make sense of how to honor the different needs that may come with this particular season and make informed decisions on how you would like to balance therapy with your summer plans.

Understand All Your Options While work- more often than not- will be rigid in its expectations of employees regardless of the seasons, therapy (specially in a private practice setting) is actually more fluid and creative. There are many different ways to navigate therapy during the summertime. For instance, if there are many different vacations or trips planned, a person may have a hard time finding a consistent time to meet during that period and a temporary break may be needed. Perhaps your summer routine of going to the beach a certain number of times per week calls for rescheduling appointments to a different time that can be consistently reserved for therapy. There can also be adjustments in terms of cadence or even the possibility of flexibility with meeting virtually or in person.

The important thing to remember is to talk through what the best option would be for your treatment with your therapist! Every clinician will have their own policies and boundaries, which combined with the therapist’s and client’s assessment of treatment progress can be enormously fruitful ground from which to gain insight that will ultimately help the client make an informed decision about their treatment during the summer.

Short Breaks or Indefinite Breaks During this time of reflection on how to relate to therapy during the summer, it will be helpful to contextualize the progress made in treatment. It is absolutely fair and fine to take an indefinite break from therapy, starting in the summer, regardless of whether you have accomplished all of your treatment goals. However, the important aspects to keep in mind is to engage in that collaborative assessment of your progress with the therapist in order to understand your strengths and challenges. Therapy is not a perfectly linear treatment in which an individual who completes treatment is devoid of challenges. Sometimes, graduating from therapy is needed to allow oneself to experiment with the insights and tools that have been learned up to that point; and graduating from therapy does not mean you can never return to treatment later in life.

Some therapeutic settings or individual therapists may have nuanced policies on ending treatment before the goals have been completed, however, I think it is important to mention that the mental health industrial complex will require perfectionism from therapists and clients alike. It may feel wrong to want a break when you can tell there are still challenges that are difficult to navigate, however, therapy is a ton of work! Where shame or guilt around taking a break might surface, something helpful to remember is that everything is temporary: a break may be needed now and therapy may be needed later. It is fair to want rest from being in a constant state of self-reflection while knowing there are still things you would like to address. If it feels like time to take a break, my only hope is that clients feel brave and comfortable naming that with their therapists and honor that endings are smoothest when all parties are aware that the relationship is changing.

Conclusion Reflection, flexibility, and communication are your main tools to navigate therapy in relation to summertime plans and hopes. It can be helpful to start conversations with your therapist in the springtime or early summer to make an informed decision on whether a scheduling shift or a temporary break may be beneficial to honor the wants and needs that arise during the summertime. It will be helpful to engage in logistical conversations with your therapist in order to understand how your treatment progress, scheduling needs, and therapist capacity can guide your decision-making process with regards to therapy during this season. Above all things, have compassion for yourself– whether it be deciding to prioritize treatment continuation for the sake of your mental health, or to take a break from therapy for the very same reason. It is ok to want changes during different periods of your life in order to accommodate your own responses to your environment. Contact Us

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Psychology of Endings and Goodbyes

Endings are a natural and constant part of life, a companion to change and often associated with goodbyes. In childhood and growing up to adulthood, perhaps endings were more anticipated and associated with positivity and excitement, thinking of the end of the school year, graduations, leaving home for the first time, turning 18 and then 21. Still, goodbye rituals would persist, seen in the backs of year books and team parties at the end of a season. At what point do endings, or change, become more of a source of dread, grief, and anxiety, desires shifting towards stability, consistency, and predictability? Goodbyes can be really difficult for kids at times, but for some adults, goodbyes are avoided whenever possible. Many factors influence our relationship with endings from childhood to adulthood and beyond.

Neurobiology and Attachment Style

A study on rodents has shown that psychological loss (when feeling deprived) has an impact on brain functioning. Molecular changes occur in the basolateral amygdala, a region linked to emotional adaptability and the processing of emotional stimuli (Smail et al., 2023), as well as unconscious anxiety (Etkin et al., 2004). This may provide insight regarding feelings of overwhelming emotions and the hum of anxiety that arises when saying goodbye to a long-distance friend on the train platform as they head home, or when you are driving away from a final event of the season, or when experiencing the loss of a loved one.

Response to endings and loss are also influenced by one’s attachment style. In bereavement, the key to effective coping is seen as being able to switch between loss-oriented coping (i.e., focusing on the loss and dwelling on the lost relationship) and restoration-oriented coping (i.e., focusing on new relationships and embracing life-changes after loss), while also removing oneself from the process at times to take breaks through distraction. It has been shown that securely attached individuals are able to oscillate between the different coping styles when addressing loss and endings. Anxiously attached individuals experience loss with overwhelming intensity, and dismissively attached individuals avoid coping all together. Avoiding acknowledging endings can lead to stages of chronic or complicated grief with symptoms that are long lasting and less controllable, which can negatively affect one’s physical and mental health as well as interpersonal relationships. Closure, on the other hand, allows people to feel happier, have less regrets, and transition into a new stage in life easier (Martschenko, 2023).

Closure and the Importance of Saying Goodbye

Closure is not always an option in endings, which may manifest in complex layers of emotions. Grief, anger, sorrow, relief, etc. are all entirely valid feelings to have with loss and may feel more present with unexpected or imbalanced feelings in a relationship. This highlights the importance of staying in tune with your emotions, allowing yourself to feel and reflect, and addressing and communicating with your feelings as they emerge. It is important to consider embracing opportunities for closure and checking in with what your hopes and expectations may be within these times.

There are many benefits to actively participating in goodbyes and goodbye rituals, which can look different for everyone. Closure not only speaks towards physical separation but emotional closure as well through processing and reflecting. This process facilitates acceptance and healing as one acknowledges an ending and proceeds to move forward, coping with changes and adapting. Carefully moving forward encourages personal growth and self discovery, opening up opportunities for personal development. Reflecting is often a salient part of goodbye rituals. Looking back on an experience and how it fits into our life narrative allows for greater understanding of ourselves and how we got to the present moment in our present form and where we may have come from. Practicing goodbyes can also strengthen relationships and enhance emotional resilience, with the possibility of maintaining a sense of connection despite physical separation and in providing insight for future relationships with others. Addressing goodbyes can alleviate anxiety associated with uncertainty and change and cultivates gratitude through acknowledging and appreciating all that was experienced.

Peak-end Effect

While facing the overwhelming emotions that come with endings, it may be helpful to recognize the peak-end effect - when people remember something, they imbue the greatest meaning to the “peak” of the experience (the best of times) and to the end of it. In other words, how an experience ends often determines how we remember it, disproportionately shaping our memory of an experience. This effect can distort our perception of endings and our goodbye rituals. Recognizing this bias can help us to think about our experiences more holistically and to better cope with goodbyes.

Conclusion

Endings are inevitable in any journey, only some presenting an opportunity for goodbyes. A part of life from childhood through adulthood, endings are a natural part of our journeys on this planet. Reflecting on how goodbyes have felt as we have grown may provide insight into our relationships and how we approach goodbye rituals while allowing us to better know ourselves and understand our life journeys thus far.

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Psychotherapy and Artificial Intelligence: Cute Couple with Major Red Flags

Artificial intelligence has been used for psychotherapy as early as the 1960s with program ELIZA, a program coded by German computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum to act as a conversation simulator, using scripts from Rogerian-trained therapists to train the computer to demonstrate active listening and empathy. Now, some sixty years later, artificial intelligence is being used to put people out of creative jobs, essentially replacing any humanity with a tireless machine that learned everything from the very people who are now left on the lurch.

Within the mental health field, it is not that much better– AI has been on the rise, providing that highly coveted efficient and streamlined evidence-based treatment insurance companies hold over real human therapists heads to justify their reimbursement (or lack thereof) rates. Given the state of the world we live in, AI offers a low-cost bandaid for people who may not be able to afford their preferred therapist or even have options in the area where they live. Proponents of AI therapists boast about the efficiency, the low-cost, and the increase of client self-disclosure of sensitive information as good reasons to normalize and magnify AI therapy as the way to the future: let us unpack this within the context of the systems we live in.

AI Therapy Outcomes in Randomized Trials

A 2025 study by Heinz et al, found that the program Therabot demonstrated markedly reduced symptoms for patients previously diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) over a period of eight weeks. Out of the 210 participants, 106 were given free unlimited access to the Therabot app while the remaining 104 participants were placed on a waitlist and given access to the app halfway through the study. This is one of many small short-term studies that are being used to endorse the idea that AI could completely replace human therapists, however, there is a dearth of longitudinal studies observing long-term impact of AI therapy– not just on mental health but also on a person’s social-emotional intelligence over time.

Additionally, when discussing symptom-reduction, it is important to contextualize this insight within capitalism. The mental health industrial complex pathologizes appropriate responses to our environment in great part because it hinders our ability to be productive. When we talk about a mental health crisis, the onus is placed on the amount of money it costs for people to have depression or anxiety- missing from work or needing leave of absence. These apps are helpful only in the sense that they offer a quick-fix to ensure the person is able to compartmentalize whatever they need to in order to be productive, functioning members of society. While it is normalized within capitalism to overwork, most adults are not able to successfully work 40+ hours a week, have a great social life, an immaculate living space, and cook themselves a delicious and nutritionally varied meal every night. The truth is most of us have some level of “executive dysfunction” because the expectations put on ourselves through white supremacy is truly unachievable. AI therapy can give you a temporary sense of accomplishment- almost in a pavlovian fashion- teaching techniques that ultimately only subdue one’s own exhaustion in favor of positive thinking and tangible productivity.

The vast majority of these apps implement primarily cognitive-behavioral techniques, which is a helpful framework to markedly reduce pathologizing symptoms; however, a machine trained only to do techniques lacks the ability to apply systemic nuance to its work– at the end of the day, AI is simply a computer running through scripts. CBT skills are effective at symptom-reduction but not effective at teaching people to get to know themselves with curiosity, compassion, and above all things, as separate from white supremacy. Awareness of that separateness, which helps people unlearn internalized -isms, is necessary for our collective liberation.

Affordability of AI Therapy

AI Therapists are framed as a solution to the problem of the high cost of healthcare, a barrier which hinders many poor people from being able to access high quality care. However, we cannot talk of the affordability of any healthcare need without talking about the fact that healthcare now runs like a shoe or a chair business; that is to say, it is devoid of any humanity and only favors making money.

A great example of that is all the community mental health agencies that exist in New York City. Did you know that medicaid only requires 30 minute sessions to bill for the psychotherapy service? That means places like NYPCC will force therapists to book sixteen clients in one 8-hour work day, and patients are not informed they actually have the right to request 45-minute sessions. IDCC makes millions of dollars every year from overworking their therapists who typically are expected to maintain caseloads of upwards of 50 patients– how much do therapists get paid on average? 50k. Do we think a therapist who is forced to see ten patients in one 8-hour day is going to truly be able to do the job of therapy?

The way AI therapy is being marketed completely ignores that the reason why therapy is so expensive is because those in power are making money off the therapist’s back and the patient’s needs. Why should poor people be gaslit into productivity again because they cannot afford a person who is able to slow down with them? It is only a solution when we believe capitalism/making money is the thing worth protecting instead of protecting people’s access to basic human rights in order to live life with dignity.

AI Therapy and Stigma

AI is being offered as the solution to stigma regarding seeking mental health services. Makebot reports a 30% increase of self-disclosure among AI therapy users. The argument is that people may deliberately withhold disclosure, even from their therapist, out of fear of being judged. I am not going to pretend that there aren’t things that are hard to say out loud- perhaps too hard to ever name at all; however, part of the task of therapy is for people to reconnect and embrace their own humanity so that they can embrace collective humanity. So much of the inner things we feel we cannot say out loud are heavily influenced by white supremacy: whether we have hurt someone or someone has hurt us; whether we did something “bad” or were transgressed ourselves– I deeply believe at our core, what makes us human is our desire to belong and connect.

The bot may feel like a good place to disclose for the first time, but it really cannot replace saying the thing that had so much power over you that you avoided being witnessed by another human being finally losing its power because it’s out. Stigma is also a deeply nuanced subject which cannot exist without the context of the trauma of colonialism and assimilation and how that is intimately interconnected with minoritized groups and our collective attitudes and beliefs toward mental health.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence uses in mental health are growing in popularity with a small number of short-term studies remarking on it’s apparent success and impact on the millions of users around the world. While it can be helpful to offer temporary relief and support, there is no replacement for human contact and human vulnerability. So much of the ways in which AI therapy is being framed is essentially creating consent for human therapists to be used for AI script-feeding and then become replaced by machines with endless capacity who never tire. It is important to be curious about the things that are marketed to us as better and contextualize those things within our systems.

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Decolonizing Our Relationship with Nature

Living in New York City, the “concrete jungle,” can feel nature-depriving. Whether this feels ~natural~ to you or you feel your cravings for greenery and open skies fester the longer you live here, it may bring up questions regarding your relationship with nature. Research shows that one’s connectedness with nature, land, and the environment has a positive impact on one’s overall wellbeing and sense of self (Keaulana et al., 2021). How has colonization impacted our relationship with nature, and how might we decolonize our relationship with nature?

Colonial Mindset

The first European settlers saw the environment as commodity to reach their economic aspirations. They exploited the land to the point of complete exhaustion, void of concern about using the land and natural resources carefully. Gold and silver were mined to depletion, rivers and waterways were poisoned along with the flora and fauna, and forests were destroyed. A colonizer’s view of a map does not include people nor nature, but territory to be claimed.

Eurocentric colonial and neocolonial regard towards the environment harms the environment as well as the people. Colonized mindset impairs the relationship between people with their surroundings and with each other. Colonial thinking is characterized by greed, exploitation, and hoarding lands without consideration for anything else including the inhabitants, the future of the environment, nor any and all forms of life. “Land hoarding” began after colonization in connection with economic growth. Colonial thinking has environmental growth and economic/technological growth at odds. It disrupts, obliterates, and severs people’s relation with the environment, externalizing nature (environmental matter) as a thing to be used, exploited, commercialized, fetishized, and colonized by humans. Human relations are also removed as investors (land hoarders) continue to hoard land while the people of the area are struggling to survive. As seen in today’s capitalist society, relationships amongst people have been deeply deprioritized in the need to work and earn money for survival. In colonial mindset, subject-object power relation is imposed, defined by mastery, appropriation, and domination (forced labor, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, rape, etc.). Colonialism is violence.

Preservationist Mindset

After the closing of the frontier in the 1890s, there was a romanticized notion of colonial conquest from the past. As endorsed by Roosevelt who said that untouched wilderness “taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the value of instant decision,” it became quintessential to the spirit of the American frontiersman. This led to the establishment of the first National Park, Yosemite National Park, the first land set aside specifically for conservation in the United States. It is easy to be fooled that the mindset which supports the preservation of land is entirely contrasting to the mindset that involves conquering and civilizing it. However, both are inherently racist, involving violence towards indigenous communities and the assumption that they have no influence on the land they are being cut off from, assuming “nature” as completely removed and separate from their relation and existence as people.

National Parks were once the sacred homelands of indigenous nations who were displaced, tortured and killed in the name of “conservation”. Indigenous care management of their environments were and continue to be completely overlooked, with current events bringing indigenous knowledge of controlled burns to the forefront of anticolonial discourse. In reality, indigenous inhabitants would also use controlled burns to create a space they wanted to observe, apparent in the now overgrown and disappearing vistas of Yosemite National Park upon their forced displacement. Their active land management was not seen as agriculture, their homelands viewed as wasted, unproductive lands which was legitimated by God to dispossess from the indigenous people and given by God to European settlers in order to tame and to cultivate. Additionally through this lens, it is believed that indigenous humans must be removed from nature in order to be saved (i.e., colonization of the United States as well as ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestinian homelands).

The invisibility of indigenous practices, the thought that humans must be removed from nature in order to save it, and the belief that “pristine, virgin wilderness” must be quarantined from an inherently destructive humanity is rooted in white supremacy.

So how do we decolonize our relationship with nature?

There are many ways to decolonize our relationship with nature, and it is helpful to gain an understanding of indigenous thinking and their relationship with nature by listening to indigenous voices. The purpose of gaining understanding is not to romanticize indigenous practices and regard indigenous people as distinct from others, leading to fetishization, dehumanization, and racial hierarchies from “leftist” spaces which stems again from white supremacy. It is important to recognize these distinguishing relationships with nature through a cultural context built on different belief systems. Indigenous communities see that we are connected with nature as inseparable and integral to ourselves. We as people do not develop separate and distinctly from the natural world, but out of the natural world. We are continuous with our local ecosystems, and by taking care of our environments we are taking care of ourselves.

As a non-indigenous human on my own journey decolonizing my relationship with nature, I urge you to keep being curious about your relationships with others, your environments, and yourself, and keep gaining awareness and unlearning the voices of the oppressors. Share the labor. Share the much-needed rest. Share the love.

Some helpful starting points for decolonizing your relationship with nature:

Go outside. Go on a walk and look around you, at nothing in particular, and observe the natural world. Notice the function and the beauty, how it impacts its surroundings and how its surroundings impact it. How have you related to this space?

Be curious and explore. What have you learned about the natural world in the voices of the oppressor? Think about your own judgment on what is clean and what is dirty, and distinguish between those judgments and what is safe and unsafe. Play with dirt, take off your shoes, stretch in open air.

Acknowledge nature is all around us. Nature is us, and we are nature. This shows up as indoor plants and parks, playfulness, seedlings at the base of cement buildings, music, the food we nourish ourselves with, the flow of water, natural rhythms of our bodies, sunlight, babies and children, natural materials, etc. By recognizing nature, you continue to relate and build your relationship with the environment and yourself.

Land acknowledgment. Continue to recognize the violence faced by indigenous people through colonization. Do your research. Look at maps. See how indigenous communities have been and continue to be forced aside for settler purposes. Acknowledge your own contributions to colonization and whose land you are living on. If you reside in what is politically known as New York City, you are existing on Lenapehoking, the ancestral lands of the Lenape peoples.

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