Culturally Affirming & Responsive Therapy Practice

"Cultural competence" is considered an ethical requirement for licensed mental health professionals, but we at Inclusive Therapists find this term to be loosely defined and insufficient as a true professional standard. Mere cultural knowledge, awareness, and "acceptance" are not enough to meet the diverse needs of clients and service-users. We reject the notion of "cultural competence" as a check-box exercise.

At Inclusive Therapists, we strive to embody culturally affirming and responsive practice as a core value. These principles are active, conscious, relational, and continuously evolving processes that cannot be simply checked off a list. Instead, they demand a culturally humble stance, recognizing that the service-user is the expert of their own culture and lived experiences. 

In Intersectional Cultural Humility: Aligning Critical Inquiry with Critical Praxis in Psychology, the authors remind us that cultural competence models often assume essentialism of different races/ethnicities, reducing individuals to traits and behaviors associated with their groups (Buchanana, Rios & Case, 2020). In contrast, intersectional cultural humility acknowledges that subjective experiences are shaped by social context. Case (2015, 2017) further warns that "our own privileged social locations severely limit our perspective and create invisibility of oppressive systems and our privileges limit our perspectives and ability to fully understand."

As culturally affirming and responsive therapists, we honor cultural strengths and values, and acknowledge the impact of racialized injustice and trauma. We humbly seek to understand the cultural lenses through which service-users view their systems and presenting issues.

This approach affirms cultural beliefs and traditions, while actively responding to the service-users' present selves with intentional care for the systemic and intergenerational oppression woven through their stories, including casteism, religious and political persecution, and ethnic genocide.

We identify and take ownership of our privileges, and we examine our internalized bias, prejudice, racism, anti-Blackness & Indigeneity, and shame. We lean into discomfort, seeking correction, healing, repair, and growth. We understand that denial, defensiveness, and avoidance heighten the risk of perpetuating systemic oppression and doing harm.

Merely claiming to be "not racist," "not prejudiced," or "accepting" is not sufficient for us. We strive to be boldly anti-racist and anti-oppressive within and beyond the therapeutic space.

Our commitment to being "anti" extends beyond behavioral change; it demands honest exploration and healing of our tendencies to discriminate and oppress others, often rooted in historical and intergenerational trauma responses.

This healing work fosters authentic relationships with the self and our cultural identity, as well as cross-culturally. We actively pursue open dialogue, continuing education, and immersion experiences to strengthen our skills, awareness, understanding, and empathy.

We encourage you to check out The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex Ptsd for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez, My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem, and plenty more resources on Racialized & Intergenerational Trauma, Reclamation and Healing Practices here.

Decolonizing Mental Health Care

First and foremost: LANDBACK. LANDBACK. LANDBACK. "Decolonization brings about the re[m]atriation of Indigenous land and life" (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Settler colonialism, colonization, imperialism, and military occupation have left historical, intergenerational, and systemic ruptures on the psyches, identities, communities, and family systems of Indigenous Peoples and communities displaced by colonial forces. Returning Land and life are at the heart of the decolonization movement. Scroll down to see practical ways to participate in the Landback movement.

Colonialism and coloniality have also deeply entrenched Euro- and American-centricity in the mental health field. The impacts of colonization on a People's wellbeing are profound, affecting aspects such as space (ecological, environmental), place (sense of belonging), institutional (time, human energy), social (values, compassion), and cultural (culture, language, and religion) (Read: Bulhan, 2015). Forced displacement disrupts and threatens to sever a People's sense of attachment, familiarity, and identity. In response, decolonial mental health care seeks to restore wellbeing and connectedness back to the agency of Indigenous Peoples.

Unfortunately, the mental health field is not exempt from perpetuating colonial violence; it is woven into its fabric. Marginalized communities are at risk of facing disempowerment, neglect, rejection, and gatekeeping from helping professionals. Colonial ideologies and violence upheld in this field include racism, gender-binary, heteronormativity, ableism, capitalism/classism, individualism, and white Christian-centricity.

Some ways that colonial psychology inflicts harm are through research, diagnosis, and treatment processes, exploiting Indigenous and Black communities as experimental subjects, erasing expansive gender identities, promoting conversion therapy, and gatekeeping gender-affirming care. Western psychology's dominant definition of health forced onto diverse cultures further stigmatizes, shames, and divides parts-of-self, families and communities. It invalidates and co-opts ancestral wisdoms and healing practices of colonized communities. Additionally, colonial psychology scapegoats marginalized groups or justifies violence through ill-formed diagnosis.

Decolonizing mental health care involves carefully reexamining the lens from which we understand human psychology to dismantle coloniality of power. It seeks healing, meaning, and connection through liberatory, culturally responsive and intersectionaly equitable practices. The decolonial process restores and defends wellness and interconnection among Land, all living things, humans, and the spiritual.

Shifting from top-down to bottom-up processes, decolonizing mental health care prioritizes service-users as experts, rejecting power-hoarding in favor of power-sharing. It necessitates unlearning and healing for providers to collaborate with those seeking care in anti-oppressive, non-exploitative ways. Committing to decolonizing power, knowledge, and relationships is essential for ethical mental health professionals.

At Inclusive Therapists, we advocate for the liberation, sovereignty, rematriation, and reparation of Indigenous and Black communities. We work to shift mental health care away from white cishetero-patriarchal, ableist, and classist structures. Our active reassessment and dismantling of harmful mental health practices rooted in colonial and institutional violence are driven by the vision to reroot, reclaim, restore, and reimagine mental health care.

As a community, we recognize the urgent need to decolonize mental health care. We understand that the legacies of colonization have profoundly impacted the mental health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and communities globally. As we work towards healing and reconciliation, we prioritize the principles of decolonization:

1. Centering Indigenous Knowledge and Self-Determination: We honor Indigenous ways of knowing, healing, and being. We acknowledge that Indigenous healing practices have been falsely discredited, then co-opted and capitalized upon by the mental health field. We respect Indigenous healing traditions and practices, and remain vigilant towards appropriation.
2. Acknowledging Historical and Ongoing Trauma: We recognize the intergenerational trauma caused by colonial violence and displacement. We speak truth about the historical and ongoing pains and injustices experienced by Indigenous communities.
3. Advocating for Land and Life: We support the LANDBACK movement and its call for the reclamation and restoration of Indigenous Lands, sovereignty, and self-determination. We acknowledge that healing and well-being are intricately connected to Indigenous Peoples' reconnection with their ancestral lands, language, and cultural practices.
4. Committing to Accompliceship: We commit to building collaborative and respectful relationships with Indigenous communities and healers that center their needs and visions by following their lead.
5. Challenging Colonial Norms/Dominance: We actively challenge and debunk colonial norms, practices, and power structures within the mental health field. We strive to create a space where Indigenous communities, voices, and expressions are prioritized and honored.

By centering decolonial frameworks, we seek to foster mental health care that is anti-oppressive, culturally informed, and liberatory. 

Ways to Participate in the Landback movement:

• Restoring land stewardship to Indigenous Peoples. "Give the land back. All of it" - Cutcha Risling Baldy. 
• Get to know and connect with local Indigenous communities. Click here to see Beyond Land Acknowledgement Series by Native Governance Center.
• Pay voluntary land taxes. Click here to learn more via Native Governance Center.
• Connect with Landback movements. Learn about: treaties, unceded land, traditional territory, land claims, government and private land ownership. Click here to get started on the free Indigenous Canada course to become familiar.
• Support Indigenous sovereignty, uplift Indigenous voices and values in current political system (via Indigenoustiktok)
• Protect and restore health of Land, Water, Air, and all life on Land. Resist climate change and exploitation. (e.g., Stop Line 3, Save Red Woods)
• Supporting efforts to protect sacred sites and rematriation of cultural valuables (e.g. Defend the Sacred)
• Support Indigenous mutual aid efforts:
  • Resources to end MMIW and support surivivors and their families and communities: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Femmes, and Two-Spirit People
  • Healing for Survivors of Residential Schools
    • Aboriginal Healing Foundation
    • Indian Residential School Survivors Society
    • National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation 
    • Assembly of First Nations: Indian Residential Schools Unit
    • The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
    • Legacy Of Hope Foundation
  • Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement
    • Indigenous Food Systems Network
    • Dream of Wild Health
    • Alaskan Inuit Food Sovereignty Initiative
    • Native American Agriculture Fund
    • Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance
    • Navajo Ethno-Agriculture
    • Sioux Chef
    • Sierra Seeds

We invite you to also visit Dr. Jennifer Mullan, Shawna Murray Browne, and Gabes Torres to see their work in decolonizing mental health care and therapy.

Check out our Resources to learn more about decolonizing practices and decolonial frameworks.

See our Decolonize Mental Health designs by Joyce Kabwe

Intersectional Equity and Justice

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, "intersectionality" birthed a feminist framework that has evolved and expanded over time. Crenshaw's lens of intersectionality reveals the ways power "comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects". Click here to read article: Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color by Crenshaw.

Recognizing that power dynamics are not binary, intersectionality emphasizes the interconnectedness of an individual's social identities and positions, influencing their social status and treatment in society. Racialized power/marginalization, alongside gender and class, lies at the heart of intersectionality.

The pursuit of intersectional equity demands us to honor the strengths and needs of all identity parts while sharing power with and empowering those experiencing marginalization, silencing, oppression, or erasure. It requires us to center and prioritize the most marginalized intersections: Black, Indigenous, Trans, Disabled, Neurodivergent, Fat, and more. Most importantly, it compels us to dismantle the systems of power that benefit those holding privilege, including our own.

As intersectionally-conscious providers, we acknowledge the interplay of systemic power, privilege, and oppression on mental wellness. We continuously interrogate our use of power, recognizing our privileged positionality in the therapeutic relationship.

Beyond advocating for intersectional equity, we remain informed about global contributors to mental, emotional, and relational distress, such as economic inequity, the climate crisis, environmental injustice, displacement, war, labor/sexual exploitation, detention/deportation. We integrate this systemic awareness into our therapeutic, community, and professional relationships.

Click here to see an informative, visual post on interrogating intersections of identity by Amplify Restorative Justice.

Check out our Resources for books written from the intersectional lenses by BIPOC authors and activists.

Do you share our values? Join us!