Anti-Oppressive & Decolonizing Therapy: Healing That Doesn’t Ask You to Betray Yourself
- Kara Johnson
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
A lot of people come to therapy hoping to feel better—only to realize the therapy room is quietly repeating the same systems that hurt them.
They’re told to “challenge distorted thoughts” without anyone acknowledging the distortion of living under racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, ableism, classism, fatphobia, xenophobia, and religious oppression. They’re asked to “set boundaries” while navigating cultures where survival has always depended on community. They’re encouraged to “forgive and move on” when the harm is ongoing and the power imbalance is real.
Anti-oppressive and decolonizing therapy says: No. Not here.We don’t heal people by forcing them to adapt to oppression. We heal by naming it, challenging it, and building lives that honor truth, safety, identity, and liberation.
This isn’t a trend. It’s a stance.
What “anti-oppressive” therapy actually means
Anti-oppressive therapy is a commitment to recognizing how power and oppression shape mental health—and refusing to replicate those forces in treatment.
It means we actively account for:
Systems (racism, colonization, capitalism, patriarchy, cis-heteronormativity, ableism)
Identity-based harm (discrimination, microaggressions, violence, family/community rejection)
Structural stress (housing insecurity, immigration fear, employment discrimination, medical racism)
Historical and intergenerational trauma (what your people survived still lives in the nervous system)
Anti-oppressive therapy doesn’t treat oppression like “background noise.”It treats it like what it is: a clinical factor.
What “decolonizing” therapy means (and what it does NOT mean)
Decolonizing therapy is about undoing the ways colonization taught us to disconnect from ourselves, our bodies, our communities, our ancestors, and our truth.
It often includes:
reclaiming cultural identity and meaning-making
healing from internalized oppression
honoring communal care (not just individualism)
restoring body-based wisdom (not only “logic” and productivity)
widening the definition of “healthy” beyond white, Western norms
Let’s be clear: decolonizing therapy is not a vibe, a buzzword, or a spiritual costume.It is not “borrowing” Indigenous practices without relationship, context, permission, or respect. Decolonizing work requires humility, accountability, and care—because colonization itself was theft.
Why this matters: “symptoms” are often survival
In an oppressive world, many “symptoms” are protective responses:
hypervigilance can be pattern recognition
anger can be boundary information
dissociation can be the nervous system saving your life
perfectionism can be protection from punishment
people-pleasing can be safety strategy
numbness can be a form of endurance
Anti-oppressive therapy doesn’t shame survival.It says: “That made sense. And now you deserve more options.”
What anti-oppressive, decolonizing therapy looks like in the room
1) We name power—because therapy is not neutral
Therapists hold power: expertise, diagnosis, documentation, access to resources. Anti-oppressive therapy stays awake to that.
It sounds like:
“If anything I say feels off, I want you to tell me.”
“You don’t have to convince me your experience is real.”
“Let’s talk about what safety looks like for you—culturally, emotionally, physically.”
2) We stop pathologizing culture
We don’t label cultural differences as dysfunction.
We explore context:
“In your family/community, what does support look like?”
“What are the values you were raised with that you want to keep?”
“What expectations are harming you—and who benefits from them?”
3) We treat identity-based stress as real clinical stress
We don’t call it “overthinking” when your life has proven the risk.
We ask:
“What has your body learned to anticipate?”
“What is your nervous system responding to right now?”
“How do we reduce exposure to harm while increasing protection and choice?”
4) We build tools that fit your real life (not an ideal world)
Coping skills that ignore structural reality can feel like gaslighting.
So we build strategies that include:
nervous system regulation and safety planning
boundary work and community supports
self-advocacy and rest
meaning-making and anger alchemy (healthy expression, not suppression)
5) We welcome grief, rage, and truth—without policing your tone
You don’t have to be “palatable” to be supported.
Decolonizing therapy makes room for:
righteous anger
cultural grief
liberation dreams
complicated family dynamics
spirituality (if you want it) without coercion
6) We repair harm with accountability
Anti-oppressive therapy expects rupture and prioritizes repair.
Repair sounds like:
“I’m sorry. I missed that.”
“Thank you for correcting me.”
“Let’s talk about how that landed and what you need now.”
Common myths that keep people stuck
Myth: “If we talk about oppression, we’re being political.”Truth: If we ignore oppression, we’re being complicit.
Myth: “Therapy should focus only on the individual.”Truth: You can’t separate a person from the conditions shaping their health.
Myth: “Coping means calming down.”Truth: Coping also means protecting yourself, telling the truth, and building power.
If you’re a client: what you deserve in anti-oppressive therapy
You deserve a therapist who:
believes you the first time
doesn’t minimize identity-based harm
doesn’t turn your survival into a personality flaw
helps you build boundaries that don’t isolate you
honors your culture, your language, your lineage, your body
supports liberation and stabilization—because you deserve both
Here’s a simple self-check:If you leave therapy feeling smaller, ashamed, or constantly misunderstood, something needs to shift.
If you’re a therapist: practical anti-oppressive moves (starting now)
Ask better questions: “What systems are impacting this?” “What does safety look like in your body?”
Stop defaulting to pathologizing labels when context explains the response.
Reflect on who your “professionalism” protects—you or the client?
Build consent into the work: “Do you want skills today or space to feel?”
Be willing to be corrected without centering your guilt.
Keep learning (and pay people for their labor—books, trainings, consultation).
Closing: Therapy should never demand your silence to earn care
Anti-oppressive and decolonizing therapy is a refusal.
A refusal to call oppression “stress.”A refusal to label survival as disorder.A refusal to make clients perform safety for clinicians.A refusal to treat healing like assimilation.
This approach says: Your life makes sense. Your feelings make sense. Your body makes sense.And your healing gets to include truth, protection, and liberation—without apology.
Because you don’t just deserve to cope.
Comments