What Does It Mean to Decolonize Mental Health?
Traditional mental health models are often based on Western ideas that may not reflect the values, experiences, or wisdom of other communities. Decolonizing mental health means:
- Making space for different ways of understanding and healing emotional pain
- Valuing cultural practices and traditions, like community support, storytelling, spirituality, or ancestral knowledge
- Questioning systems that have ignored or harmed marginalized groups
- Listening deeply to what people really need to feel seen, safe, and respected in therapy
Why Is This Important?
For many Latinx Americans, Indigenous, and other BIPOC communities, mental health struggles can’t be separated from history, like colonization, forced migration, racism, or loss of language and culture. If therapy doesn’t recognize that, people may feel misunderstood or unseen.
Decolonizing mental health helps:
- Restore dignity and cultural pride
- Make therapy feel more accessible and less stigmatized
- Build trust between clients and providers
- Empower people to define healing in their own words
What This Looks Like in Therapy
Therapists who support decolonized care:
- Ask about your cultural values, family roles, and traditions
- Use metaphors, stories, and language that feel familiar and respectful
- Don’t assume one-size-fits-all approaches
- Understand how systems of oppression impact mental health
Mental health care should never feel like it asks you to leave your culture at the door. Decolonizing therapy means welcoming your full identity into the room. It’s about creating space for healing that feels true to who you are, and where you come from.
