Why Liberation Matters in Therapy

catherinekates2
Jun 10
4 min read

Therapy is often framed as a space to "fix" what's broken inside of us. But what if you're not broken? What if the pain, exhaustion, or overwhelm you’re carrying is a response to a world that constantly asks you to shrink, silence, or sacrifice parts of yourself?

Liberation matters in therapy because true healing can’t happen in isolation from the systems that shape our lives.

Racism. Colonialism. Capitalism. Fatphobia. Transphobia. Ableism. These forces live not just out there—but in our bodies, our relationships, our choices, and even our nervous systems. If therapy ignores that, it risks reinforcing harm instead of helping to heal it.

The Nervous System Is Political

Regulation, grounding, safety—these are often named as goals in trauma therapy. And yes, nervous system regulation is vital. But we have to ask: what kind of regulation? For whom? And in service of what?

Much of what gets labeled as “regulated” in therapy spaces reflects white, Western, ableist norms—calm, quiet, still, non-reactive. These ideals are rooted in white supremacy culture’s preference for politeness over truth, control over expression, and comfort over justice.

When people of color, queer and trans folks, disabled folks, and other marginalized clients express righteous anger, grief, or urgency, they are often told—implicitly or explicitly—to self-soothe and stay small.

Let’s be clear: regulation is not the same as compliance. A regulated nervous system should support your liberation—not your assimilation.

Real nervous system healing makes space for the body’s full range of truth: for grief to move, for rage to speak, for joy to expand. It should be a tool of reclamation, not repression.

The Co-opted Language of Self-Care

Today’s self-care industry has been swallowed by capitalism. We’re told that healing is a product to be purchased—face masks, supplements, rituals that cost money and promise control. But real care is not always pretty or marketable.

It’s not about spa days—it’s about community care, rest, boundary-setting, and reclaiming your time and body from systems that treat you as a resource to extract from.

The modern self-care narrative often pressures people (especially women and femmes) to fix themselves in order to become more productive, more emotionally palatable, more “balanced” at work or home. But real self-care, in the words of Audre Lorde, is not about indulgence. It is about preservation in a world that devalues you.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

When we forget these roots, self-care becomes another way we internalize blame—another task to master, another way we measure worth.

Naming My Location in This Work

I am a white, cisgender woman. I carry privilege that shields me from many of the violences my clients face. I name this not to center myself—but to be transparent about the power dynamics that exist in the therapy room and in the world.

Being anti-oppressive isn’t an identity. It’s a practice. It means I have a responsibility to unlearn the ways therapy has been used to pathologize difference, to ignore structural harm, and to reinforce dominant norms about what healing should look like.

It also means staying in relationship—with discomfort, with accountability, and with the work of repair. Not to “save” anyone, but to stand beside those who’ve long been excluded from care that sees their full humanity.

What Liberation Looks Like in Therapy

Liberation in therapy means we name the water we’re swimming in. We name white supremacy, capitalism, and all the systems that tell us to stay silent, stay productive, and stay out of our bodies.

It means creating a space where you don’t have to explain why you’re exhausted.Where your anger is seen as intelligent.Where you don’t have to perform resilience to be worthy of support.Where your cultural, collective, and ancestral grief is held with reverence.Where the goal is not to “cope,” but to reclaim.

Liberatory therapy doesn’t try to make you better at surviving oppression. It supports you in imagining—and embodying—something else entirely.

A Healing That Doesn’t Leave You Behind

This work isn’t about striving for constant calm or individual transcendence. It’s about reconnecting to what is alive in you. It’s about remembering that healing is relational, political, messy, and beautiful and rooted in justice.

You deserve care that doesn’t ask you to leave parts of yourself at the door.You deserve therapy that sees your body not as a problem, but as a site of wisdom.You deserve rest that doesn’t have to be earned.You deserve to belong.

I don’t offer quick fixes or perfect answers. But I do offer a space where your story, your rage, your softness, and your dreams are welcome. Not as something to manage—but as part of the work of becoming whole.

Some Book Recommendations:

We Will Rest!The Art of Escape

Rest Is Resistance #2

Tricia Hersey, George McCalman

My Grandmother's Hands,

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Resmaa Menakem

Decolonizing Therapy

Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice

Dr. Jennifer Mullan (a.k.a. Decolonizing Therapy)

Disability Praxis

The Body as a Site of Struggle