New Book Offers Call to Action for Therapists, Healers, Helpers & Space Holders to reimagine and shift the mental health paradigm -Politicize their Practice Through an Emotional-Decolonial Lens.
(Montclair, New Jersey July 3, 2023) — In many ways the field of psychotherapy has been progressive—advocating for access to mental health care, fighting to destigmatize mental illness, and in recent years certain providers arguing for changes to immigration policy in the name of mental and emotional health. Yet despite this, there has been a lack of wholesale examination of the field in certain vital areas.
An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing, Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice by Dr. Jennifer Mullan (Norton Professional Books, ISBN-13: 978-1324019169 464pp, November 7, 2023) illuminates that all therapy is―and always has been― inherently political.
The old paradigm is crumbling, and frankly it’s long overdue. ”Many people who are migrants, working poor, students, etc. find it impossible to consistently receive culturally, historically, healthy therapy that they can afford and meets them where they are,” Mullan shares.
The psychologist makes a compelling case for all therapists and students to re-examine their training, delivery of services, and approach to client work and begin to question the relatability of the mental health industrial complex to the People they serve.
Analyzing such topics as intergenerational trauma, white supremacy, poverty and race, and the role of politics in psychotherapy, the author takes an unwavering stance: no therapy can operate outside of the political. The idea that “external” factors such as systemic racism and cultural trauma have nothing to do with individual psychotherapeutic sessions can no longer be accepted. Both clients and therapists carry long histories of the world as the oppressed, the oppressor, and often both.
Lack of representation poses a significant barrier to individuals seeking culturally appropriate care. A 2020 demographic review reports that 77% of therapists are white. A more difficult identity to find within therapy is male counselors identifying as BIPOC, as 70% of counselors are female. While cultural competency and humility are important in providing mental healthcare, it is impossible to substitute for racial representation in clinicians. Source: https://www.namidanecounty.org/blog/2021/8/18/tu410bo1wjssh1mljbdmupnsd3ic0w
Psychotherapy is rooted in an intimate, carefully cultivated therapeutic alliance. It is essential to create a dialogue to address how mental health is deeply affected by systemic inequities and the trauma of oppression, particularly the well-being of Queer Indigenous Black Brown People of Color (QIBPOC); those impacted most by economic inequality, and anyone whose life experience places them out of the mainstream. “Cultural histories are not left at the therapy door. They have never been”, says Dr. Mullan.
It is also essential for mental and emotional practitioners today to think “outside the therapy room box” as care-work often requires practitioners to step outside of their own comfort zones and acknowledge their limitations, as well as where they may need to unlearn and question current practices.
This book is the emotional companion and guide to decolonization. It is an invitation for Eurocentrically trained clinicians to acknowledge privileged and oppressed parts while relearning what we thought we knew.
When asked who should read this work, Dr. Jennifer Mullan responded, “Decolonizing Therapy is intended for those practitioners and academics who are seeking something more; seeking to “upgrade” and “uplevel” their internal and external practices- in order to meet the deep needs of the people they serve. The book will explain some of the underlying concepts and systems that cause mental health related oppression, and how these are just as much a part of mental health practice as anything else.
About the Author
Jennifer Mullan (she/her), PsyD, is educated as a clinical psychologist and activist-scholar, ancestral healer, and is the founder of Decolonizing Therapy, LLC, where she teaches her “Politicizing Your Practice” series, delivers internationally sought after keynotes, and culturally and spiritually relevant retreats and workshops. She is also the creator of the popular Instagram account @decolonizingtherapy. Recipient of Essence magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in the category of Mental Health, she lives in Northern New Jersey. www.DecolonizingTherapy.com.
