Decolonizing Therapy To Treat Depression, Anxiety, And Trauma – 5 Ways I Decolonize Therapy
- Jan 15, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 10, 2025
Written by: Shemya Vaughn, PhD, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Individuals who belong to the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities often require mental health services to cope with racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, transphobia, homophobia, and all of the other oppressive reactions faced by marginalized groups. While most people of color and/or people in the queer community navigate their lives experiencing joy, unconditional love from family and friends, and earn enough income to live comfortable lives, there is still an undercurrent of violent legislation and behavior based on patriarchal values, White supremacy, and capitalism. Research participants in Mosley et al.’s 2020 study reported that all Black people can start to feel paranoid at some point, “Participants described anxiousness about premature death and imprisonment. They reported living in fear, expected to die prematurely, anticipated being the target of police surveillance, and foresaw themselves experiencing imprisonment.”
Because we are born into these three intersecting and harmful systems, we all must enter therapy with more questions than answers. I invite clients to question what they think they know about their social identity and where they learned it from. I invite them to question if they learned how to express emotions based in these systems. Finally, I invite them to question where their thoughts come from, especially negative thoughts about themselves. The goal of decolonizing the healing process is to question these systems and unlearn harmful messages found in patriarchy, White supremacy, and capitalism.
Here are the 5 ways I decolonize therapy:
Unless the individual is paying for therapy using their insurance or they require a diagnosis for a bureaucratic reason (reasonable accommodations, surgery, etc.), I avoid pathologizing the symptoms they present in therapy because the symptoms are likely a response to generational and present-day marginalization and oppression.
Each client is asked to guide each session with counseling goals important to them, however, topics can shift as more salient issues come to the surface. Treatment plans are only used if insurance companies require them for reimbursement.
All traditional interventions are adapted for clients in marginalized groups and clients are invited to adjust the interventions to fit their personality or current lifestyle. Evidence-based practices work well for some clients, but individuals of color and people in the queer community require culturally appropriate mental health services to survive in this world and learn to thrive. In decolonized therapy, the client is the expert of their own lived experience.
Each client’s presenting problem is validated and externalized so that they are aware that their problems would look different if they did not inherit and experience first-hand racial trauma, if the country they live in did not consider them a social pariah due to their appearance, and/or gender was decolonized instead of pathologized as dysphoria.
Finally, I invite the people I see in therapy to tell their stories from their perspective, then re-author those stories without the negative lens of patriarchy, White supremacy, and capitalism.
It is not sufficient to do work on an individual level. “Counselors must acknowledge the harm that was caused to marginalized groups through systematic and intentional practices over the last few centuries and commit to promoting the social changes that make wellness accessible to these communities” (Gamby et al., 2021). As mental health therapists, we also advocate for societal and systemic change using personal, collective, and legislative power.
Shemya Vaughn, PhD, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr. Shemya Vaughn is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor in Missouri, and Licensed Clinical Counselor in California with a doctorate in rehabilitation counselor education from Michigan State University. She has taught at three community colleges and four universities. Her book, Transgender Youth, was published in 2016 and she also co-authored a book, Trauma-Informed Care in 2021. She currently operates an online private practice providing therapy for anxiety, depression, and trauma to individuals in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.
