Equity Work

I adhere to the shared goal of transforming the mental health care system in this country. I know trauma, pathologization, and denying access to mental health care have historically been used as tools of oppression and acknowledge the ways in which my field has caused deep harm to BIPOC, LGBTQ+,  and other communities who have experienced marginalization. I will be part of the movement towards repair, mental health justice, and decolonizing the mental health system.

I COMMIT TO: 

  • showing up to therapy spaces as my whole authentic self 

  • continuing to do my own anti-racism work, acknowledging that each of us has been racialized and carries biases that must be explored.

  • prioritizing people and relationships over profit

  • staying in discomfort with my clients and other healing professionals

  • owning my mistakes and holding myself accountable

  • working through conflict restoratively

TO me, EQUITY IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE MEANS:

  • talking about identity, culture, systemic oppression, and social justice in the therapy room

  • honoring the traditional and collective healing practices my clients have used to survive

  • providing culturally-grounded care that takes into account a person’s lived experiences

  • contributing to systems that intentionally cultivate diversity in my field by supporting clinician well-being, so that therapists with marginalized identities can thrive and be sustained in their work

  • that all therapists, not just clinicians from marginalized communities, are responsible for transforming the mental health care system and advocating for equal access

  • contributing to creative community-based alternatives that both increase access and maintain therapist work-life fulfillment through fair compensation 

  • that all people have a right to high-quality therapeutic services that meets their needs regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and/or socioeconomic status

  • working towards social justice outside of the therapy room by advocating for anti-oppressive therapeutic approaches and working to impact public policy