What Grad School Didn’t Teach Us: Reclaiming Healing Practices with Silvana Espinoza

What happens when (as is the focus in most western grad school programs) we emphasize diagnosis and prescription over the therapeutic relationship and holistic healing?

We might end up with excellent theoretical knowledge and clinical skills, and while those things are important, they’re only one piece of the support that’s needed to facilitate effective and lasting healing and growth.

So how do we start (or continue) to shift the focus of therapeutic work towards a more integrated, accepting and holistic approach?

Join Silvana Espinoza and I as we explore what it takes to decolonize therapy and coaching practices. We discuss why the process starts with decolonizing ourselves—examining the values, biases, and systems we’ve unconsciously absorbed.

Listen in to discover what grad school didn’t teach you about reclaiming your own healing medicine and approaches that honor community and right relationship, as we envision a future of healing that resists the mental health industrial complex and centers authentic connection and liberation.

Through our conversation, you will find some actionable steps and thought-provoking insights for creating a practice rooted in justice, equity, and genuine care.

Silvana Espinoza Lau is an embodied liberation and decolonization consultant and coach for therapists, healers, and service providers. Silvana coaches therapists and healers who want to incorporate decolonized, liberation focused and anti-oppressive values in their practices in an embodied way and consults with mental health agencies that want to center therapy seekers with minoritized identities. She also consults with mental health agencies on how to incorporate decolonial mental health practices.

Silvana is an LMFT in private practice in unceded Kalapuya territory (Oregon), and a clinical supervisor and consultant to both licensed and prelicensed clinicians with a focus on anti-oppressive and decolonized therapy practice.

You can find Silvana in these places:

IG: @decolonizeyourpractice

FB: www.facebook.com/decolonizeyourpractice

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/silvana-espinoza-lau-906498233