Liberation Psychology: Healing as Rebellion, Therapy as Resistance
This is not just therapy. This is soul work, justice work, truth-telling. This is how we reclaim ourselves.
What if your burnout wasn’t a flaw but a form of protest?
What if your anxiety was not a disorder but your nervous system saying: this world isn’t safe? What if your pain wasn’t personal at all?
Psycholiberation reframes therapy through a political and clinical lens. It holds that symptoms often reflect not only individual trauma but also the psychological impact of systemic harm: racism, capitalism, ableism, and patriarchy. In this frame, therapy is not just self-help. It is collective care. It is resistance.
As Audre Lorde wrote, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Psycholiberation honors that truth, asking: how do we treat suffering without ignoring the systems that cause it?
What is Psycholiberation?
Psycholiberation is a therapeutic orientation that views emotional distress in context. It aligns with trauma-informed and culturally responsive care but goes further by naming systems explicitly. It treats internalized oppression, intergenerational trauma, chronic stress, and racial trauma not just as diagnostic codes but as survival responses to unjust conditions.
Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with you?” psycholiberation asks, “What systems taught you that you were wrong?”
Where It Comes From
Psycholiberation draws its lineage from Liberation Psychology, developed in the 1970s by Salvadoran psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró. He argued that mainstream psychology often ignored the political roots of suffering. He wrote, “It is not enough to listen to the voice of suffering; we must listen to where the silence begins.” His work was rooted in community, anti-colonial struggle, and truth-telling, and he was assassinated for it. You can read a foundational overview in this academic article.
These principles live on through models like Critical Liberation Psychotherapy and the work of social justice-oriented therapists and educators. The American Psychological Association's Division 24 has highlighted the need to integrate these frameworks into clinical training and practice.
For further reading, explore:
“Writings for a Liberation Psychology” by Ignacio Martín-Baró
“Radical Dharma” by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Jasmine Syedullah
Recognizing Systemic Symptoms
There is no DSM entry for “chronic stress caused by capitalism.” But you may recognize these clinical symptoms:
Persistent anxiety and hypervigilance in unsafe workplaces or environments
Depression rooted in cultural isolation or generational trauma
Somatic symptoms like fatigue or pain linked to racial battle fatigue
Burnout from over-functioning in systems that erase your identity
Internalized shame, imposter syndrome, or feelings of worthlessness
Rather than pathologize these in isolation, psycholiberation connects them to the broader landscape of social suffering. It aligns with research on social determinants of mental health and racial trauma.
What Psycholiberation Therapy Looks Like
A psycholiberation-informed therapist creates space for:
1. Naming systemic harm
Your clinician helps you identify the historical, cultural, and structural forces that shape your distress. This might involve unpacking family dynamics, immigration stress, racial trauma, and economic precarity.
2. Building critical awareness
Inspired by Paulo Freire’s idea of conscientization (Critical consciousness focuses on achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, allowing for the perception and exposure of social and political contradictions; taking action against the oppressive elements in one's life that are illuminated by that understanding), therapy invites reflection on internalized beliefs and societal narratives.
You ask, Whose expectations am I trying to meet? What stories am I carrying that aren’t mine?
3. Regulating the body
Through somatic therapy, therapists support nervous system healing to address the physiological effects of chronic oppression.
4. Rewriting internal narratives
Folks replace inherited survival beliefs, like “I must work twice as hard to prove I’m enough” — with affirmations rooted in worth, dignity, and ancestral strength.
5. Collective healing
This might include connecting with healing circles, mutual aid networks, group therapy, or community spaces that center belonging and cultural resilience.
6. Practicing beyond the session
Therapists may encourage you to build liberatory habits like resting, setting boundaries, engaging in activism, or tending joy as forms of psychological resistance.
What You Can Do Now
Start with small acts that reclaim your agency:
Name what isn't yours: When shame appears, pause and ask, Who taught me to feel this way? Was it school, media, family, or a colonial script?
Practice rest with intention: Rest is resistance, especially in cultures that equate worth with productivity.
Write a new belief: Pick one harmful narrative and rewrite it in your own words. Say it out loud. Keep it visible.
Find aligned care: Ask therapists how they work with issues of power, race, gender, and systemic oppression. Choose one who sees the whole of you.
Join radical healing spaces: Look for support groups, circles, or digital communities where liberation is part of the ethos.
Why This Matters Now
We are in a moment of global upheaval. Climate disaster, racial violence, economic instability, and political trauma affect our nervous systems daily. Traditional therapy models too often stop at symptom reduction. They miss the full context.
As this Mad in America article argues, without systemic awareness, therapy can end up reinforcing the very structures that cause harm.
Psycholiberation offers a vital alternative. It tells the truth about where our pain comes from. It reclaims healing as both personal and collective. It positions joy, rest, and refusal as therapeutic practices.
A Call to Act
If this resonates with you:
Begin by listening to your body’s signals, and trusting what feels oppressive or misaligned.
Seek out clinicians who practice through a liberation or culturally responsive lens.
Reclaim one small thing this week (a nap, a boundary, a truth) as a form of healing, as a form of resistance to systems that profit off your “unwellness.”
As Dr. Thema Bryant says, “It’s not just about getting over it. It’s about getting free.”
Your healing is yours. And it matters.
Start there. And keep going.