Join the global movement that is radically reimagining the old mental health paradigm.
Heal your past. Honor your history. Cultivate liberation. Harvest joy.
For too long, the goal of therapy has been to help people adapt to oppression and cope with the ongoing trauma of colonial, capitalist and white supremacist systems.
Well the old paradigm is crumbling, and frankly it’s long overdue.
Decolonizing Therapy
Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice
Decolonizing Therapy is for all practitioners who are willing to take an honest look inward. To find the places that colonization has permeated their minds and bodies. And firmly pull them out at the root.
This book is not just about what is broken. It is a hopeful invitation to co-create a new emotional health paradigm. To build something new while remembering, reclaiming, and restoring what was.
As Featured In
Space holders, wellness workers, helpers, healers, and liberators.
You want to do good work in the world.
But lately, something just isn’t sitting right.
You’re in the business of helping people heal, but you’re deeply unwell yourself. You’re stressed out, overwhelmed, and barely making ends meet. Disconnected from peers, clients, community, and your own humanity.
You lie awake at night worrying you’re complicit with a broken system. Afraid you’re doing more harm than good. You know our mental health systems are deeply flawed. At best, they help people adapt to oppression. At best, they help people (barely) survive.
You don’t want to be just another cog in the machine.
But you can’t abolish the mental health industrial complex and rebuild something new by yourself. So you keep plugging along. Doing your best within an imperfect system. Making peace with your powerlessness. Minimizing harm where you can.
You’re bone tired. Some days you feel like quitting. But a stubborn voice inside of you says: Don’t give up. There has to be a better way.
A better way is possible.
Join the global movement that is reimagining how the world understands therapy and mental health. That insists on a world where liberation, joy, and healing are available to all.
Learning from Dr. Mullan has been one of the highlights of my academic and clinical career.
"We were lucky to have Dr. Mullan facilitate phenomenal workshops for our DEI Seminar 'Uncomfortable Conversations in the Therapy Room' at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her ability to synthesize community healing, mindfulness of intergenerational trauma, and the decolonization of traditional therapy training always leaves our students (and faculty) deeply changed and humbled for the better. Dr. Mullan provides the anti-oppressive lens that the mental health field has needed for over one hundred years."
Dr. Jen Douglas (she/they), Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University School of Medicine
Her work is what many of us in this field have been yearning for and what needs to be central in this work.
“Dr Mullan's decolonizing approach to practice in the field of social work and mental health has been one of the most enlightening and affirming training my staff and I have experienced. Her work validated much of what we have been experiencing in this role and life in general. Her work is what many of us in this field have been yearning for and what needs to be central in this work."
Carolyn Strudwick, MSW Social Worker for Social Justice & Educator;
Associate Vice President Safe Horizon/Streetwork Project
Dr. Jennifer Mullan embodies what it means to decolonize therapy and alchemize rage.
“Her deep care for individual and collective healing is rooted in ancestral wisdom and her training as a psychologist. She delivers even the hardest truths with warmth, ease and grace. Our conversation on the podcast was one of the most loved episodes and I’m so grateful that she’s doing this work in the world and I’m excited for all that’s to come!"
Thérèse Cator, Embodiment Practitioner and Teacher,
Decolonial Leadership Coach, Founder Embodied Black Girl
Dr. Mullan's workshops have opened up a portal for greater healing in my life.
"In the chosen topics, in the approach and the thoughtful decolonial content, I felt seen, heard, validated and witnessed as a woman of Afro-Indigenous descent. The topics of rage and exhaustion are poignant and necessary for BIPOC populations given the injustice, the systemic racism and expectation of consent to exploitation that impacts us on a daily basis. Dr. Mullan's decolonial work opens up a space for healing on many levels, highlighting the historical, political and generational challenges that impede equal access to health, happiness and prosperity. Attending her workshops is helping me develop greater understanding and compassion for myself and others negatively impacted by white supremacist patriarchal capitalist culture."
Workshop Attendee
A strong advocate for bringing much needed growth/change in the field of Mental Health.
“I am truly grateful to have had the experience of attending Dr. Mullan’s Politicizing your Practice Workshop. She is a master trainer, and you can’t help but feel empowered and inspired about all the great possibilities for Decolonizing Mental Health. Her workshops are super engaging, and she provides a great foundation for understanding mental health through a much broader lens that includes intergenerational trauma, systemic oppression, and cultural/spiritual values. I have been working in the Mental health field for over 20 years and have never experienced a workshop so transformative both at a personal and professional level.“
Puja Satwani, LCSW, California, PYP participant
I cannot recommend highly enough!
"I was fortunate enough to participate in her Politicizing Your Practice Series, along with the rest of my team at the ACT Institute at the Center for Practice Innovations in New York City. This material is supplemented by meaningful discussions, led beautifully by Dr. Mullan, among group members who share their thoughts, feelings, and perhaps most importantly, stories reflecting their own experiences with race and in some cases the trauma associated with racism. If you are involved in the delivery of mental health services and work with disenfranchised communities, whatever your race, ethnicity, age, etc., this Series should be part of your journey."
David Lowenthal, MD, JD, Medical Director, Center for Practice Innovations,
New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia Psychiatry, PYP Participant
I was blown away...
I was blown away by Dr. Mullan's ability to be engaging, energizing, grounded, emotionally charged, challenging, and inspiring all at the same time, particularly when delivering her remarks in a virtual format. Attendees in the room could be seen nodding their heads and responding to her remarks, and online they used the chat to comment on the power of Dr. Mullan's words and ideas. Dr. Mullan came recommended to us as a speaker and now I can see why!
Anonymous
Dr. Mullan’s attention to inclusivity
and community care is remarkable...
Dr. Jennifer Mullan is beloved at CIIS Public Programs! Whether she’s teaching on radical rage, ancestral trauma, or decolonizing therapy, Dr. Mullan brings a structured, experiential, and powerfully intersectional approach to each workshop. She has the unique ability to authentically hold space for both the shadow and the light which allows for transformative healing. Her ability to combine psychological education with spiritual wisdom creates a grounded and holistic space for participants. Dr. Mullan’s attention to inclusivity and community care is remarkable and she is skilled at supporting each participant and honoring their personal choice and their journey.
Emlyn Guiney, Head of Programming for CIIS Public Programs
Thank you for your amazing contribution...
There is so much to reflect on. Particularly as a leader of a sexual assault agency that was created and run by predominantly white women, the question of “who do we serve?” and how do we better serve and lead in our community is a critical one. All of us were touched by the thought and work that you put into your talk - many references to local context that did not shy away from the truth about our history and tying it to common global experiences of colonization. I think this is powerful for many reasons.
Lisa Miller, Regina Sexual Assault Centre
Saskatshawan, Canada
An amazing talent for holding space for others while also challenging them to deal with difficult subjects.
We were struggling with managing racial equity projects across the NYC Health Department and working on aspects of the COVID pandemic. She helped our team have difficult conversations and worked with each of us to set healthy boundaries. Her warm and calm nature was a welcome reprieve at such a chaotic time. Her workshops shed new light on the history and workings of oppression, and she gave attendees concrete tools to aid in healing. Dr. Mullan is an invaluable consultant for all racial equity efforts.
L Tantay
Current Founder and President - L Tantay Consulting, Inc.
Our most listened to episode!
Dr. Mullan's episode on the Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause's podcast, is our most listened to episode of our first three seasons of the podcast (we launch Season 4 spring 2022)! Our conversation around rage, grief, menopause as a rites of passage and healing has been streamed just shy of 2,000 times. Our listeners needed to experience the wisdom from someone who has committed their life's work to radical revolutionary healing so that they themselves could be reminded of their own agency as the expert of their own story and know that healing during their menopause journey is indeed possible.
Omisade Burney-Scott, Creator/Curator, Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause
This was very powerful for me...
I wholeheartedly appreciated the significance of the way Dr. Mullan wove together the history and present day realities of colonization, the impact that has on our neighbors in other countries, the impact that has post immigration (forced or voluntary), and the subsequent impact on the way that we approach ct's who are immigrants in clinical counseling. This was very powerful for me to reflect on and motivates me to be more political in my counseling: especially in naming these woven impacts that are so often seen as disperate.
Anonymous
I felt highly empowered by her presentation.
Dr. Mullan embodies this work and was an important model of this alongside the content she presented. It was particularly impressive how she navigated her presentation amidst a predominantly white space which a lovely balance of holding and pushing. As a POC, I felt highly empowered by her presentation.
Anonymous
The Colonial Soul Wound
I am committed to compassionately abolish the settler within.
The Colonial Soul Wound is the impact of colonization on the psyche, spirit, and soul of a people + persons, leading to disconnection, disembodiment + fragmentation of the collective + self, as well as overreliance on Western ways.
The Colonial Soul Wound shows up as:
- Dissociation/disembodiment due to eurocentric violence
- Pervasive Soul Dehydration + Exhaustion
- Conditioned colonial responses
- Cyclical generational behaviours
- Hypervigilance
- Repressed Rage
- Belief in + protection of colonial systems/rules
- Minimization of Magic and Spirit
- Denial/Rejection of ancestors and/or cultural practises
- Overpathologization
- Fear of being seen
I’m Dr. Jennifer Mullan, founder of Decolonizing Therapy–lovingly called “The Rage Doctor.”
I’ve been in your shoes. Tired, overwhelmed, and burned out from shoving individual interventions in holes created by systemic issues.
As a colleague once said: We don’t just need therapy.
We need a revolution.
Join the Movement!
Be the first to hear about book updates, giveaways, events, and other Decolonizing Therapy happenings.
