I'm Dr. Jennifer Mullan.  

Lovingly called " The Rage Doctor.”

Colonial Consciousness Crusher. 

Ancestral Wound Worker.

Scholar Activist.

International Speaker. Author. 

Trained as a Clinical Psychologist. 

Intergenerational & Historical Trauma Alchemist.

Paradigm Smasher.   

My Story 

Growing up in the inner city as a Black multi-racial kid, I partly owe my survival to therapy. But even back then I knew the mental health system was deeply incomplete and sometimes harmful. Even when practitioners had the best intentions.

Years later, I trained as a western traditional psychologist and worked in community mental health and logged two decades of clinical practice. I understand the theories from an academic perspective. 

I also know these theories and systems have failed us. 

At times I had to bend the rules. Because it was clear that these ethics, and policies weren’t serving the people I was there to help. Because they weren’t created with QBIPOC in mind. I got into “trouble'' a lot, but my clients received better care. And I slept better at night.

Over time, I became more active–politically and in my communities. Those spaces fortified, educated, unraveled and invited me–not as a psychologist–but as a person who needed her own healing, and a person who would give community care as systems collapsed. 

I found identity and solidarity in people outside of my field more than I did within. LGBTQ center coordinators, undoing racism activists, abolitionist teachers, ferocious librarians. I saw myself in them. People doing the real work. 

I found myself breaking out of the mold with like-minded peers. Co-creating new ways of doing therapy. Ways that were about true healing and liberation.

From this collective reimagining, Decolonizing Therapy was born.

Professional Highlights

Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of the forthcoming book “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice,” and is a dynamic and highly sought after international speaker. She is also an organizational consultant, teacher, course creator, community builder, and decolonized mental health movement starter.

She has been featured in Allure, GQ, The Today Show, Cosmopolitan, and The Calgary Journal; and received ESSENCE magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in the category of Mental Health. 

In December 2017, Dr. Mullan created the Decolonizing Therapy Instagram, which has grown a large, enthusiastic following and profoundly shifted the world’s understanding of therapy and mental health. 

She continues to lead the charge–challenging how therapists are educated and how they practice. Dr. Mullan has educated thousands of therapists, psychologists, social workers, and helpers as they UNLEARN & UNDO colonial & Eurocentric methods of helping. 

Dr. Mullan received her doctorate in clinical psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and Master’s in Counseling & Community Agencies from New York University. Through her research, teaching, therapy, personal and professional experiences, she developed expertise in anti-oppressive practices in clinical practice child & adolescent wellness & trauma; community mental health; the politicization of mental health; intergenerational & historical trauma transmission; ancestral healing; energy medicine; family dynamics and personal development; sacred rage as medicine; and peer support & supervision. 

The reach of the Decolonizing Therapy Instagram account combined with Dr. Mullans deep and powerful work with practitioners, institutions, and organizations has since catalyzed a decolonial, politicized and abolitionist mental health movement internationally. 

Full CV available upon request. 

JESSA BONAFE 

(she/her)

Administrative support

Jessa Bonafe is a Filipina community organizer in Jersey City, NJ, which is native territory to the Lenape people. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Women’s and Gender Studies and Public Health from Rutgers University. She is currently part of Anakbayan North Jersey, a grassroots organization arousing, organizing and mobilizing youth and students around issues that affect Filipinos in the U.S. and in the Philippines. To her, Decolonizing Therapy™ provides a glimpse into what better healthcare can look like, especially for disenfranchised and marginalized communities. She believes that we cannot address health without addressing the claws of capitalism that enforce profit over people’s health and wellbeing.

Where I find ease: Being with community, being on the dancefloor, enjoying the waves at the beach, naps 

My astrological signs: Capricorn (Sun), Pisces (Moon), Sagittarius (Rising)

ANEESA HOLLIDAY-DINGLE

(she/her)

Wellness consultant & workshop facilitator

Aneesa Holliday-Dingle is a licensed social worker (LSW) for the state of New Jersey, where she provides clinical social work services to individuals with chronic and persistent emotional and physical care needs. Her work with Decolonizing Therapy aims to provide an inclusive & healing space for Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous and Queer identities, ensuring their lived experiences are affirmed and their emotions are validated. Her purpose is to reimagine the impact healing and wellness can have on marginalized communities when the gaze is shifted to focus on the systems and structures that perpetuate victimization, pathologies and violence against these communities.

It is her belief that when centering healing, we must discuss how systems are designed to keep you unwell — from the correlation between PTSD and heavy policing in communities of color, to exploring the connections between health care disparities and environmental racism, ableism and intergenerational trauma. These are all connected. When we as healing professionals refuse to address the impact systems have on creating individual and communal dis-ease, we have consciously and unconsciously created an incubator of harm.

Workshops I’ve facilitated with Decolonizing Therapy™: Intergenerational Trauma & Historical Grief; Honoring Black Grief & Rage in White Public Institutions; Structural Violence & Systems of Care; Black Joy > Black Exhaustion; Collective, Disenfranchised and Suffocated Grief in Marginalized Communities; Structural Oppression & Emotional Health; Self Care & the Colonized Body

Where I find ease: Humming; twerking and dancing in my living room; singing gospel music while cleaning my home; the sound of birds chirping; sitting by water; a tight and gentle hug from my favorite people; my cat's eyes; a child's laughter; slow and intentional movement; talking to my ancestors; looking at trees; planting my feet in sand or grass; long hot showers 

My "why" in this work: Throughout my career path as a social worker, I would often find myself at the intersection of my role and some form of structural violence (microaggressions, anti-LGBTQIA, anti-black, ableist, ageist, etc.). My “why” stems from years of working within systems of care that generate harm under the guise of help. And my path in this work is to assist in its Undoing. To speak truth to power, to see the reflection of my being in someone else's eyes, and to create spaces that amplify the incomparably beautiful mosaic of blackness in its rawest forms. 

My astrological signs: Rising/Ascending — Capricorn, Sun — Pisces, Moon — Taurus

MAVERICK LUMEN

(they/them)

Research & communications support

Maverick (they/佢) is a mixed-race Chinese, chaotic genderqueer experience who believes in the healing nature of connection and shared space with others of similar identities and experiences. They reside on the traditional unceded territories of the sq̓əc̓iy̓aɁɬ təməxʷ (Katzie), Kwantlen, Semiahmoo, S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsawwassen) peoples. As a settler, they integrate the teachings of the Indigenous peoples whose land they reside on in order to decolonize their work and self.

The magical and mystical excites and drives them in their day-to-day life, and their relationship with their spiritual practice + their queerness has driven them to do their work as a tarot reader and queer peer. They ground themselves in a trauma-informed, abolitionist, and lived experience lens to serve trans and non-binary folks as they explore what healing and liberation mean to them.

Where I find ease:

• Art (both my personal practice & viewing/experiencing others' art)
• Around animals; my favourites are ferrets, frogs, and horses

• In one-to-one hangouts with loved ones

• Surrounded by nature; especially when I cannot hear the sounds of people or cars, etc.

My astrological signs: Scorpio Sun, Aries Moon, Aquarius Rising

BEATRIZ VILLATORO, MSW

(she, ella)

Wellness consultant & workshop facilitator

Beatriz Villatoro is a first-generation college graduate who earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Women & Gender Studies from New Jersey City University and her Master of Social Work degree from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Beatriz is currently the Crisis Response Coordinator at Hudson SPEAKS Against Sexual Violence in Jersey City, NJ. She conducts the 40-Hour Confidential Sexual Violence Advocate training, which prepares volunteers with education and resources to provide trauma-informed direct services to survivors of sexual assault. She has over 6 years of experience in the violence against women arena. She joined Decolonizing Therapy, LLC in 2020 as a consultant and is passionate about bringing education, awareness, and empowerment to communities.

Workshops I’ve facilitated with Decolonizing Therapy™:  “Who Heals The Healer", National Alliance for Mental Illness Caring for Ourselves Workshop Series, University of California San Diego Paths Wellness Workshops Series

Where I find ease: Being able to wake up feeling good and doing my morning meditations/prayers. Having a support system that I can talk to about anything! 

My "why" in this work: My lens/identity as a daughter of parents who migrated to the U.S. from El Salvador in the late 1980s heavily informs why I do this work. As an undergraduate I began to truly understand my racial identity and the circumstances that led to me being born/raised in the U.S.. After reading books, watching YouTube videos, and attending workshops, it became clear to me that the healing process begins with decolonizing what we have learned about ourselves. 

My astrological signs: Scorpio Sun, Cancer Rising, Leo Moon