What Settler Colonialism Has To Do With Your Therapy Practice

 When I talk about "decolonizing" therapy, I sometimes get confused looks.

"I'm not colonizing anyone," a well-meaning clinician might say. "I'm just trying to help."

I believe that. And also: settler colonialism isn't just something that happened in the past. It's a living system that shapes how we think, relate, and practice. 

What is Settler Colonialism?

Settler colonialism is a distinct form of colonialism where the colonizers come to stay and establish permanent control over Indigenous lands and peoples. Unlike other colonialisms focused primarily on extracting resources, settler colonialism has the goal to displace Indigenous populations and erase their presence to make way for new social and political orders.
This system is not simply historical; it continues to operate today through institutions, social norms, and everyday ways of thinking and relating. It lives in laws, policies, and cultural assumptions that uphold the dominance of settler identities and ways of being.

How Settler Colonialism Shows Up in Helping Professions 

In helping professions, settler colonialism often appears in subtle, pervasive ways:

• Assumptions About Healing: Healing is frequently framed as a path of individual change, centered on the self as a separate, autonomous unit. This individualism can conflict with Indigenous and many other worldviews emphasizing collective wellbeing, relationality, and community restoration.  Humans thrive on connection—our nervous systems are wired for safety and social engagement. According to polyvagal theory, our ability to feel safe and connected activates a sense of trust and openness that is essential for healing. When healing centers solely on individual change without recognizing this need for relational safety, it can overlook a core human process: the necessity of belonging and connection for survival and well-being. Recognizing this shifts the focus from fixing the individual to fostering a sense of safety within relationship, which is crucial for true healing.
• Pathologizing vs. Contextualizing: Behaviours or symptoms are often interpreted narrowly as intrapersonal disorders without sufficient attention to historical, social, and political contexts — such as intergenerational trauma or systemic oppression. For example, this can show up in pathologizing a client exhibiting hypervigilance or emotional numbness—responses often seen as personal dysfunction or coping deficits—when in fact, these are survival strategies learned across generations to endure systemic violence and oppression. Without contextualizing these behaviors within their historical and cultural framework, therapy risks pathologizing the individual rather than addressing the root collective wounds that inform the client’s experience.
• Power Dynamics: The therapist’s role can unconsciously replicate colonial dynamics, where the clinician holds authority over the client’s narrative or “expertise,” rather than co-creating knowledge in a relational, equitable way. For example, a client may try to share their Indigenous healing practices or worldview, only to have the therapist minimize or overlook these contributions in favor of Western models. This replication of authority sustains colonial power structures within the therapeutic relationship, rather than fostering a collaborative, respectful space where knowledge is co-created and clients’ cultural identities are honoured.

Awareness, Not Guilt

This discussion is not about blaming individual therapists or clinicians for historical wrongs. It’s about recognizing the ongoing impact of settler colonialism as a system that shapes the landscape of mental health and healing.
Awareness opens the door to accountability—choosing how you engage with your clients, how you hold power in your practice, and whether you actively work to unlearn and unsettle colonial assumptions.

You didn't create these systems. But you do have a choice about whether you perpetuate them or work to dismantle them.