Decolonizing Mental Health Delivery with Melody Li (Part 1, Episode 227)

Therapist Uncensored Podcast

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“Silence is not inaction. Silence is a stance.”

This is part one of a two-part series with the founder of Inclusive Therapists, Melody and TU Co-host, Sue Marriott. We are pushing for more inclusive, anti-racist, and decolonialized practices.The conversation is challenging but important as we explore liberation psychology that helps us recognize and unlearn patterns of thinking that are rooted in colonization and European Western education. You may not agree with everything this guest says but you will learn something and likely feel quite a lot. Discomfort is a necessary part of liberating ourselves from engrained traditional patriarchal and white supremist thinking that continues to harm so many.

“I had a choice to say ‘I can conform to this institution. I can bend, I can contort myself by really severing from my humanity, or I can find my people

and we can collectively do something different.'” – Melody Li, LMFT (they/佢)

About our Guest – Melody Li, LMFT (they/佢)

Melody Li, LMFT (they/佢) is the founder of Inclusive Therapists: a mental health directory, resource hub & community centering marginalized communities. They also founded Mental Health Liberation, a non-profit bridging Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with free, quality therapy, and empowering Students & Clinicians of Color. Their activism focuses on decolonizing mental health care and dismantling the industrial complex. The colony-born migrant and settler on Turtle Island advocates for Landback, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Black Liberation as a priority.

Time Stamps for Decolonizing the Mental Health System

00:25 – About Melody and their background

2:41 – More about Inclusive Therapists

8:47 – Melody’s journey with liberation

10:31 – Understanding the white cis-heteronormativity education system

18:41 – The issue with referring to different communities as sub-communities

21:47 – Why language really matters

23:26 – What it means to de-colonialize mental health care

33:00 – Exploring the hierarchal field of therapy and its barriers

36:50 – “There is nothing more racist than genocide”

41:50 – A call to action and steps to end the genocide

Resources for today’s episode – Decolonizing the Mental Health System

Melody Li’s Website

Melody Li’s Instagram Profile

Inclusive Therapists Resource Library

Open Letter: End Mental Health Field’s Complicity to Genocide

Steadfast for Collective Liberation Newsletter: Confronting our Bullshit & Toxicity

Palestinian Liberation: Lessons in Solidarity for Mental Health Providers

Palestinian Liberation Resources

When is exploring whiteness clinically relevant? (Melody Li, LMFT)

Dismantling whiteness, white feminism and supremacy delusion: resources by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (Li advised against buying white authors on this subject)

Decolonizing Therapy (Dr. Jenn Mullan)

Stages of Colonialism in Africa: From Occupation of Land to Occupation of Being (Hussein A. Bulhan)

All psychologies are indigenous psychologies: Reflections on psychology in a global era (Anthony J. Marsella)

Mental Health Liberation: Website | Instagram | Facebook | BIPOC Therapy Fund | Liberatory Student Support Circle

Inclusive Therapists: Website | Instagram | Facebook

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We support mental health access to those traditionally left out of mainstream healthcare and use a portion of the income we receive from corporate sponsors to do just that! We can only do that with the help of our Patrons – joining as a TU Neuronerd Podsquad premium subscriber, you support this mission and get a dedicated ad-free feed plus occasional very cool and unique study opportunities, reading groups, and unique surprises! We invite you to join our community. Click here to join!

Mental Health Liberation is our primary partner at this time – please consider giving whatever you can to support mental health access for those traditionally left behind and support training for BIPOC therapists.

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We support mental health access to those traditionally left out of mainstream healthcare and use a portion of the income we receive from corporate sponsors to do just that! We can only do that with the help of our Patrons – joining as a TU Neuronerd Podsquad premium subscriber, you support this mission and get a dedicated ad-free feed plus occasional very cool and unique study opportunities, reading groups and who knows what else may come! We invite you to join our community. Click here to join!