I want to begin with a small disclaimer. While I am very appreciative of my academic background, it is my lived experiences and humanness that hold greater weight in the way I approach this work. My academic journey has indeed provided me with skills and resources that expand my perspectives, but before any of this... before being a psychologist... I am a human, just like you.
This is the basis of everything.
I’m not the expert of you or your life. To me, this work is the powerful coming together of human beings, engaging with the subject matter in a curious and transformative way.
Nonetheless, below are some key points from my academic background that highlight and inform my approach.
You’ve probably seen me say this often, whether on my Instagram or on the landing page of my website. Decoloniality and Liberation Psychology are at the very heart of this work. Decolonial psychology challenges the assumption that Eurocentric frameworks represent universal understandings of human experience and advocates for a pluriversal psychology that honours multiple ways of knowing, being, and healing.
In our work together, we often circle around some very important questions:
•Who taught us what we know?
•Which systems shaped these ideas?
•And who benefits from them?
Decoloniality does not only relate to political and systemic organisation, it is also deeply psychological. Many of us in the global South have been forced to organise our identities and communities around systems of coloniality.
For example, we may:
• Shrink or change how we show up in proximity to whiteness
• Feel that we should strive toward perpetual “emotional control”
• Silence anger or disagreement when it challenges authority
These are just some examples. Does this mean we blame everything on colonialism? No.
Decoloniality is not about rejecting the West or opposing something for the sake of opposition. It is about becoming more aware of the histories, systems, and ways of knowing that shape our lives, and creating space to question, choose, and imagine different ways of being.
My academic background in psychology strongly guides my practice. This honours the rigorous exploration the field has undertaken when it comes to important matters such as sustainable change, rather than the idea of quick fixes.
***For coaching: For this reason, I describe my work as coaching psychology rather than traditional life coaching. While the roles are fairly similar, my approach is informed by years of being a student of psychology, and training in evidence-based perspectives on human development.
My therapeutic orientation is integrative, drawing from a range of psychological approaches. I am especially influenced by humanistic, existential, and emotion focused perspectives, while also incorporating approaches such as CBT through a critical and contextual lens.
I trust you as the expert of your life. I believe that people are inherently oriented toward growth, connection, and meaning-making. I believe we are resilient and capable of directing change in every realm of our lives.
My practice is grounded in a liberation oriented understanding of human beings. I believe we cannot fully understand ourselves without also considering the social, historical, and systemic conditions that shape our lives.
Liberation psychology invites us to look beyond individual experiences and recognise how systems of power, colonisation, and oppression influence our thoughts, relationships, and the ways we move through the world. Our struggles are not always a reflection of personal failure or individual shortcomings. They are also shaped by the environments, histories, and structures we exist within.
Why is this perspective so empowering?
Increasing your systemic awareness allows you to focus on agency, rather than always accommodating systems that were never designed with you in mind.
***For coaching: It is my hope (and yes, perhaps a small bias that shows up in my programs) that by the end of our work together, you recognize yourself as a change-maker. Someone who has agency in their relationship with themselves, with others, and in the impact they have on the world.
Lastly, I’d love to share a framework I created with so much love and very much in alignment with my Aquarius rebel energy (hehe); The Emotional Companionship Framework (inspired by my thesis research on emotional regulation).
To be honest, I REALLY dislike the idea of emotional regulation. To me, it can sometimes promote a very mechanistic perspective on emotions. I was strongly inspired by Afro-communitarian philosophy, particularly its perspective on morality - doing things because they are good to do, not simply because they produce a result.
This framework reflects this perspective...
What would happen if we related to our emotions because they deserve connection, rather than because they need to be manipulated to produce a desired outcome?
This approach invites those who resonate with it to imagine a more compassionate relationship with their emotional world. It explores what it means to BE WITH our emotions, rather than constantly trying to manage or suppress them.
At its core, Emotional Companionship is about learning how to befriend your emotions, so they become beloved partners in our confrontation of reality, rather than something to constantly feel at odds with.
