Our Foundations
As BIPOC therapists, we are acutely aware that our profession is white-dominated - and still often mired by the oppressive ideals of many of the founders and “experts” of Western psychology. Despite our insider knowledge in this industry, we have struggled to connect with other BIPOC in our field, and to find BIPOC therapists for our own healing processes.
From this struggle came the birth of Healing In Colour - a directory of BIPOC therapists across what is currently known as Canada.
As queer women of colour, targeted by multiple systems of oppression, we believe that it isn’t enough for therapists to simply be BIPOC. Having experienced harm from BIPOC therapists who didn’t have the social, critical analysis to adequately support us, we believe that anti-oppressive values are essential for anyone who wants to support the healing and liberation of BIPOC.
Our felt need for this directory was confirmed after the launch of Healing In Colour in 2019, as our Therapist Directory rapidly expanded based solely on word of mouth. Soon, professionals in other fields and folks providing community-based resources also expressed the desire to become part of our project, resulting in the birth and expansion of the Allied Professionals and Resource Directories.
As an unfunded community-based project that we were running off the sides of our desks, we eventually grew overwhelmed with the amount of labour required to meet the demands of the expansion of Healing In Colour. As an exploration into what it would mean to be supported as we worked to support our communities, we launched our Patreon in late 2020.
In 2021, we became a registered non-profit in order to become eligible for grants and attract donors. What we found was that the colonial structures of the non-profit system drained us; instead of directing our energy toward our mission itself, the vast majority of our energy went into navigating systems that were not built by or for us.
After extensive deliberations, we decided to leave the non-profit world and become a collective and a social enterprise. This new structure assures that we upkeep the social objectives that centre our mission, and that the profits generated will be poured back into the programs we provide. It also allows us to put our values into practice by supporting the wellbeing of those who arduously work to sustain Healing in Colour.
Throughout this journey, our mission and the values at the heart of it have remained unchanged. By supporting BIPOC both to access and to offer healing services, we aim to build stronger connections in our communities and revitalize a legacy of healing, liberation work and resiliency practices that have been lost/taken. We are endlessly grateful to all of you who have joined and supported us in this mission.