Last updated: December 2025

Note: Throughout this document, I use the term “trauma-focused practitioner” to refer to my work, but these principles apply equally to both my counselling and coaching practice.

If you are interested in working with me and want to know how I hold my privilege and practice anti-oppression, this statement lays out my ongoing commitment. This is my framework for inclusive trauma recovery within the Integrative Trauma Recovery Model™—not as a credential or performance, but as an imperfect, accountable commitment to those it impacts.

Phrases like “anti-racist,” “anti-oppressive practice,” and “decolonization” are often invoked but rarely clearly explained in practice. This framework clarifies my position and the tangible ways I embody these principles. Because the work is complex, I cannot detail every practice, nor will I claim the work is complete. I haven’t finished. Nobody has. This work requires humility.

Recognizing that this is an ever-evolving process, I commit to reviewing this framework annually and updating it to reflect new knowledge, evolving practices, and renewed commitments.

Who I am: My positionality

I believe transparency about who I am is essential for clients to make informed decisions about whether I’m the right fit for their needs.

My privileges: I hold significant privilege as a white settler, able-bodied person in Canada. This means I benefit from racial privilege — I don’t experience racial profiling, my safety isn’t questioned based on my appearance, and I navigate systems with ease that racialized people don’t have access to. As a settler in Canada, I hold significant privilege towards Indigenous peoples. These privileges are real, shape how I move through the world, and require ongoing accountability in my practice.

My lived experiences of marginalization: I was born in Germany and have experienced some ethnic discrimination for my Slavic heritage. I practice in English, which is not my first language — I also speak German and Spanish. I identify as non-binary. I have experienced stigma, gatekeeping, and being told I’m “less than” in various ways. I know what it feels like to navigate systems and communities not designed for people like me. I have lived experience of systemic and complex trauma as an adult with childhood trauma – and experience in 30 years of trauma recovery.

I share this not to create a hierarchy of oppression or suggest my marginalized identities cancel out my privileges—they don’t. My experience of systemic violence and oppression informes how I navigate my privileges. They inform my reflection about my blind spots that I must identify and integrate. Holding both shapes my practice.

In some therapeutic relationships, I hold significantly more power — particularly with BIPOC clients, Indigenous clients, or clients with disabilities. In others, dynamics may be more complex. I commit to staying aware of how power operates in each unique relationship.

Definitions used in the Inclusive Trauma Recovery Framework

Decolonization is a complex and multifaceted process that involves dismantling colonial systems and structures that harm Indigenous peoples. In my practice, it means decolonizing my work as a trauma-focused practitioner and as a settler in Canada — prioritizing and honouring Indigenous perspectives, cultures, and peoples, and implementing the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Report and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Report.

Anti-racism is the active, ongoing process of dismantling systems of racial inequity. It demands work at individual, organizational, and cultural levels to address the root cause of systemic racism — white supremacy — and to equalize power imbalances. Anti-racism acknowledges that white people are in the role of the oppressor.

Anti-oppression is a practice that seeks to recognize and address oppression in social interactions, communities, organizations, institutions, and social systems by addressing root causes to equalize power imbalances. Oppression includes but is not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, immigration status, ability, language, and class.

Social context and acknowledgements

I recognize the deep roots of colonization and the pervasive culture of white supremacy within Canadian society and globally. At the core of these dynamics lies a fundamental misuse of power that creates systemic social inequities. People within the dominant group enjoy unearned advantages stemming from their privilege, of which they are often unaware.

I acknowledge that privilege acts like a blindfold — the dominant group cannot see the reality of systemic oppression without additional education and intentional learning. I know this firsthand: my white privilege in Canada can blind me to experiences of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Asian racism, just as citizenship privilege blinded Canadian-born people to the barriers immigrants and temporary residents face.

How colonization and white supremacy shape the mental health field

The mental health field, like any other system, is profoundly influenced by colonization, white supremacy, and oppression. Many established models were developed before the human rights movement and lack systemic considerations. Numerous influential figures in the mental health field have been and continue to be cisgender, white, European-descent people — their models often reflect only their privileged perspectives and are rooted in the erroneous assumption of universal sameness, disregarding systemic injustices endured by people from marginalized communities.

Psychological safety is tied to privilege

Psychological safety is intricately tied to privilege. Greater privilege translates into a higher degree of psychological safety. The so-called “safe space” doesn’t exist. We can only create safer spaces — where we actively intend to dismantle oppression and social power dynamics.

Given systemic injustices, many mental health practitioners belong to the dominant group, giving them privilege over clients from marginalized backgrounds. This imbalance places clients from marginalized communities at risk of harm when interacting with a practitioner who isn’t able to navigate their privileged healthily.

All mental health practitioners bear significant responsibility to engage in rigorous examination of their own privilege and develop healthy strategies to navigate it within client relationships.

Inclusive trauma recovery: How I practice anti-oppression

At the core of my practice is ongoing education in areas where I hold privilege, self-reflection, and critical analysis of my roles and responsibilities — as a trauma-focused practitioner, as a solo business owner, and in my relationships with clients.

Anti-oppressive practice begins with the individual. Authentic participation in anti-racism and decolonization goes beyond theoretical comprehension. It requires practical application in both professional and personal life. Individual healing is intrinsically intertwined with the pursuit of social justice.

Understanding and countering white supremacy culture. In alignment with Tema Okun’s work on white supremacy culture, I commit to identifying these traits within myself and actively applying antidotes — including individualism, right to comfort, defensiveness and white fragility, and power hoarding. When clients name something I’ve done that caused harm — particularly something racist or rooted in my privilege — I commit to sitting with the discomfort rather than defending myself, educating myself about what happened, and changing my behaviour. I do not require the client to educate me or manage my emotions.

Acknowledging oppression directly. When clients share experiences of systemic violence, discrimination, colonization, or microaggressions, I don’t need to be convinced these things are real. I bring an embodied understanding that systemic oppression isn’t abstract — it’s concrete, cumulative, and crazymaking precisely because it’s often invisible to those with privilege.

Proactively navigating my privilege. I offer clients with marginalized identities the option to provide anonymous feedback about our work together. This creates space for clients to share concerns about moments where I may have caused harm without fear of impacting our therapeutic relationship.

Critically examining models. The majority of trauma and mental health models fail to incorporate anti-racist or anti-oppressive practices. I do not unthinkingly adhere to these models but critically reflect upon them, adapting and aligning them with principles of anti-racism and anti-oppression.

Integrative trauma recovery: Recognizing my limitations and blind spots

Inclusion is often an easy word and a complex practice to fully achieve. Here are the current limitations in my Integrative Trauma Recovery framework:

I cannot currently serve clients who need American Sign Language interpretation. My physical office space is not fully wheelchair accessible and does not have gender-neutral washrooms or prayer and reflection spaces. I practice primarily in English — while I speak German and Spanish, I am rusty in using them professionally.

No amount of education will make me fully understand the lived experience of anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, or ableism. My responsibility is to stay humble, keep learning, and hold myself accountable — not to claim I’ve arrived.

Inclusive trauma recovery: A framework based on accountability and ongoing growth

I commit to reviewing and updating this statement annually. To conduct annual audits of my practice. To actively seek feedback through anonymous feedback forms. To continuing education through trainings, books, and learning from those with lived experience. To be transparent when I make mistakes and accountable for repairing harm.

If you have feedback on this framework for inclusive trauma recovery or anti-oppressive practices, I welcome it through my anonymous feedback form or by contacting me directly.