Practicing Otherwise
A CE-Accredited Learning Community for Mental Health Practitioners and Emerging Practitioners Exploring Critical and Decolonial Practice. Open to graduate students, trainees, and mental health professionals who are actively engaged in questions of critical, decolonial, and liberatory practice.
Do you ever feel a tension between the way you were trained and what you witness in your clinical work?
Have you wondered:
What does it actually mean to decolonize clinical practice?
How do systems of power shape the way we understand distress, healing, and diagnosis?
How can we move beyond critique and begin practicing differently?
Where do I find community with others asking these same questions?
You are not alone.
Many clinicians feel a growing gap between the frameworks they inherited and the complexity of the lives, communities, and experiences they encounter every day.
This cohort was created to explore that gap.
A Different Kind of Professional Learning Community
This is not a skills workshop.
It is not a book club.
It is not a space to simply discuss theory.
This is a small, facilitated learning community for clinicians who want to engage deeply with critical and decolonial frameworks while asking:
What does this require of my clinical practice?
Together, we will study theory, build community, examine our own professional formation, and bring real clinical dilemmas into conversation with the ideas we are exploring.
The goal is not simply to understand different ways of thinking.
The goal is to cultivate the capacities needed to practice differently.
The 4C Framework
Capacities for Liberation-Oriented Practice
Critical Consciousness
Developing the ability to recognize how history, power, culture, and ideology shape mental health practice.
Community
Understanding that meaningful transformation requires relationship, accountability, and collective learning.
Civic Action
Exploring what responsibility looks like beyond the therapy room.
Care
Cultivating radical care as an ethical practice rooted in dignity, relationship, and humanity.
These are not topics to complete.
They are capacities to continue developing throughout our professional lives.
How We Work Together
Each session includes:
Arrival & Reflection
Checking in as clinicians and as people.
Theory
Engaging key ideas and frameworks.
Dialogue
Collective exploration, questions, and meaning-making.
Praxis Lab
Applying theory to real clinical cases and dilemmas.
Integration
Identifying one shift to carry into practice.
Who This Is For
This cohort is designed for clinicians who:
Feel professionally isolated in traditional mental health settings
Are interested in critical and decolonial approaches to practice
Want rigorous engagement with theory, not simplified social media versions
Are willing to examine their own assumptions and professional formation
Want a community of clinicians engaged in similar questions
About Dr. Bibi Pirayesh
Dr. Bibi Pirayesh is an educator, clinical practitioner, and faculty member working at the intersection of psychology, learning science, and critical/decolonial pedagogy.
She has over 20 years of experience in clinical practice and teaches graduate and professional learners across higher education. She is the author of Difference Is Not Deficit (Heinemann) and facilitates learning communities focused on translating critical theory into applied practice.
Participant Reflections
“Dr. Bibi’s Decolonizing Therapy Practice course has been a truly transformative experience, both professionally and personally. She fosters a collaborative community of practice where participants learn from her expertise as well as from one another’s lived experiences. Her thoughtful and engaging teaching challenges clinicians to examine power, culture, and oppression in meaningful ways while providing practical pathways toward more culturally responsive and liberatory care. I highly recommend this course to any mental health provider committed to deepening their practice.”
— Mental health provider“Dr. Bibi helped me ground myself in decolonizing theory and understand what it means in practice. Most importantly, she created a space where I felt validated and supported during a time of profound uncertainty and injustice. This group helped me believe that our profession can do better and become something more.”
— Mental health provider, Decolonizing Therapy Practice participant“The Decolonizing Therapy Study and Action Group has been a group that I look forward to joining every session. In a very challenging time in the world, I began to reflect upon what is truly my role as a mental health professional and ask my colleagues this question. It did not feel like anyone understood me until I joined this study group and met other social justice-minded professionals. What I was only beginning to reflect on, Dr. Bibi provided so much knowledge on different topics challenging our training in Western psychology. This group has given me the language to think outside of the box and learn about how sociopolitical realities affect the mental health of our clients. This group has really lifted a veil for me to finally understand how to truly help our clients by understanding historical/colonial trauma that is the true root of a client’s presentation. This group has increased my critical consciousness and inspired me to challenge the system in different areas of my life (i.e. healthcare, parenting, education). I cannot be more grateful for this group of colleagues that has become my community where I can truly express my thoughts and feelings about the state of the world and receive support in my passion to decolonize the way I practice psychology.”
— Mental health provider, Decolonizing Therapy Practice participant
Cohort Details
Format: Online
Length: 8 Weeks
Sessions: Weekly, 90 minutes
Group Size: Limited to 8 participants
CE Credits: 12 CEs provided
Investment: $800
Two sliding-scale spaces available.