On Decolonizing Therapy

This live online conversation was recorded to the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

It is well known that mental healthcare and therapy are not systems that are readily accessible to everyone, especially those from marginalized communities. Created and maintained by white men, most traditional therapeutic practices do not address systematic oppression, ancestral trauma, LGTBQIA+ mental health and wellness, and the general mental, emotional, or physical plight of BIPOC and marginalized communities.  
 
Psychologist and CIIS alumni Dr. Jennifer Mullan has spent much of her career addressing these inequities and providing spaces for healing through the use of decolonizing practices like centralizing historical and intergenerational trauma, which she identifies as ancestral trauma. Dr. Mullan also founded Decolonizing Therapy, LLC, which seeks to bring mental health professionals into decolonializing therapy, asking them to reassess their education, who they are serving, and question the mental health industrial complex.  
 
Join educator and sexologist Bianca Laureano for a powerful conversation with Dr. Mullan exploring how we can tend to our emotional and mental health while also holding systemic oppression accountable. 
 
This event is hosted live online. Instructions on how to join will be emailed to you shortly before the event. If you need to request accessibility accommodations, please email publicprograms@ciis.edu at least one week prior to the event. For more information click here.

Dr. Jennifer Mullan (Pronouns: She/ Her) creates spaces for people and organizations to heal. She believes that it is essential to create dialogue to address how mental health is deeply affected by systemic inequities and the trauma of oppression, particularly the well-being of Queer Indigenous Black Brown People of Color (QIBPOC).  

Dr. Mullan has earned her Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies; a Master’s in Counseling & Community Agencies from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education; and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Elementary Education, from New Jersey City University. She notes that her dissertation: Slavery and the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Inner City African American Male Youth: From the Cotton Fields to the Concrete Jungle,” has been a primary foundation for her current work in furthering emotional wellness on a larger collective scale for communities of color.  
 
Dr. Mullan is currently a full-time Psychologist at New Jersey City University’s Counseling Center, facilitator for the campus LGBTQIA+ Support group, Coordinator of the University’s nationally recognized Peer Education program (Peers Educating Peers), Instructor for Graduate Counseling courses, and a proud LGBTQIA+ Gothic Knight Ally Safe Zone Trainer.  

She has almost 15 years of experience in clinical practice, higher education, teaching, and grant writing. She is passionately committed to solidarity work that effectively addresses inequities based on race, gender, class, ability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Her professional research and clinical interests include complex and intergenerational trauma, group psychotherapy, LGBTQIA+ wellness, spirituality & mindfulness practices, racism as trauma, healing in therapeutic settings, self-love as a revolutionary act, and the process of decolonizing mental health.  

Social media has been a primary platform for Dr. Mullan’s current work in politicizing therapy and emotional health on a larger collective scale, with over 53K followers on Instagram. In 2019, she founded Decolonizing Therapy, LLC. They seek to create spaces to “call mental health professions IN” (rather than call people out). Dr. Mullan believes it is essential to ask mental health professionals to reassess their education, “whom they are serving? “and begin to question the relatability of the mental health industrial complex to the People they serve. It is her belief that we can tend to our emotional/ mental health AND hold systemic oppression accountable. You can frequently hear Dr. Mullan stating, “Everything is political!”  

Dr. Mullan also centralizes historical and intergenerational trauma, which she identifies as ancestral trauma, at the crux of decolonization work. Through the movement of Decolonizing Therapy, Dr. Mullan can be found providing international keynotes, holding Radicalizing Rage workshops, doing coaching sessions while un-training mental health professionals, providing ancestral healing sessions, or spending time with her Goddess cat, Isis.  

Whether on stage or through her writing, Dr. Mullan offers conscious, clear, and authentic dialogue that is a healing interchange of therapy, intersectional awareness, social justice work, and practical interventions that pave a path for her participants to carve out a purposeful life for themselves. She is passionate about helping people and movements define their own healing, and resistance to oppression. She loves cats, the ocean, brunch, dancing, and affirmation cards.


Bianca I Laureano is an award-winning educator, curriculum writer, and sexologist. She is a founding member of the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN) and ANTE UP! a virtual freedom school offering professional development training and certification. She has written several curricula and the sexual and reproductive justice discussion guide for the NYC Department of Health published in 2018 and is leading the curriculum development for the Netflix film Crip Camp which is rooted in disability justice principles available at www.CripCamp.com/curriculum. She is an AASECT certified sexuality educator and supervisor and in May 2020 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the California Institute for Integral Studies for her work in expanding the US sexuality field. Find out more about Bianca at her website BiancaLaureano.com and about ANTE UP! at www.AnteUpPD.com.