Intro to Liberation Psychology
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What does it mean to be “liberation-oriented?”
Liberation psychology is a theoretical orientation conceived by multiple sources across the world, although it is most publicly associated with Spanish/Salvadoran social psychologist and Jesuit priest Dr. Ignacio Martin Baro. Dr. Baro, informed by his work in El Salvador with individuals mired by societal issues, developed a model for challenging the typical psychological norms for the time. In addition to his work, liberation psychology has also been advanced by the work of intellectuals like renowned educator, Paolo Freire, Afrocarribbean and French psychiatrist and philosopher Dr. Frantz Fanon, “Father” of Filipino psychology, Dr. Virgilio Enriquez, and many others.
Liberation psychology views people as products not only of their individual experiences of mental health, but also the world and society they experience. It calls on therapists to challenge prior notions that standard Western psychology (Freud, CBT, etc.) has universal applicability, that providers must be profoundly neutral towards their clients and the world at large, and deconstructs the trend of holding individuals solely accountable for their mental health concerns, despite many concerns stemming from societal experiences such as war, famine, racism, and poverty. Core concepts within liberation psychology are awareness, critical realism, de-idealogisim, a social orientation, and a focus on marginalized experiences.
So what does it look like in practice? As mentioned before, traditional forms of therapy such as CBT can be invalidating of an individual's experience. How many times have you sat in front of a therapist and they challenged you on your distortions, encouraged you to de-personalize your concerns, and asked you to rewire your thought process? While aspects of cognition and behavioral understanding can be helpful, traditional therapy is often focused on bringing people back to acceptable levels of functioning under a broader society's standard. This phenomenon is evident in the millions of people who suffer from burnout at work, receive short-term treatment, and then are rushed back to positions that are ultimately unfulfilling and unempathetic to their circumstances, especially in the case of minimum wage earners, teachers, and healthcare professionals (Stringer, 2022). In a study completed on healthcare workers within 206 large healthcare organizations, 49.9% of 43,026 respondents reported experiencing symptoms of burnout such as feeling disconnected from their work, reduced motivation, chronic fatigue, increased cynicism towards work, and rising intent to leave their jobs (Rotenstein et al, 2023). In heavy care-based positions such as nursing, 56.0% of staff reported burnout, especially in the midst of providing critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Traditional therapy focuses on finding a “fix,” for their symptoms such as coping strategies and “self-care,” for getting back to business. Standard Employee Assistance Programs often allow only a limited number of sessions (typically 4 to 12) to treat your concerns and prioritize getting you back to prior levels of “functioning,” over healing. This is not the fault of EAP providers, but rather a dependence on a system that values productivity, cost-savings, and efficiency over true wellness.
Every day, Americans experience more and more difficulty maintaining their qualities-of-life with rising costs and stagnant wages. More Americans are moving abroad, living in multi-generational households, and spending more while earning less. Every day, politicians, pundits, and researchers wonder why we feel alienated, experience burnout, and why mental health is plummeting for future generations. Traditional therapy frames those concerns as individual problems that can be “corrected,” via internal work such as challenging distorted thoughts, building internal resources such as emotional strength and resiliency, and learning coping skills such as deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and changing the way you think about issues. While those interventions can be helpful, it’s not enough. Not when there’s not enough food on the table, when the world is on fire, and when forces beyond our control wreak havoc on our lives.
As consumers and providers of mental health services, we deserve better. Liberation psychology doesn’t embody all the answers needed at this current time, but it is always evolving, just like we evolve as a society. It gives us a way to recognize ourselves and the people we serve holistically and to name and challenge the societal forces that keep us scrambling. We deserve to experience wellness in a way that isn’t focused on business as usual. We deserve a world where we are seen and supported as whole people, not as case numbers, insurance claimants, and especially not as cogs in an eternal machine, active even while damage is being done within and around it. I look forward to continuing to build that world, one step at a time.
Sources:
Abramson, A. (2022, January 1). Burnout and stress are everywhere. Monitor on Psychology, 53(1). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress
Rotenstein LS, Brown R, Sinsky C, Linzer M. The Association of Work Overload with Burnout and Intent to Leave the Job Across the Healthcare Workforce During COVID-19. J Gen Intern Med. 2023 Jun;38(8):1920-1927. doi: 10.1007/s11606-023-08153-z. Epub 2023 Mar 23. PMID: 36959522; PMCID: PMC10035977. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10035977/
Stringer, H. (2022, January 1). Climate change intensifies. Monitor on Psychology, 53(1). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-climate-change
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/22/1252712615/prices-americans-concern-economy-inflation-expenses
