Why Whole Mentality Meets You at the Intersections

Yesterday on Tirade Tuesday I said: “If you are about Black history, you should care about policy.” I meant every word. 

Black history was never just about quotes and courage. 
It was about housing. 
Healthcare.
Wages.
Voting rights.
Safety.
Protection under the law.

It IS about policy. 

I need you to hear this clearly - mental health is shaped by those same policies. This is why Whole Mentality’s core message moving forward is

Mental Health is political, so our therapy meets you at the intersections.

WHY MENTAL HEALTH IS POLITICAL

We see it every week in session. A parent is anxious because school funding is impacting their child’s learning and access. A queer teen is terrified of legislation targeting their existence. A business owner is burnt out because insurance reimbursement rates don’t support sustainable care. A person with a complicated pregnancy is worried about surviving their hope to grow their family. A human being is spiraling because every news cycle feels like a threat. 

You cannot separate mental health from the conditions people are living inside of.

What We Refuse to Do

At Whole Mentality, we refuse to: 

• Pretend therapy exists in a vacuum

• Have our people believing that their distress is purely individual

• Center outdated frameworks that ignore race, power, gender, disability, sexuality, immigration status, language, and class.

• Offer neutrality when neutrality protects the status quo

“Neutral therapy” is not at all neutral - it’s making it’s own political statement. Usually a harmful one. 

If someone is navigating racism, reproductive restrictions, voter suppression, immigration fear, economic instability - and we treat that as irrelevant to their anxiety or depression - we are not being objective. 

What do we actually do? 

Meeting you at the intersections means: 

• We name the systems impacting you. 

• We validate that your stress makes sense. 

• We recognize that your story is yours and you share what you want, if you want, how you want

• We provide education on how trauma and oppression impact the nervous system.

• We build regulation skills before pushing you into deep processing.

• We use evidence-based modalities WHILE centering your individual lived experiences and including liberation-based frameworks

• We move at your pace

• We recognize the capacity for joy - not just survival

Because joy is not denial. 
Joy is nervous system capacity
Joy is resistance

And you deserve access to it. 

You cannot therapy your way out of Systemic Neglect

Here’s the part people sometimes struggle with: 

You cannot therapy your way out of systemic neglect. 

Therapy can: 

• Build resilience

• Increase regulation

• Process trauma

• Help you make empowered choices

Yet, therapy alone cannot fix: 

• Underfunded schools

• Unsafe policies

• Economic exploitation

• Healthcare inequities

Policy matters. 
Our practice, our clinicians, don’t pretend otherwise. 

We can hold both: 

Personal healing and systemic awareness. 
Individual agency and collective responsibility
Regulation and resistance.

What this means for you

If you’ve ever 

• wondered how you’re supposed to have “good mental health” in this day in history. 

• Feared you’ll pass on your stress to the next generation

• Avoided asking for help - mental, medical, social - because you weren’t sure those spaces would actually understand you

I hope you hear this clearly. 

• You are not too political.

• You are not too complicated.

• You are not too sensitive. 

Your mental health exists in context and your therapy should too.