Learning and Unlearning
This page features some of the learning and unlearning work we are doing as therapists and yoga practitioners to challenge our biases and privileges. We recognize that mental health care and yoga in the US have been shaped by white supremacy and systemic inequality, and we have a responsibility to engage with material and people that have been excluded from our professional training. We hope this page can also serve as a resource for others.
What We’re Learning Now
Our therapists meet monthly to discuss topics related to anti-racism and anti-oppression. Here are some of our recent listens and reads:
How To!: Parent With a Disability: Jessica Slice on challenging an inaccessible world (podcast)
What's Up WID: The Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality, and Disability (podcast)
Truth Out: Native Organizers Celebrate Solidarity, Grieve Losses and Work to Reduce Harm (podcast)
Decolonizing Mental Health: The Importance of an Oppression-Focused Mental Health System
Getting Involved and Staying Regulated
Two Palestinian American writers on being denied “the right to a story”
Other Resources
This is a non-exhaustive list of some of our favorite books, podcasts, and content creators. If you have any recommendations, we’d love to hear from you.
While we are not partnered with them, we are big fans of the Chicago Public Library, Semicolon Bookstore, Women and Children First Bookstore, and Pilsen Community Books and recommend you check them out!
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Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally by Emily Ladau
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke
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Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock
The Autistic Trans Guide to Life by Yenn Purkis & Wenn B. Lawson
Beyond the Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
Yes, You Are Trans Enough by Mia Violet
Captive Genders: Trans Empowerment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric A. Stanley & Nat Smith
Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution by Susan Stryker
Podcasts:
Queerology: A Podcast on Belief and Being
Gender Stories
Queersplaining
Gender Rebels
Gender Reveal
Transagenda
What the Trans?!
Queer Relationships, Queer Joy
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Transfertility.co
Baby Making For Everybody: Family Building and Fertility for LGBTQ+ and Solo Parents by Marea Goodman & Ray Rachlin
We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood by Dani McClain
Special Topics in Being a Parent by S. Bear Bergman
IG accounts: ParentingisPolitical, Conscious Kid, Kidlitmama
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Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price
Black Girl Lost Keys (resources and perspectives, also has a support community for Black people with marginalized gender identities and ADHD)
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An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
The Pain We Carry by Natalie Y Gutierrez
But What Will People Say? by Sahaj Kaur Kohli
The Racism of People who Love You by Samira Mehta
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing by Jennifer Soriano
The Codeswitch podcast: A Racial Imposter Epidemic and Can We Talk About Whiteness?
“You Can Learn What You Are Missing” on the Militantly Mixed podcast
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A Queer Dharma: Yoga & Meditations for Liberation by Jacoby Ballard
Embrace Yoga’s Roots by Susanna Barkataki
Yoga for Everyone: 50 Poses for Every Type of Body by Dianne Bondy
Black Women’s Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace by Stephanie Y. Evans
Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hershey
The Body Liberation Project by Chrissy King
Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race-Based Stress and Trauma by Gail Parker
Who Is Wellness For? By Fariha Roisin
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Post-Lineage Yoga by Theodora Wildcroft