about affinity spaces in therapy and healing work
Why identity-based spaces matter for healing, solidarity, and liberation
In my conversations about decolonizing therapy and healing spaces, the idea of BIPOC affinity spaces often raises questions.
Some people immediately understand why they matter.
Others feel uncertain or even uncomfortable with the idea.
If you’re a therapist, healer, or practitioner committed to justice-centered work, it’s important to understand what affinity spaces are, what they are not, and why they can be essential for collective healing.
Let’s start with the basics.
What is an affinity space?
An affinity space is a gathering intentionally created for people who share a particular identity or lived experience.
For example:
Black therapists
Indigenous clinicians
BIPOC mental health professionals
LGBTQ+ practitioners
Disabled therapists
The purpose is not exclusion for its own sake.
The purpose is shared context.
When people share identity experiences — especially experiences shaped by systemic oppression — it often allows for a level of honesty, safety, and depth that is difficult to access in mixed-identity spaces.
Affinity spaces allow people to:
speak freely about lived experiences
process systemic harm without needing to explain basic context
reduce the emotional labor of educating others
build solidarity and collective support
So, affinity groups are spaces where individuals with shared identities can reflect honestly on barriers, experiences, and healing without the pressure of dominant-group dynamics.
In other words: less explanation, more truth.
Why BIPOC affinity spaces exist in my offers
BIPOC affinity spaces exist because racism and colonialism shape our institutions — including the mental health field.
Many therapists of color move through professional spaces where they are:
the only person of their racial or cultural background
expected to represent entire communities
navigating subtle or explicit forms of racism
carrying the weight of systemic injustice while also supporting clients
Affinity spaces create room to process those realities without being gaslit, dismissed, or asked to soften the truth.
These spaces can become places for:
collective witnessing
professional solidarity
political clarity
healing that acknowledges systemic context
Community programs across sectors — education, leadership, and mental health — often create BIPOC affinity groups precisely to support connection, resilience, and mutual care among people navigating shared systemic challenges.
What BIPOC affinity spaces are not
Let’s address a common misconception, affinity spaces are not about segregation. They are not about shutting people out. And they are not a replacement for cross-identity work.
They are one piece of a broader ecosystem of liberation work.
Different groups have different work to do in dismantling oppressive systems. Identity-based spaces allow people to focus on the specific work that emerges from their lived experiences and relationship to power.
In many liberation-focused models, affinity spaces exist alongside other types of spaces:
cross-identity dialogue spaces
accountability spaces
learning communities
organizing spaces
Each serves a different purpose.
Why this matters in therapy and healing professions
The mental health field was largely shaped by Western frameworks of psychology.
That reality continues to influence:
diagnostic systems
professional norms
training programs
clinical expectations
Therapists of color often navigate these systems while also carrying knowledge rooted in their communities, cultures, and histories.
Affinity spaces allow practitioners to explore questions like:
How does colonial training shape the way I practice therapy?
Where am I navigating racism or tokenization in professional spaces?
How do I care for my own nervous system while doing justice-centered work?
What does liberation-oriented healing actually look like in practice?
These conversations are difficult — and often impossible — to have honestly when participants must constantly manage the reactions of people who do not share those experiences.
Affinity spaces and collective liberation
One of the biggest misunderstandings about identity-based spaces is the idea that they divide us.
In reality, they can strengthen collective liberation work.
When people have places where they can process experiences honestly and build solidarity, they are often better resourced to engage in broader coalition work.
Affinity spaces allow people to:
restore energy and resilience
clarify political analysis
build collective support networks
strengthen leadership within marginalized communities
This kind of grounding can make cross-community organizing and collaboration more sustainable.
A note about my use of the term “BIPOC”
The term BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) is used to acknowledge the distinct histories and systemic injustices faced by these communities, while also recognizing the diversity within racialized groups.
Like many political terms, it is imperfect. Different people and communities relate to it in different ways. Or will identify with different terms, and that is ok.
When I use the term in my work, I’m referring broadly to people who have been historically marginalized within systems shaped by whiteness and colonialism. You can read more about the term here, as well as my definition for white, and responses to real questions I’ve received on this topic.
Reflection
If you are a therapist or healer, consider this:
What kinds of spaces support your own ability to show up honestly in your work?
Where do you process the realities of power and oppression in your profession?
Where can you speak freely about your experiences without needing to translate them?
Where do you receive solidarity rather than scrutiny?
These questions matter because healers also need spaces where they can be held.
This article exists, in part, because since starting the project of Community Liberation Sessions (formerly Decolonial Consultation Sessions), I have offered affinity spaces. These spaces have been integral to my own growth — both personally and professionally — and offering them is a way of extending that experience to fellow clinicians and healers.
Being a person of color is one of my most salient identities. Because of that, it’s the affinity space I’ve chosen to facilitate.
At the same time, I’ve had clinicians express confusion. Some have asked whether they should join a BIPoC or white space — especially those existing in the in-between. Others have called me in to question the perceived dichotomy — I hear you, there is no perfect language to capture the complexity of racial identity. While some have named this work as “divisive.”
Why don’t I offer other types of affinity spaces? Because this is my area of focus and lived experience. While I hold an intersectional lens, I choose depth over breadth.
That said, other affinity spaces are also important — and needed.
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