therapy in Chicago

Identity, Culture, and Systems

At LifePath we believe that it is important to examine the ways that systems and culture impact you and your varied identities.

We hold the circumstances of both your life and and our own in mind by considering intersectionality, structures of oppression, and other forces that impact our individual, relational, and collective experiences.

For many years the mental health field has contributed to pathologizing people’s understandable and normal responses to unacceptable and dehumanizing conditions. Sometimes we feel depressed because life’s circumstances are depressing, sometimes we feel anxious because there are very real fears knocking on our door.

For many of us, we learn early in our lives to become the version of ourselves that is accepted by others.

Maybe you feel like you’ve been playing a role that was handed to you, or maybe you feel like you’ve been repeating patterns that don’t feel true to who you really are inside. Therapy can be a courageous space to explore who you are, free from judgment and masking. Together, we can explore your internal landscape, identifying and honoring what makes you, you.

Engaging in identity, culture, and systems therapy can look like:

  • Exploring your identity - gender, sexuality, race, religion/spirituality 

  • Unpacking the “scripts” that you were given 

  • Unlearning white supremacy 

  • Understanding the impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, and other forms of oppressions and -ism 

  • Affirming your experiences and lived stories while helping you see where you have agency and choice

  • Building increased capacity to hold complexity 

  • Identifying areas that are within your control and engaging in values aligned behaviors to help you feel empowered

  • Building embodied awareness and grounding tools to manage the symptoms of being a human in our complex world

  • Leaning into close relationships and build community to combat isolation

  • Connecting with your purpose and meaning

  • Taking actions that instill hope and possibility for social change

“Liberation is recognizing the systemic issues that surround us and acknowledging that perhaps we’re not able to fix them all on our own. Liberation is personally giving ourselves permission to live life.”

- Jes Baker

Let’s explore the intersectionality of who you are and the complex world we live in. 

Let your stories be told, your identity affirmed, and systems be challenged.