Therapy should be a space of safety, validation, and growth, especially for LGBTQ+ people. Yet, many LGBTQ+ clients still find themselves in rooms where their identities are misunderstood or pathologised. To support queer people effectively, we must radically rethink psychotherapy. Decolonising psychotherapy isn’t just about using the right words—it’s about shifting how we view gender, sexuality, shame, safety, and healing.

Darly and Pat talk about their experience of raising 3 Queer kids in Sydney Australia. Exploring some of the challenges and tips that helped them.

Decolonising psychotherapy is about more than inclusion. It’s about transformation. It asks us to remake therapy into something rooted in justice, solidarity, and liberation. Trans people deserve more than tolerance. They deserve therapy that honours their complexity, recognises their struggle, and affirms their right to exist fully and freely. Let’s build that therapy together.

Let’s not pretend therapy has a great reputation in South Asian households. For many of us, therapy is something “those people” do. It’s whispered about. It’s shameful. It’s indulgent. It’s a Western thing. And if you are in therapy? God forbid your parents find out. Remember that scene in Dear Zindagi? Alia Bhatt’s character breaks down in front of her family and admits she’s in therapy, and the whole room goes awkward-silent. That scene wasn’t fictional for many of us—it

Decolonising psychotherapy means moving beyond Eurocentric, individual-focused models to include diverse cultural practices like collective healing. Many BIPOC communities process trauma through shared experiences and mutual support, which resonate deeply with their lived realities.