What is Liberation Health?

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by Eva Jones

Have you ever noticed yourself feeling exhausted, stressed, sad, or anxious, for seemingly “no reason”? Have you ever shamed or blamed yourself for feeling any of the above unpleasant feelings, while thinking, “nothing in particular has happened to make me feel this way, and I have a lot to be grateful for, so I just need to get over it”? If you have, you’re not alone. We all go through times of struggle while noticing “nothing in particular” happening at the tip of the iceberg of life, but how often do we look beneath the surface? 

Therapists like me, who use a Liberation Health approach in their work, prioritize exploring beneath the surface to name the systems impacting our personal experiences. Co-creator of the Liberation Health Model, Dawn Belkin Martinez, defines this model as, “...a theory of human behavior that conceptualizes the problems of individuals and families that cannot be understood in isolation from the economic, political, cultural, and historical conditions which give rise to them. It is also a method of practice that helps individuals, families, and communities understand the personal, cultural, and institutional factors that contribute to their problem and act to change these conditions; to liberate themselves from both internal and external oppressions”. 

It’s with this perspective in mind, that I often say to clients, “you didn’t just pop out of a box feeling this way”. You were and are, your family was and is, and your ancestors were, impacted by not just personal factors like your unique physical health, brain chemistry, and life responsibilities, but also by cultural factors like the ideologies of white supremacy, sexism, heteropatriarchy, and neoliberalism, which drive sociopolitical inequalities and create our experiences with chronic and traumatic stress, western “bootstraps” individualism which perpetuates stigma against asking for support, and lack of community resources to support us when we do ask. We, and the generations before us, are also impacted by institutional factors that have been woven into our social, political, and economic fabric by the above named ideologies. Institutional factors include systems like healthcare, education, incarceration, welfare, and capitalism. The Liberation Health Model offers us a framework to take stock of these cultural and institutional impacts on our lives, and put blame where blame belongs, toward the goal of creating individual and collective change to these ideologies and systems that are destroying our bodies, our communities, and our ecosystems. 

One of the most powerful outcomes of this approach is the potential for it to disrupt shame. How often do we blame ourselves, or assume some “badness” or “weakness” on our part, because we just can’t seem to shake our grief and anxiety and exhaustion? On behalf of Liberation Health practitioners and radical social workers everywhere, I say to you: Hello! And welcome to this current historical moment of deep social crisis! Of course you’re feeling unpleasant things like fear, pain, and scarcity. Of course your nervous system is chronically activated, and of course you’re struggling- these are normal and appropriate reactions to the literal and metaphorical five-alarm fires that are created by systems that value exploitation over life. 

It’s not your fault. 

And you are not alone. 

The more we talk about this stuff, the more we shed light on the many personal, cultural, and institutional factors impacting our experiences. The more light we shed, the less darkness there is for shame and isolation to thrive in. 

You might be thinking, “yeah sure, disrupting shame is great, but once I name all these factors, what do I do about them?” In Liberation Health Model language, the “what do I do about it” part is called the “action steps”. If you’re anything like me, you might first assume that “action steps” have to look like you going out and rallying the people to overthrow these harmful systems and create positive change. While large-scale, collective action is invaluable for community-building and change-making, and can certainly be in your action steps, action steps can also include everyday things that might feel more manageable. Mahlet Meshesha, a school social worker and member of Boston Liberation Health Group, calls these manageable action steps “life jackets”. In her article, “Drowning Without a Life Jacket: A therapist uses a Liberation Health approach to look at all the factors and develop an action plan”, Meshesha brainstorms her client’s potential action steps when she writes, “...is there a neighbor who could help with errands? Could she ask her brother for help? Is there a source of free masks in the community? Are her co-workers experiencing similar struggles, and could they organize together to approach their employer about making changes? Is there a local immigrant organization that could advocate for better interpretation services? Many of these “life jackets” are a reminder to look to our community for help when possible.” 

By reminding us to look to our support systems and communities for help when possible, the Liberation Health Model provides an opportunity to not just account for the harm that is being done by harmful systems, but also to account for the care that is being done by caring systems. We need only to look up and out to see that we are interconnected, that all of us have needs for support, and all of us have support to offer each other.

If we find liberation, it will be together, and it will be from the tender places of care in our families, in our communities, and inside each of us. In this way, health means liberation and liberation means health. As Audre Lorde once wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”. 

For more resources on the Liberation Health Model, check out: