August 2022

Illustration by GOOD STUDIO / ADOBE STOCK Author Gabe Torres / Yes Magazine / 7.28.22 How to Decolonize Mental Health Treatment for BIPOC Note: Whenever you read the terms BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), racialized people, and racially marginalized, I mean them synonymously while understanding the distinctiveness of experiences and respective identities of racially oppressed peoples. Whenever I refer to BIPOC, I refer to us as “we,” because I, the writer, identify as a person...

Standing on top of Ogun Mountain, in the Sacred City of 41 Mountains, West Africa, I knew my life would forever change. The women from the royal house danced for me. The men drummed me into a trance. They called me by my African name as they welcomed me home. On the soil of my ancestors, the healing began. I am a black woman born in the 1970’s. Nine generations ago, my ancestors were on the continent of Africa inhabiting the Kingdom of Dahomey. We were thriving. Unbeknownst to most, we were...