You’re Not Broken—You’re Responding to a Broken System
How therapy can help us name and navigate the ways systems shape mental health
🌿 “I see you, and you’re safe here.”
If you're feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, angry, or like you're constantly carrying too much—you're not broken. You're responding, beautifully and resiliently, to a world that often asks too much, gives too little, and leaves little room for softness or slowness.
Here, you don’t need to perform, shrink, or prove anything. This is a space where we name things. A space where therapy isn’t just about “fixing” you—it’s about understanding you in the context of your lived experience. It’s about reclaiming your truth in a world that often tries to silence it.
You’re not too sensitive. You’re not overreacting. You’re responding exactly as anyone might, given the weight you’ve been asked to carry.
💭 Reframing the Narrative
Too often, mental health struggles are framed as personal flaws—something to be treated, corrected, or hidden. We’re taught to believe that if we just tried harder, stayed more positive, practiced more self-care, we’d feel better. And if we don’t? Well, that’s on us.
But the truth is, many people are having very natural reactions to deeply unnatural conditions.
It is not a personal failure to feel anxious in a world that is constantly on edge.
It is not a dysfunction to feel hopeless in a society that often disconnects us from one another.
It is not irrational to feel tired when you’ve been in survival mode for far too long.
When we begin to see that our pain, numbness, or overwhelm isn’t always coming from “inside”—but is often a reflection of external pressures—we can start to hold ourselves with more compassion. And that’s when healing begins.
🏙 The Systems We Navigate
The world we live in wasn’t built to support everyone equally. We’re navigating systems like capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and heteronormativity—systems that reward some and punish others for simply existing.
These systems whisper things to us:
You’re only valuable if you’re productive.
You should be thinner, quieter, happier.
It’s your job to fix everything.
If you’re struggling, it’s because you’re weak.
And when we absorb those messages long enough, they can start to sound like our own thoughts.
In therapy, I often hear clients say things like “I feel lazy,” “I can’t keep up,” “I’m too emotional,” or “Something’s wrong with me.” These are not just personal beliefs—they’re echoes of the larger systems around us. Naming those systems helps loosen their grip. It reminds us that we were never the problem.
🔥 Trauma Is Political, Too
Many of us have learned to talk about trauma in a deeply individual way—but some of the most persistent wounds come from our environments:
Growing up in poverty
Being discriminated against because of your identity
Living through chronic community violence
Navigating healthcare, education, or justice systems that were never made with you in mind
These are not just personal experiences—they are political. And if that word feels loaded, it’s okay. To say something is political doesn’t mean it’s partisan—it means it relates to power, safety, belonging, and access. These are deeply human needs, and when they’re violated, it leaves a mark.
Therapy can be a place where we name that, gently and truthfully. It’s not about blaming the world—it’s about understanding the roots of our pain so we can begin to move through it with intention.
🌱 Therapy as Liberation
When therapy makes space for your context—your identity, your story, your history—it stops being about symptom management and starts becoming a path to liberation.
Liberation looks different for everyone. Sometimes it’s:
Learning to say no without guilt
Feeling your emotions fully without apology
Reclaiming rest
Reconnecting with joy
Letting go of perfectionism or the need to be “useful” all the time
In our work together, we might not be able to change the whole system. But we can begin to free you from its grip on your worth, your voice, your nervous system.
💌 You’re Not Alone
You don’t need to carry shame for struggling in a world that doesn’t always make it easy to survive—let alone thrive. There’s nothing wrong with you. You are doing your best in a world that often forgets how much care we all truly need.
If this resonates, I hope you let it settle into your nervous system:
🌿 You’re not broken. You’re responding to a broken system.
And healing is still possible.
Whether in therapy, community, creativity, or quiet reflection—you deserve a space to return to yourself, to remember your strength, and to rewrite the story in your own words.