Alex explores what it means to be in solidarity with yourself: healing shame and internalized racism, listening to anger, and building trust and safety from the inside out.
In this episode of Colors Out Loud, Alex Birch, a therapist at Colors of Austin Counseling, talks about solidarity with yourself: building trust, honesty, and emotional safety in your relationship with you.
Alex works from an intersectional, anti-racist, and decolonial lens, with a focus on intergenerational and relational trauma, identity exploration, and systemic oppression. Using the healthy relationship wheel, Alex explains how the systemic dehumanization BIPOC communities face can show up internally as racism, ableism, and shame. They break down the difference between shame and guilt, what anger and numbness are trying to tell us, and body-based practices like body scanning, grounding, and box breathing for coming back to the present.
Alex also names the grief that can come with this work, because not everyone is ready to build solidarity with you, and why finding safe community is part of the healing.
Content note: This episode includes discussion of racism, systemic discrimination, shame, and trauma. Please take care of yourself while listening.
This episode is for educational purposes and isn’t a substitute for therapy or crisis support. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988.
Our therapists offer culturally responsive care in Austin and across Texas.
Find your therapist
