When Therapy Isn’t an Option: 8 Alternative Ways to Heal
ID: Sacred cleansing items, including a raw amethyst stone, palo santo, candle in white tin, and a cup of coffee in a vintage tea cup, set on a blue and white marbled resin table.
Photo Credit: Emily Bauman on Unsplash
Let’s hold the term “alternative” loosely, as there really is no exact surrogate for meeting with a well-trained, inclusive mental healthcare provider. Nonetheless, there are plenty of reasons why we might need other kinds of emotional support.
Talk therapy, after all, did not begin with the Freudian, lay-on-the-couch idea of healing. Meeting one-on-one with a trained healer for emotional guidance and support is as old as humans. Indigenous healing practices far outdate modern psychology, which didn’t make its appearance until 1879, with the opening of the first psychology research laboratory.
Even so, the Western psychotherapy movement can be a bit stuck up at times, claiming to be the key to healing your problems. And while I deeply believe in the power of connected, affirming, trauma-informed counseling (Obvio! That’s why I’m a therapist!) - I’m the first to say that therapy is not the end all be all. There are plenty of reasons why therapy might not be accessible or desired by you at any given moment.
Some common reasons include:
Financial constraints (Hacks for making therapy affordable to come in a later post)
Limited affirming therapists where you live
High-demand for therapy and long waitlists
Traumatic or negative experiences with mental healthcare
Taking a break from therapy (we all need these)
Social or community stigma around attending counseling
Colonized mental healthcare has been historically harmful and pathologizing
Transportation issues (Quick fix: meet with your therapist online!)
Whatever the reason, it is wise to have a variety of mental health and emotional supports in your life, even when you are actively in therapy. In fact, having those supports could make the process of therapy far more successful than attending counseling alone. So let’s get to it. What alternative healing options are out there?
8 Alternatives to Traditional Talk Therapy:
Support Groups: These groups come in all shapes and sizes. You can find a group to support you through many different life experiences and sometimes they can be free or low-cost. Some local groups happening now include Ola Wellness’ (im)Perfectly Queer group for LGBTQ+ adults, Pflag Austin’s LGBTQIA Support Groups, and Waterloo Counseling’s Trans Support Groups.
Books and Workbooks: Badass, queer author and activist Gloria E. Anzaldúa said, “Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar.” Reading (or listening to an audio book) can give you direct access to the words of mental health and wellness experts. Dust off that library card and check out some of my favorite recent reads: My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem and The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor.
Mental health-related workbooks invite you to go deeper with guided questions and journaling prompts. They are one of my favorite ways to work on a specific issue. Here are a few I recommend: The Intuitive Eating Workbook, The Come as You Are Workbook: A Practical Guide to the Science of Sex, Me and White Supremacy: A Guided Journal.
Cultural healing practices: Research healing practices from your own cultural heritage and explore which ones resonate with you. In my Taino Indigenous heritage, a particular plant resin is burned for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. This ritual holds a lot of meaning for me. I invite you to avoid cultural appropriation and discover what kinds of healing rituals (i.e. meditation, prayer, chanting, herbology, sound healing, etc.) align with your own cultural heritage.
Intentional Gatherings: The whole premise of therapy is that healing happens in relationship. Grab your mental-health-conscious friend and start a weekly book club, do a workbook together, or attend a wellness event. Allgo is a QPOC led organization in Austin, TX that offers free, monthly wellness events in English and Spanish (virtual too!). Making time to intentionally connect with your support people means that you have a community to turn to when shit hits the fan. The Body Trust Retreat is another cool offering for all of my body posi babes out there.
Spiritual and Meditative Practices: Oof, potentially triggering suggestion? Hear me out. I’m not talking about attending the nearest, gay church in town. Although, that’s a perfectly fine option if that floats your boat. Reclaiming spirituality as a queer person is my fave (more on that in the future). If you vibe with the intuitive but have a rocky history with religion and spirituality, I recommend taking this slow and with lots of care and support from affirming folx. If you’ve done that work or don’t feel particularly triggered about it - come on in, the water is fine!
Some ways to engage with spirituality, include - practicing meditation (I like Dora Kamau and Sarah Blondin on the Insight Timer app), using visualization, connecting with nature, meeting with a trusted curandera or energy worker, reading spiritual books, connecting with your ancestors or spiritual guides, or engaging in rituals that are meaningful to you.
Embodiment practices: With intellect and the reasoning mind being held in the highest esteem these days, many of us live our lives disembodied. Sometimes trauma makes it unsafe or triggering to fully be in our bodies. If you fall into that category and haven’t done any trauma work before, I recommend seeking help from a trauma-informed body worker or psychotherapist.
One way to get embodied is through joyful movement - any movement that brings you pleasure, enjoyment, or fun. This could include dance, yoga, running, playing with your kiddos on a playground, stretching, climbing a tree, hiking, etc. You can also employ the help of a trusted bodyworker to get in your body. Some types of body work include massage, acupuncture, breathwork, and physical therapy.
Somatic noticing is a practice I encourage my clients to engage in on a daily basis. It involves scanning the body for any sensation present. These sensations are our bodies’ cues for asking for what it needs and often mirror our emotional state. Notice sensations like body temperature, heart rate, tightness, heaviness, neutral or numb feelings, pain, buzzing energy, etc. and see if you can relate it back to an emotion you're feeling.
Podcasts: Listening to a podcast can connect you to information that supports your growth and wellbeing. Some of my current favorites include: Food Psych, All My Relations, and La Brega.
Blogs: Sign up for notifications for blogs and newsletters from therapists or mental healthcare professionals that you trust. Chances are their words will resonate with you and offer you strategies to support your healing practices. This could also be another way to vet a therapist you are interested in working with. Sign up to receive notifications for new posts on this blog below.
Disclaimer: If you are dealing with a severe mental health diagnosis, suicidality, substance-related issues, abuse or intimate partner violence, I recommend seeking professional mental healthcare as soon as possible. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, click here for information on how to get help fast.