Anti-Colonial Futures: Indigenous Latinx Women Healing from the Wounds of Racial-Gendered Colonialism

Abstract

Abstract Indigenous Latina women experience simultaneous forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, and colonialism, which we describe as racial-gendered colonialism. To promote epistemic diversity in responding to racial-gendered colonialism in psychotherapy, we propose three practical clinical guidance grounded in (a) Maya cosmology and (b) the Intersectionality Awakening Model of Womanista Treatment Approach (I AM Womanista) developed by Chavez-Dueñas & Adames. The article provides a path for psychotherapists to integrate the past, present, and future as they accompany Indigenous Latina women in their healing. To accomplish this goal, we present an overview of Indigenous Latina women's collective history, their present 21st-century gendered-racial realities, and ways to support this group in envisioning and working toward anti-colonial futures—that is, a future of liberation that goes beyond racial-gendered colonialism.