In the last ten years or so, the notion of “self-care” has dominated mental health conversations as a means to take care of oneself, avoid burnout, stress, depression and anxiety. Take daily walks, do yoga, meditate, have a spa day, the list goes on and on.

As a mental health therapist I have even encouraged clients to engage in the practice of self-care. The mental health industry, life coach communities, and social media influencers have been promoting self-care as a solution to our struggles. Self-care activities are not in and of itself the issue, but rather the fact that the conversation of self-care stops there, there isn’t a clear understanding of what self-care actually is, furthermore it promotes an ideology centering only the individual.

Can bubble baths and other self-care routines shield us from the traumas of climate change, and all the other systemic injustices under imperialism? In recent years, the concept of self-care has become a ubiquitous mantra, but its focus on the individual often falls short of addressing the root causes of our collective distress.

Self-care doesn’t and can not heal us from the traumas of capitalism, racism, oppression, anti-Blackness, homophobia, transantagonism, sexism, ableism, and all the other consequences of white supremacy and imperialism.

The narrative around self-care leads us to believe that the things causing us to have burn out, depression, anxiety, and other manifestations of the trauma of imperialism are simple things that can be cured if we just find the right self-care routine. If you are burnt out or distressed it’s because you are not partaking in enough self-care or you are not setting enough boundaries (another variation of “self-care”).

The self-care prescription does not look critically at the material conditions of the world we live in, a world with climate catastrophe, ongoing genocides, gender and racial oppression, xenophobia, settler colonialism. We are told that we need to be “productive” members of society, we need to work hard, climb the workforce ladder of “success,” and self-care our way into obedience.

Angela Davis once said, “we have to grasp things at the root.’ And that is one of the ways self-care fails us. Self-care fails to look at the root, fails to help us understand how we have internalized the messages of a capitalist, imperialist and racist society and how those messages that live inside of us, that have infiltrated our cells and organs have led us to feel burnt out, stressed, and struggling with depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Self-care affirms us existing in psychologically damaging silos that the Western world encourages us to maintain since connection and community are antidotes to the dangerous individualism that upholds oppressive systems.

Self-care tells us to “treat ourselves,” which makes our well-being tied to the capitalist market. Self care tells us to “protect our peace,” which encourages us to look away from things that make us uncomfortable, to not engage with hard things, hard emotions. “Protecting our peace,” under the guise of self care not only affirms our decisions to look away from the cruel realities of the world, it encourages us to do so. At a time where multiple genocides are occuring in the world we are encouraged by mental health therapists to look away, to not engage and prioritize ourselves. Self care, with its focus on individualism, becomes another tool of white supremacy.

I am often reminded of Audre Lorde’s quote, “Caring for myself is not self indulgence, it is an act of self preservation and that is an act of political warfare.” I don’t think that when Audre Lorde blessed us with these words that she meant, take a day to take yourself to the spa or to do yoga. Maybe she did, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I think the self-care Lorde is speaking to goes beyond self-care that can be purchased. I like to think that the self-care Lorde is speaking about is about a self-care that is embodied within community care, a self-care that says, I take care of myself so that I can also care for others in whatever way I am able to do so.

Community care actively resists the manner white supremacy takes hold of our psyche. I like to think that self-care in Lorde’s view goes beyond taking a nap (although naps are great) but that self-care is about claiming our right to be here, to be alive, to reject white supremacist cis-hetero normatives that dominate our day to day lives.

A concept that most therapists agree on is the need for us to be connected, most of us in the mental health field apply this solely to romantic or family relationships, maybe even friends. But we know cis-hetero monogamous nuclear family supremacy has actually reinforced our survival in silos. The mental health field needs to encourage connection that is radically committed to the land, to all people, and to liberation.

I invite colleagues to model connection by rejecting the rules of our Western practices and be present in community, join protests for the liberation of Palestine for example, reject the standard of neutrality we are asked to perform. Connection is not passive, it requires intentional engagement, emotional attunement, and radical solidarity to each other. A solidarity that risks and lives in mutual struggle and transformation.

So I ask, is your self-care grounded in community care, in community liberation? I recently learned that the redwood trees found in Northern California and Oregon, as large and majestic as they are, actually do not have deep roots. How then, so they remain standing up in bad weather and storms? Redwoods entangle their roots with each other, providing a grounding and stabilization that allows them to grow with each other, a strong community of trees that can withstand storms and bad weather. They literally hold each other up.

What a beautiful lesson for our own lives when we reject Western world individualism rationalized as mental health care. The redwoods show us what is possible. Self-care won’t save us. Only our community can do that. As Grace Lee Boggs said, “The only way to survive is by taking care of each other.”

Melissa “Mel” Lopez, LCSW is a licensed mental health therapist in California. They incorporate anti oppressive and anti empire analysis into their therapeutic work. She can be followed @counseling4allseasons on Instagram.