When we think about psychology and therapy, we often think about the theories and approaches we’re most familiar with: attachment, CBT, ACT, person-centred therapy, mindfulness, and many others. These approaches have given us incredible tools for understanding ourselves and supporting change, and they continue to be an important part of my own practice.
But I kept wondering: if part of being a good therapist is continuing to learn, grow, and find new ways of understanding the people we support, how much more might there be for us to learn?
A lot of what we learn about psychology comes from Western traditions. This doesn’t make those approaches bad or wrong. They have shaped my own training and continue to be part of how I understand and practice therapy. But they are also shaped by the cultures and societies they came from. And if our understanding of people is shaped by culture, then it makes sense that there might be other ways of understanding people, too.
This is something I’ve been thinking about more as a Filipino therapist. Learning about Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology) has introduced me to a psychological tradition that starts from Filipino experiences, language, history, relationships, and culture. Sikolohiyang Pilipino emerged as an indigenous psychology movement in the Philippines, particularly through the work of Filipino psychologist Virgilio Enriquez, who is often considered its founding figure (San Juan, 2025). Rather than simply taking Western psychological ideas and translating them into Filipino, the movement emphasized developing psychological knowledge from Filipino experiences and ways of understanding the world. This has been described as “indigenization from within” (Sevillano et al., 2025).
One of the things I find especially interesting is how much meaning can get lost when we assume that there is always a direct translation between cultures.
Take hiya, often translated as shame, embarrassment, or shyness (Escobar Toria & Davidsen, 2025). Those words can describe parts of the experience, but they don’t necessarily capture everything that hiya can mean within a Filipino context. There can be layers of relationships, expectations, responsibility, and social meaning within that one word.
And that got me thinking: What other experiences might we be understanding through a framework that doesn’t quite fit?
Maybe what we call “people pleasing” could sometimes be connected to deeply held values around family and relationships. Maybe what we call “difficulty with boundaries” deserves a little more curiosity about what responsibility and connection mean to that person. Maybe independence doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Maybe “healthy” doesn’t always have to mean becoming more individualistic.
This is where I find the idea of decolonizing therapy interesting.
To me, decolonizing therapy isn’t about rejecting Western psychology or replacing it with another system. It’s about recognizing that there are many ways of understanding people and that no single cultural framework can capture every human experience.
It’s also about becoming curious about the assumptions we sometimes take for granted. What does family mean to you? What does responsibility mean to you? Where did you learn what a “good” person looks like? What does independence mean in your culture? What does healing look like in your community?
These questions can matter whether you’re Filipino, Indigenous, South Asian, Black, white, an immigrant, a child of immigrants, or someone whose family has lived in the same place for generations. A lot of what feels natural to us can actually be shaped by the culture, family, and communities we grew up in.
Learning about Sikolohiyang Pilipino has reminded me to be curious about those things, both in my work and in my own life.
You can love your family and still need boundaries. You can value being there for others and still want independence. You can feel grateful and hurt at the same time. You don’t always have to choose one side.
For me, that’s what makes exploring different psychological traditions so valuable. It’s not about finding one “right” way to understand people. It’s about making room for more ways of understanding human experiences.
I know I’ll continue learning about this for a long time and for me at least, that’s part of what makes therapy such meaningful work, there is always more to learn about people, culture, relationships, and the different ways we make sense of being human.
Adela Aguilar, Canadian Certified Counsellor, Blue Rock Psychology
If you’d like to learn more about working with Adela or another member of the Blue Rock Psychology team, reach out to us at hello@bluerockpsychology.ca.
References
Escobar Torio, J. J., & Davidsen, C. (2025). Communicative and cultural challenges to public participation in climate action initiatives: A case study of hiya among Filipino immigrants. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 18(3), 261–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2025.2522889
San Juan, E. (2025). Sikolohiyang Pilipino: Vicissitudes of Indigenization in the Philippines. In: Gao, Z.Z., Medved, M.I. (eds) Global Perspectives on Cultural Politics in Indigenous Psychology. Palgrave Studies in Indigenous Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-96813-6_7
Sevillano, L., La Torre, J. C., Macapugay, K. A., Aquino-Adriatico, G., Bañada, R., Cadiz, M. P., Tabag, K., Bersamira, C. S., Duldulao, A., Maglalang, D. D., Sangalang, C. C., & Enrile, A. (2025). Atangs to kuwentos: The power of communal care as decolonial mental health praxis among Pilipinx Americans. American Psychologist, 80(4), 476–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001475
