One of the most important aspects of my work at Conscious Practice is promoting bodily autonomy. This value underlies all my actions and interactions with clients.

Autonomy is the state of being free, self-directed, and independent in our choice and action. Rather than a right given to you by some outside entity, bodily autonomy is simply a truth acknowledged.

The truth is, you alone have power over your own body. This includes your freedom to choose what you do with your body, what you put into it, what words you use to describe it, how you choose to dress or decorate it, and so on.

Unfortunately, there are many institutions that violate this power we all have. From industrial waste polluting our land and water, commercial agriculture depleting minerals in the soil that grows our food, violent punishment for moving beyond a rigid gender binary, legislated restrictions on reproductive health choices, the medicalization of birth and death, and the intersections of psychiatry and incarceration, many forces limit our autonomy by limiting our choices in a real, material way.

This series will look at the way bodily autonomy can be threatened in the field of psychiatry. We will also explore antidotes to those threats and the intention, if it’s ever a need for you, that you will be empowered to seek mental health care that wholeheartedly affirms your autonomy.

At the beginning of my career, I worked at a large healthcare system, primarily in the outpatient behavioral health department with occasional weekend shifts on the inpatient psychiatric unit and at times doing psychiatric consults in the medical hospital. In the hiring process, I was assured I would be welcome and even celebrated for bringing a holistic approach to the department, integrating medicine, psychotherapy, mindfulness, and lifestyle counseling to facilitate patients’ healing. However, it quickly became clear to me on the job that I was hired and expected to simply prescribe medications (and avoid making waves). Administrators and therapists alike literally referred to me as “a prescriber,” a term I had honestly never heard of prior to being pigeonholed by it.

Relief from the roots up.