Radical Healership

Book excerpt: The countercultural healer’s guide for building a sustainable and values-driven practice: work toward your purpose, grow your client base, and thrive with integrity in an unjust capitalist system. The time for healing—and the time to be a healer—is now. Therapist Laura Mae Northrup navigates the complexities of being a healer today—and shows how you can stay true to your calling in a world built from systems that were designed to extract, oppress, and exploit. Addressing fundamental tensions that arise for practicing healers working in a late-stage capitalist culture, Northrup shares how to: Maintain your ethical framework even while prioritizing financial stability Market and brand your practice authentically, without resorting to fear-based tactics Recognize the unconscious biases and unexamined motivations you unintentionally bring to work Honor your limits within a culture that valorizes overwork and perpetuates burnout Prioritize your emotional needs and spiritual goals—and honor their place in your healing practice Structured in accessible, to-the-point chapters with practical writing and reflection prompts, Northrup offers an authentic, spiritually grounded approach to healership, going much deeper than the promise of a million-dollar practice or a minimum-effort game plan. Written for healers of all modalities—including radical therapists, functional practitioners, reiki workers, bodyworkers, and healers who have been sidelined, underfunded, underresearched, or delegitimized within a Western capitalist framework—this book offers a nuanced, political, and social-justice informed guide to building the practice you want—and thriving as the healer you were born to be.