Radical Joy as Resistance

In times of political fear, injustice, or systemic harm, it’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed, anxious, or helpless. Whether you’re impacted by legislation targeting marginalised communities, navigating the rise of authoritarianism, or holding fear for the future of human rights - your emotional response is valid.

But within that fear, there's something sacred: your capacity to feel, connect, resist, and find joy.

At Core Trauma Therapy, we work from a trauma-informed, evidence-based and liberation-focused lens. I believe that joy is its own form of protest, and that supporting your emotional wellbeing is not only personally healing - it is politically radical. Let me explain...

What Is Political Resilience?

Political resilience is the ability to maintain your wellbeing, values, and capacity for action in the face of systemic oppression, social injustice, or political instability. It means being able to stay connected to yourself, your community, and your vision for a more just world; even when the systems around you feel unsafe or harmful.

In therapy, this doesn’t just mean finding ways of “coping better”, it means finding ways to live meaningfully in a world that may not always affirm your worth.

1. Radical Healing and the Role of Joy

The Radical Healing Framework (French et al., 2020) is an emerging evidence-based model developed to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) navigating racial trauma and systemic injustice. But its wisdom is relevant to many communities resisting marginalisation.

It includes five key components:

• Critical Consciousness; Recognising injustice and naming it clearly

• Cultural Authenticity & Self-Knowledge; Honouring your roots, identity, and lived wisdom

• Resistance & Strength; Drawing on personal and collective power

• Radical Hope; Believing in a future that is not yet visible

• Collective Healing & Joy; Embracing connection, creativity, and play as acts of protest

Joy, in this context, is not about ignoring the pain. It's about refusing to let oppressive systems define your spirit.

2. Narrative Therapy and Reclaiming Power

Narrative Therapy (White & Epston) is a well-established, evidence-informed practice that helps people separate themselves from problems and reclaim the stories that reflect their strength and values.

When used through a social justice lens, it can support you to:

• Reclaim personal agency and dignity in the face of injustice

• Honour your survival strategies and resistance

• Build stories of identity and community that centre pride, not shame

• Engage in what narrative therapists call definitional ceremonies; witnessing and celebrating each other’s truth

This kind of work is especially powerful for those impacted by systems that try to silence or invisibilise identity: trans and gender-diverse people, First Nations peoples, queer communities, disabled folks, migrants, and others who resist systemic erasure every day.

3. Liberation Psychology and Collective Strength

Rooted in the work of Ignacio Martín-Baró, Liberation Psychology emerged from contexts of political violence and oppression. Rather than focusing solely on individual pathology, it views mental health through the lens of collective trauma, cultural survival, and resistance.

In therapy, this means:

• Exploring how your distress may be a normal response to an unjust world

• Connecting your healing to movements for justice and solidarity

• Centring empowerment, not just adaptation

While less manualised than some models, liberation psychology is supported by qualitative research and community-based practice; especially for clients navigating the intersecting impacts of trauma, colonisation, and oppression.

4. Pleasure, Play, and Rest as Protest

Inspired by the work of Adrienne Maree Brown and the tradition of Black Feminist Thought, Pleasure Activism offers us another tool; joy as a refusal to be flattened by oppressive systems.

This isn't just self-care - it's resistance.

• Rest is refusal. In a world that values productivity over personhood, slowing down is a radical act.

• Pleasure is reclamation. Finding pleasure in movement, nature, touch, laughter, music, and intimacy reaffirms your right to be fully alive.

• Play is survival. Play opens the nervous system, soothes trauma responses, and connects us to creativity which is a core component of healing.

While not a formal clinical model, these practices and frameworks can be integrated into evidence-based therapies for trauma work.

5. Working Together Toward Justice and Healing

Whether you're dealing with current political fear, ancestral grief, or ongoing marginalisation, you don’t have to carry it alone.

In our work together, we can:

• Name what’s hurting and what is unjust

• Reconnect with your values, your people, and your power

• Honour joy as resistance and rest as necessary

• Build tools for nervous system regulation, meaning-making, and community care

This isn’t about bypassing pain - it’s about holding it with your aliveness.

Final Thoughts

Political fear can shrink the world but joy, connection, and collective care can expand it again. If you're struggling, know that your grief in this current world is not just personal, it is political. And your joy? That itself is the ultimate form of protest.

If you're looking for a space that honours both your pain and your power, we would love to walk alongside you.

Written by Jaz Forrester, EMDR-trained Clinical Counsellor, Core Trauma Therapy. Specialising in trauma-informed, justice-centred counselling for adults navigating trauma, identity, and systemic harm.