Love as decolonial praxis: Co-creation of a community-based critical contemplative dialogue intervention.

Summary

Psychology's colonial roots of disconnection and domination obstruct collective well-being through individualism, disembodiment, and secularization. The antidote is love as a decolonial praxis of reconnection to each other, to bodies, and to Spirit. This praxis is illustrated through the creation of a community intervention called critical contemplative dialogues (CCD), tailored for Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color and piloted with seven contemplatives. The intervention is grounded in critical, contemplative, and dialogic frameworks and manifests love through themes of witnessing, dialogue, embodied practice, emergence, and ceremony. Eight emergent guiding values center radical healing and liberation, pointing toward broader applications in psychology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

For all the gifts of healing that the field of psychology has offered, its colonial roots of disconnection and domination continue to obstruct collective well-being in three particular ways: individualism, disembodiment, and secularization. We offer a healing and liberatory antidote: love as a decolonial praxis of reconnection to each other, to our bodies, and to Spirit. We reflexively illustrate this praxis of love in a process of creating and contextualizing a community intervention of love, critical contemplative dialogues (CCD). The CCD intervention, tailored for Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color and piloted with seven contemplatives, is discussed within a broader community-based participatory research project and community care process: Vocalizing Oppression and Interconnection in Contemplative and Embodiment Spaces. We highlight three fundamental epistemological frameworks for the intervention: critical, contemplative, and dialogic. The pilot CCD manifests the praxis of love through themes of witnessing in relationship, engaging in dialogues, centering embodied practice, honoring emergence in the moment, and becoming ceremony. We reflexively identify eight emergent guiding values, centering radical healing and liberation, with illustration of their presence in our process. Looking forward, the trajectory of this work will continue with a broadening and deepening of the CCD community intervention within Vocalizing Oppression and Interconnection in Contemplative and Embodiment Spaces. We reflect on broader themes demonstrated in the collective practice of love and offer recommendations and future directions for applications of these healing and liberatory processes in the field of psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).