Mental Health Is Social Justice: Why Inequality Shapes Our Well-Being
Mental health has never existed in a vacuum. Our emotional well-being is tied to the communities we live in, the opportunities we have (or don’t have), and the way society treats us. For marginalized groups, that connection is often painfully clear. Issues like racism, discrimination, poverty, and stigma don’t just create barriers to opportunity, they shape the very foundation of mental health itself.
As clinician Yaneth Tantiyavarong, AMFT, explains, inequality and oppression are not abstract concepts. They show up in the therapy room every day, carried in the bodies and minds of clients who have had to navigate systemic injustice.
“Individuals who face discrimination, inequality, [and] marginalization… have significantly higher rates of trauma, anxiety and depression,” she says.
The Weight of Inequality on Mental Health
For many people, mental health challenges don’t begin with a personal failing or a sudden traumatic event. They build slowly under the weight of systemic inequality. Yaneth points out that societies often misplace blame, focusing on individuals rather than structures.
“Societies often place blame on individuals for the struggles they face including their mental health, failing to recognize how systemic oppression and inequality cause and perpetuate these struggles,” she notes.
This misplaced blame leads to stigma and isolation, but it also obscures the structural issues driving psychological distress. For people in marginalized groups, experiences of racism,discrimination, violence, and poverty are not occasional stressors, they are persistent realities. Yaneth describes how “racism, discrimination, violence, [and] poverty… lead to higher rates of trauma, depression, anxiety, toxic stress and other mental health struggles.”
Discrimination also cuts deeper than surface-level mistreatment. It affects both individual well-being and community resources, creating toxic stress that compounds over time. “Discrimination can have an individual and generational impact on mental health,” Yaneth explains. “It not only impacts individuals’ self-esteem and sense of self-worth due to mistreatment, it also impacts access to resources which can lead to significant toxic stress.”
Economic instability plays a similarly corrosive role. “Individuals living in poverty are disproportionately impacted by toxic stress,” she adds. “Lack of secure or safe housing, food insecurity and community violence impact individuals’ and families’ sense of safety and lead to chronic stress.”
Add to this the reality of social stigma, and the picture becomes even clearer. “Social stigma has the capacity to impact individuals’ well being due to experiences in society with discrimination, racism, and violence due to their identity,” Yaneth says. “Additionally, individuals can internalize negative stigma which… lead[s] to negative self-esteem, decreased self-worth, social isolation, depression and anxiety symptoms.”
Finally, inequality doesn’t just harm the present generation. It reverberates through families and communities across time. “The impact of significant traumatic experiences in past generations can impact individuals and communities’ mental health,” she explains. “Transgenerational trauma results from unresolved trauma in past generations such as chronic abuse, slavery, racism, genocide, forced immigration, persecution, poverty, substance abuse and addiction.”
For clinicians, acknowledging these systemic and intergenerational forces is essential. Therapy cannot be siloed from the social realities that shape mental health.
The Weight of Inequality on Mental Health
Therapy has always been a space for self-reflection and growth, but for clients facing oppression, it must also be a place where systemic harm is named and processed.
Yaneth emphasizes the importance of trauma-informed care: “A trauma-informed approach is necessary for working with all clients and it is especially essential when working with individuals who have been impacted by oppression. This approach acknowledges the significant impact that trauma can have on individuals and supports clinicians and other health care professionals to implement policies and practices that are sensitive to clients’ needs.”
Therapy also gives individuals room to recognize how systemic injustice has shaped their symptoms, identities, and coping strategies. “Therapy is a place where individuals can identify, understand and address the impact of the symptoms they are experiencing due to oppression and social injustice,” Yaneth says. “In therapy, individuals can learn tools to cope with their symptoms, explore [the] impact of oppression on their identity, uncover their inner strengths and resources and find healing.”
This dual role – addressing symptoms while also validating lived experiences of injustice – is critical. Without it, therapy risks reinforcing the same silencing and invisibility that clients experience outside the therapy room.
Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Care
Unfortunately, the very communities most impacted by systemic inequality are often the ones with the least access to mental health services. Yaneth makes this plain:
“Systemic oppression, socioeconomic inequalities, discrimination, racism and social stigma significantly impact marginalized communities’ access to adequate mental health care. Past experiences of discrimination within the healthcare system can also prevent individuals from seeking the support they need.”
Even when services exist, unequal access, lower quality of care, and lack of awareness remain barriers. Add the weight of trauma and isolation, and the pathway to healing becomes even harder.
That’s why inclusive, culturally competent, and client-centered care is so important. “A client centered, strength-based approach can support individuals in therapy who feel seen for who they are and not for the struggles they face that brought them to the therapy room,” Yaneth explains.
Why Cultural Humility Matters
One of the most powerful tools clinicians can use is cultural humility. This isn’t about being an expert in every culture, but about approaching clients with openness, self-awareness, and respect.
“Practicing cultural humility allows therapists to examine their own identity, culture, beliefs, biases, and assumptions and understand how they might impact their work,” Yaneth says. “Using cultural humility, therapists can navigate cultural and social contexts in which clients exist with curiosity and support them in understanding their clients’ individual experiences and honor their identities and culture.”
Through cultural humility, therapists can build trust and better contextualize the struggles clients face.
Therapy also offers space for empowerment. Yaneth describes how it “can be a space where clients can explore the systems of oppression that have perpetuated social inequality. Individuals can identify how social injustice has impacted their lives, challenge stigma and explore alternative narratives that lead to empowerment and open the door to new possibilities.”
Intersectionality further complicates the picture, but it also provides clinicians with a framework to honor the complexity of their clients’ identities. “Navigating intersectionality in therapy is essential to supporting therapists and clients in understanding how different aspects of their identity can impact their experience in the world,” Yaneth explains. “Intersectionality acknowledges that individuals are complex and might have many different identities and honors all those parts.”
Advocacy Beyond the Therapy Room
Yaneth emphasizes that clinicians also have a responsibility outside the therapy room: advocating for systemic changes that support their clients’ well-being. “Therapists can start by listening to the needs of the communities they serve and advocate for changes within the organizations they work in,” she says. “Small changes that address the needs of their clients can have a significant impact on providing culturally sensitive, trauma informed, and responsive services that our clients deserve.”
Community outreach is another crucial step. “Outreach in schools, churches, and other community spaces with diverse populations is essential to increasing marginalized communities’ awareness and access to information and education about mental health and available services.”
And collaboration strengthens that impact: “Therapists and community leaders can collaborate by listening to and highlighting the voices of the individuals they serve.”
Ultimately, accessibility must be the guiding principle. “Advocacy for elimination of barriers is essential to increasing access for individuals from marginalized communities,” Yaneth emphasizes. “Providing culturally relevant, free and affordable, and accessible services in our communities can increase individuals and families’ capacity to address mental health struggles.”
Even small actions, including conversations within families and communities, can create meaningful change. As Yaneth shares: “Change can start small, individuals have the power to create change by speaking to people in their families and communities about mental health. I have heard countless stories where all it took for someone to reach out was having one conversation with someone in their community who made them feel heard without judgment and provided insight on their own experience seeking mental health support.”
Learn More
Want to bring these conversations to your community? Visit our Mental Health Education page to learn more about our psychoeducational services and how we can partner with you to create inclusive, healing-centered spaces.