Dignity Is Our Starting Point

Dignity-centered care begins with the belief that autonomy does not disappear during distress, crisis, or complexity. Ethical mental health care must preserve a person’s voice, choice, and self-determination — not override them.

We reject models of care that equate compliance with success or productivity with worth. Instead, we define ethical care by how people are treated: with respect, transparency, and the preservation of agency.

Grounded in the Neurodiversity Movement & Mad Liberation

Our ethical framework is rooted in the Neurodiversity Movement and Mad Liberation, which challenge the pathologizing of human difference.

We affirm that neurodivergence — including autism, ADHD, OCD, and other cognitive differences — is a natural form of human diversity, not a defect to be corrected. Mad Liberation further calls for centering lived experience and recognizing how trauma, oppression, and exclusion shape mental health.

We support each person’s right to define their identity, reality, and way of being.

A Commitment to Decolonizing Mental Health Care

Modern mental health systems have been shaped by Western values such as productivity, independence, and conformity. These norms have historically pathologized cultural differences, disability, gender diversity, and communal ways of living.

Decolonizing mental health care means questioning who defines “health” and whose experiences are marginalized.

Our commitments include:

• Honoring identity as inherent, not pathological

• Respecting cultural knowledge and community-based care

• Recognizing healing as reclamation rather than assimilation

Healing is not a return to productivity — it is a return to self.

Safety Without Coercion

We believe safety cannot be created through force, control, or fear. Coercive practices may produce short-term compliance, but they undermine trust, autonomy, and long-term well-being.

Ethical mental health care preserves agency, even in moments of risk or uncertainty. Safety is defined not by the absence of struggle, but by the presence of dignity, transparency, and relational trust.

Harm Reduction as an Ethical Stance

Harm reduction reflects a commitment to compassion, realism, and respect for autonomy. Survival strategies often develop in response to trauma, systemic barriers, and unmet needs.

Rather than labeling people as resistant or noncompliant, harm reduction recognizes that change is complex. Ethical care reduces harm while preserving dignity and supporting stability without demanding perfection.

HAES-Aligned & All Foods Fit

We are aligned with Health At Every Size® (HAES), rejecting weight stigma and the belief that body size determines health or worth. Bodies are not problems to be solved.

Our All Foods Fit philosophy reflects a commitment to food neutrality and respect for cultural, medical, sensory, ethical, and access realities. Honoring these differences is an expression of autonomy and body sovereignty.

Well-being and dignity — not weight control — guide our values.

Honoring Complexity Over Compliance

Human lives are complex, and healing is not linear. Capacity fluctuates, systems create barriers, and identities evolve.

Ambivalence, slow change, and periods of stuckness are not failures — they are part of being human. Ethical care allows for complexity rather than demanding performance.

People deserve to be recognized as whole individuals, not problems to be managed.

Evidence-Based — With Context

We value research and evidence-based practice while recognizing their limitations. Much mental health research excludes marginalized populations and occurs in controlled settings that do not reflect real life.

Ethical care integrates research, lived experience, and cultural context. Evidence should inform care — not override dignity, equity, and human complexity.