Situating Psychotheraphy with Tribal Peoples in a Sovereignty Paradigm
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) nations have experienced profound disruptions to their lifeworlds as a result of ongoing colonialism. With striking regularity, these disruptions have violated Tribal sovereignty, impacting Tribal capacities for self-determination. The ensuing...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ball State University Libraries
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://openjournals.bsu.edu/jsacp/article/view/233 |
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| Summary: | American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) nations have experienced profound disruptions to
their lifeworlds as a result of ongoing colonialism. With striking regularity, these disruptions
have violated Tribal sovereignty, impacting Tribal capacities for self-determination. The ensuing
distress within Tribal communities has been marked by the intergenerational transmission of
colonial traumas and losses that have been conceptualized as historical trauma, historical
trauma response, historical unresolved grief, and colonial trauma response. For mental health
professionals to de-colonize their work with Tribal peoples, it is necessary to imbue mental
health research and practice with a sovereignty perspective that supports Tribal nations’ rights
to self-determination. In a sovereignty-based paradigm, psychotherapy and research would
involve critically examining colonial assumptions currently enacted in western research and
psychotherapy approaches and a search for therapeutic approaches that nurture each Tribal
people’s self-determined relational, knowledge, and value systems. |
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| ISSN: | 2159-8142 |