Multicultural Counseling and the Indigenous Community

My multicultural counseling topic is based on indigenous experience, perspective, and therapeutic needs. I reviewed two films: Smoke Signals and Killers of the Flower Moon. I also reviewed a poem by artist Robert Mirabal. My reviews point out experiences had, perspectives that can be taken, cultural importance, communities, and therapeutic perspectives. Through the lens of the indigenous community, I process what some of the realities of indigenous communities are, and how we can best serve them. I analyze where we are welcomed, where we may not be welcomed, and acknowledge the resources that are available to us to do just that. 

The article, Rethinking cultural confidence: insights from indigenous community treatment settings, focuses on multicultural counseling, indigenous healing practices, and cultural competencies in therapy. It argued that traditional competency models focus too much on our trained knowledge and skills rather than on whether the therapy itself fits into the client's culture. The article says that many of these models treat culture like a checklist of traits for counselors to be aware of. This can lead to stereotyping, cultural essentialism, and oversimplifying a client's identity and experiences. The article also points out that if counselors do this, our methods and models can become too generic and ignore important and cultural differences. The authors say that we should have “cultural commensurability“, which is the idea that the therapy should align with the clients' cultural worldview, values, and healing traditions. Wendt and Gone point towards a more holistic, community centered, spiritual, and relational method of therapy. They use several examples of indigenous treatment. 

One example they talk about is the Blackfeet cultural immersion survival camp, used as a substance abuse treatment where cultural traditions, ceremonies, language preservation, community, living, and traditional community activities are encouraged.

Another example is the First Nations healing lodge, where Western counseling is combined with indigenous healing methods through the use of talking circles, smudging, sweat lodges, and other holistic healing practices.

The authors emphasize that culture should not be treated as an extra part of counseling. To create effective therapy, we must fit our clients' worldview and lived experiences into the counseling. We should avoid stereotyping cultural groups, and healing can happen through community, spirituality, identity, and cultural reconnection. This article has helped me to consider that counselors need to be flexible, respect community traditions, and include culturally relevant healing methods. We must include community involvement, holistic healing, cultural identity, and mental health treatment. This would allow us to be more culturally responsive, less stereotypical, and more respectful of diverse healing practices.

REFERENCES

Wendt, D. C., & Gone, J. P. (2012). Rethinking cultural competence: insights from indigenous

community treatment settings. Transcultural Psychiatry., 49(2), 206–222.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461511425622