Dr. Dolores Subia BigFoot

Dr. BigFoot & Training Gatekeepers

Dr. Bigfoot is trained as a child psychologist and is an Associate Professor directing the Native American Programs at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at The University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center. Funded since 1994 by the Children’s Bureau, she has directed Project Making Medicine, and since 2003 has directed the Indian Country Child Trauma Center where she was instrumental in the cultural adapted interventions of evidence based treatments. Under her guidance, four evidence-based treatments were adapted for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) families in Indian Country titled The Honoring Children Series.

One of the four is Honoring Children, Making Relatives, a cultural adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, for use with AI/AN children and their families. It incorporates AI/AN teachings, practices, rituals, traditions, and cultural orientation while maintaining the guiding principles and theory of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. Currently Dr. Bigfoot is serving on the National Child Trauma Stress Network Cultural Consortium Working Group, contributor to the Working Group for evidence-based treatment for Portland State University, Children and Trauma, and is on the board of the First Nations Behavior Health Association.

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Using Technology to Train Care Providers and Law Enforcement

Among the many projects she's helped develop, one of the most recent is a program that uses computer games to help train therapists working in Indian Country. Avatar Simulation Training uses a role-playing game format to give players experience working with Native youth in a variety of roles. The first video to the right provides an overview of the module and information about how and why it was developed. The second video (starting at 2:58) provides an example of the game itself, and the choices that players can make.

Reflection Question #1

1. Before viewing the videos, take a minute to write about what you know of psychological treatment. Who provides treatment? What is their training or education like? What skills do they have? Describe the scene that comes to mind when you hear the term ‘psychological treatment’, and reflect on where this image comes from. Real life? The media?

Reflection Questions #2 & #3

Now that you’ve seen the videos, re-read your earlier answer and reflect on the questions below:

2. Before patients arrive in therapists office for psychotherapy, they encounter many people who can steer them towards or away from help. Drs. Bigfoot and Bartgis list some of the gatekeepers and have created the Avatar Training to help foster their skills. Does this match what you envisioned earlier when you wrote about training and education? How is it like or unlike what you were thinking then?

3. The Avatar Training emphasizes the role of culture in treatment and gatekeeping. Is there a time when someone has tried to help you when you but misunderstood you (or your culture) in a way that made their assistance ineffective or even harmful?

(For example, Amy’s friend might encourage her to drop a class she’s struggling in, without realizing that the class is important to her ideal career and that she is interpreting this advice as proof she should give up her dream. Likewise, Ben’s mom might encourage him to have an honest conversation with his girlfriend about his hurt feelings after an argument, not fully understanding how strange and unlike himself he would feel in doing so.)

If you were creating an Avatar Training Module based on this experience, what are some choices the player would have to make, and how would you steer them in the right direction?

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