APD1290H
This course seeks to define, redefine and locate Indigenous and traditional healing in the context of Euro-North American counseling and psychotherapy. In particular, the course will examine cultural and traditional healing within the broader economic, social and political practices of mental health care and in Canada. While the focus is in counseling psychology and psychoeducation (pedagogy), it also provides a critical site to highlight challenges and transformations within health care, thus the course will draw attention to the use of traditional healing in mental health care and counselor education. Explorations of the currents issues and debates concerned with the contemporary practices of Indigenous healing will be a key features of the course, for example, cultural respect and appropriation, ethics and confidentiality, competence of Indigenous healers and their qualifications and training. Through an in-depth analysis of international Indigenous helping and healing practices, with particular focus on Canadian Indigenous perspectives, the course will undertake to raise questions regarding the theory, practice, and research of Indigenous mental health and healing in psychology and education. As part of the exploration of Indigenous healers and healing, the course will also focus on how peoples from non-dominant cultures construct illness perceptions and the kinds of treatments they expect to use to solve mental health problems through individual and community psychology interventions. In this respect the course is also intended to contribute to community development and community health promotion.