MOVE MY HEART, MOVE MY FEET: A NARRATIVE AND ARTS-BASED INQUIRY
INTO SETTLER COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGISTS’ DECOLONIZING JOURNEYS
by
BREEANA VIOLET HOGMAN
Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care Counselling, Mount Royal University, 2019

Thesis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS IN COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY

in the

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY

September

2024

© Breeana Violet Hogman, 2024

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THESIS COMMITTEE

The following committee members attest to
the successful completion of this thesis

Marvin McDonald, PhD

Kendra Rieger, PhD, RN

Patricia Victor, Switametelót, University Siyá:m, MA

Teresa Howell, PhD

ii

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DEDICATION
For, D.L. and his family and community. You touched my heart and moved my feet. I
am forever grateful for the lessons about love, humility, humour, patience, and perseverance
that you have taught me. D.L., may you continue to rest in peace.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I first acknowledge my recognition and gratitude for the land upon which I write
these words. I acknowledge the stolen nature of the territory upon which I have completed
this work, mainly, the Coast Salish Stó:lo people. I extend my deepest thanks for the ways in
which these peoples have cared for and tended to these lands for time immemorial. I take a
moment here to look up, out, and down—to the sky, trees, rivers and sea, and dirt beneath my
feet. This is not my land, but I will treat it as I would anyone I deeply love and care for.
Now, I would like to extend deepest thanks to my participants. Thank you for your
time, courage, vulnerability, and creative engagement in this project alongside me. You have
taught me so much and it has been a gift to hear and engage with your stories over these
months.
I would also like to extend immense gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Marvin
McDonald. Your steadfast, humble, enthusiastic, and loving support guided me through this
incredibly challenging and rewarding research journey. I tell everyone I know I could not
have done this without you! You helped me find and humbly share my researcher voice; a
gift I will never take for granted. You reminded me in moments of immense stress and
discouragement about the ceremony and ritual research can and should be; this has changed
the way I experienced and now view the research process. From the deepest place within me,
thank you.
Secondly, I would like to extend warmest gratitude to my second reader Dr. Kendra
Rieger for your support, guidance, thoughtful ideas and steadfast passion for this work and
my learning and growth. I have learned so much from our conversations and work we have
done together, and I am so grateful that you accompanied me and this project along our way.
To Patti Victor, Switametelót, your wisdom, prayers, and unwavering encouragement have
guided me on this good path, inspiring me to continue forward in a good way. Thank you for
being with me, for our chats with tea, and for your heart of friendship, kindness, curiosity,
and care and continual calling me onto this forever journey.
I would like to thank my absolute dear friend Angelica for, well, everything. Your
passion for research, people, social justice, your family, friends and your endless support via
three-hour phone calls or walks or me laying on the floor sessions kept me motivated,

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grounded, inspired, and excited this whole challenging way through. I could not have done
this work without your care and encouragement. Your friendship has healed and supported
parts of me I did not know needed it. Thank you. I also extend my deepest thanks, hand to
heart, to my dear friends who inspired and encouraged me in this work. Chantai and Alyjah,
thank you for your bold encouragement and calling me to deeply reflect on my own
whiteness and settler status. Thank you for vulnerably and bravely living out loud your own
stories; I am forever grateful for all you have taught me along this way.
To my sister Talitha and yours truly, Caleb; your passion and commitment along your
own anticolonial journeys keeps me committed and awake to my own. Thank you for
engaging in idea formations and conversations with me early on and throughout this
challenging way. Thank you for your sincere care and excitement you have shown me and
this project. To my other sister Shaniah, my forever and always cheerleader from thousands
of miles across the ocean – your love, care, and encouragement touched deep and tired places
of my heart. Thank you.
To Mom and Dad, I can’t thank you enough for your dedicated support and prayers.
For listening to my ideas and passions and being curious about what I am working on and
learning. For feeding me from afar, for shelter, and cozy home visits and cinnamon buns. For
practical guidance as I balance “adulting” while being a grad student. I truly couldn’t have
made it all this way without your love and care.

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ABSTRACT
In Turtle Island, the psychology community is urged to transform colonial practices per the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) Calls to Action. This research, guided by twoeyed seeing, explored two questions: (1) How do White settler counselling psychologists
(WCPs) experience their professional and personal decolonizing journeys? (2) What is a
White settler therapist’s role in decolonizing therapeutic practice? Four WCPs participated in
collage-making focus groups and individual interviews. Narrative analysis revealed five
“narrative trails”: (1) Awakening to shifting worldviews (2) Growing awareness to
decolonization imperative (3) Grappling with White guilt and shame (4) Enacting
decolonization in client work (5) We hope and we press on. These trails highlight critical
reflection, tension, and unsettling moments, offering insights for other settler psychologists to
follow in clinical praxis. Findings underscore the importance of decolonizing self and
practice. Findings offer insights for psychology education, training, and research,
emphasizing ongoing critical reflection and cultural humility.
Keywords: counselling psychology, settler critical reflection, decolonization, cultural
humility, Two-Eyed Seeing

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
THESIS COMMITTEE ............................................................................................................ ii
DEDICATION ......................................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. xi
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1
Where We Are: Land Acknowledgement ..............................................................................1
What We Say: Terminology ..................................................................................................2
Indigenous: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Original Peoples of Turtle Island ........2
Settler ........................................................................................................................3
Two Eyed Seeing ......................................................................................................3
Decolonization ..........................................................................................................3
The Landscape: Tracing My Steps ........................................................................................4
Steps Forward ...........................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................10
Pre-Contact: Indigenous Conceptualizations of Health and Wellness ................................10
Tripping on Roots: Colonialism and Psychology ................................................................12
Defining Colonialism .............................................................................................13
Colonial Thought and the Field of Psychology ......................................................14
A Slow Pace: Psychology’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action .....20
Cultural Allyship ....................................................................................................21
Cultural Literacy .....................................................................................................22
Critical Reflection ..................................................................................................23
Education and Training ..........................................................................................24
Pulling up Roots: Decolonization and Unsettling the Settler ..............................................25

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Decolonization is not a Metaphor ...........................................................................25
The Settler-Therapist Decolonial Struggle .............................................................26
Critical Self-Reflection and Therapist Self Awareness .......................................................28
Reflecting on Settler Cultural Identity ...................................................................29
Reflecting on (The Problem) of Cultural Competency ..........................................30
Tying it Together: Chapter Summary ..................................................................................32
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................34
Methodology, Method, and Research Paradigm ..................................................................34
Narrative Inquiry ....................................................................................................36
Arts-Based Inquiry: Collage-Making as Method ...................................................39
Data Collection and Analysis...............................................................................................40
Participants .............................................................................................................40
Embodied Engagement: Collage Focus Group ......................................................41
Follow-Up Interviews .............................................................................................43
Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................44
Stories and Collage as Data ....................................................................................45
Spoken to Written: Transcription as Interpretation ................................................45
(Re)Presentation and (Re)Storying.........................................................................46
Re-Viewing Re-Constructions: Member Checking ................................................49
Conceptualizing the Narratives ..............................................................................50
Rigour and Trustworthiness .................................................................................................51
Researcher Critical Self-Reflexivity .......................................................................51
Decolonial Research Practices ...............................................................................52
Relationality and Respect .......................................................................................53
Authenticity ............................................................................................................53
Ethical Considerations .........................................................................................................54
Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................56

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CHAPTER FOUR: STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED IN CIRCLES........................57
Colin .....................................................................................................................................57
Clara .....................................................................................................................................62
Bex .......................................................................................................................................65
Paige .....................................................................................................................................69
Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journeys: Narrative Trails ..................................................73
Narrative Trail #1: Awakening to Shifting Worldviews......................................................74
Narrative Trail #2: Growing Awareness in “Hundreds of Small Ways” .............................77
Narrative Trail #3: Grappling with Discomfort – Unsettled, Resettled ...............................79
Narrative Trail #4: “Challenging the Roadmap” – Enacting Decolonization in Client Work
..............................................................................................................................................82
Narrative Trail #5: Unanswered Questions – We Hope and We Go On .............................86
Bex: Coming Home ................................................................................................86
Paige: Illuminating Growth – It Rises with Time ..................................................87
Clara: It is Full of Meaning ....................................................................................88
Colin: And as We Cut Through ..............................................................................89
Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................89
CHAPTER FIVE: TRAILING TOGETHER ..........................................................................92
Making Meaning of Findings...............................................................................................93
Continuing the Conversation: Connections to Literature and New Insights .......................97
The Decolonial Struggle .........................................................................................97
Therapeutic Practice as a Negotiated Space .........................................................100
Unsettling Colonial White Identity ......................................................................101
Unsettling Eurocentric Education and Training ...................................................103
Contributions and Implications for Counselling Psychology Practice ..............................106

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On Decolonial and Arts-Based Research and Practice in Psychology .................107
On Critical Hope...................................................................................................107
On Academic and Counselling Practice Implications and Recommendations ....108
Strengths, Limitations and Future Research Directions ....................................................112
(Un)Endings: Concluding Reflections ...............................................................................114
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................116
APPENDIX A: RECRUITMENT POSTER .........................................................................129
APPENDIX B: SAMPLE EMAIL INVITATION ................................................................130
APPENDIX C: INFORMED CONSENT ..............................................................................132
APPENDIX D: FOCUS GROUP PROTOCOL ....................................................................135
APPENDIX E: FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW PROTOCOL ..................................................137
APPENDIX F: COLLAGE STORY EXAMPLE ..................................................................138
APPENDIX G: FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW AND DEBRIEFING SCRIPT ......................140

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Where Do We Go from Here: Analytic Collage…………………………………64
Figure 2. Colins Collage………………………………………………………………….. 77
Figure 3. Clara’s Collage…………………………………………………………………. 82
Figure 4. Bex’s Collage…………………………………………………………………... 86
Figure 5. Paige’s Collage…………………………………………………………………..91
Figure 6. Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journey Trail Map ……………………………..96
Figure 7. Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journey Trail Map (With Trail Markers)…..…..121

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Enacting decolonization: Clinical Implications…………………………………141

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In that moment I could smell the water of the bay, watch it rock against the shore and
hear it sift onto the sand. To be a bay, what we refer to as “noun”. A bay is a noun only if
water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans, trapped between its shores
and contained by the words. The verb wiikwegamaa – to be a bay – releases the water
from bondage and lets it live. To be a bay holds the wonder that, for this moment, the
living water has decided to shelter itself between these shores.
—Robin Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
There are moments in which life places something in your path that you cannot help but
stop, pick it up, turn it over and around again, and move forward carrying this precious
something along the way; a keepsake that will now continually remind you of the need to remain
humble, connected, and engaged in life in a new way. For me, this project and all that it entails is
one of those cherished keepsakes. I wish to begin it contextually by acknowledging my
positionality and reflecting on the complexities of the terminology involved. My first step is to
express my gratitude to the land—honoring the significant places where I have paused, picked up
this project, and carried it in my heart.
Where We Are: Land Acknowledgement
For me, a land acknowledgement has become a way to embody slowing down. In this
embodied slowing down, I take time to remember that we, as people, are more than individuals
occupying space at a single point in time. Our lives mean more than merely existing in the here
and now, though remaining present and grounded is also important. We are all related and
connected, the land brings us together in this way. Land acknowledgments remind me that what
and who came before significantly impacts us all right now, and how we live on this land with
one another will impact generations to come.
I recognize that I am learning, living, working, researching, and writing today as an
uninvited guest on the traditional unceded territory of the Stó:lō people and their ancestors who
have cared for these lands, oceans, and rivers for time immemorial. I acknowledge their resilient
work and care for what Creator God, Great Spirit, has gifted us all. I acknowledge the violent
and stolen nature of the land that I live on and I want to honour the communities that are healing
themselves and helping to heal the land upon which where we live, connect, work, play, pray,
grow, and learn. I also acknowledge that parts of my story find me on other colonized lands,
specifically in the city Mohkinstis (Calgary), a part of Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. This
region includes the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Îyâxe Nakoda and

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Tsuut’ina nations, and the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta
Districts 5 and 6. Before you continue, I invite you to watch this powerful short film on land
acknowledgments and stories about how the land I spent most of my life on (Mohkinstis) came
to have its name: (Calgary Foundation, n.d.). Finally, I also acknowledge the Tangata whenua
(i.e., “people of the land”), referring to the Māori or First Peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand),
the country where I was born and find my roots in.
What We Say: Terminology
Indigenous: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Original Peoples of Turtle Island
Despite the common social, historical, and assimilative experiences that all Indigenous
communities have resiliently lived through, it must be acknowledged that there is major diversity
among Indigenous peoples globally, including those of Turtle Island. Between these groups exist
hundreds of culturally distinct practices, traditions, spiritualities, religious beliefs, and
educational affiliations. Further, differences and connections between those living in urban and
rural communities are also extensive. Despite the numerous inter- and intra-relational
differences, Kirmayer et al. (2000) suggest that Indigenous peoples face striking parallels when it
comes to health challenges. Though I do not seek to group all Indigenous peoples together as
one—denying the uniqueness and personalities of peoples—there is a limit as to how much I can
and will speak to this diversity. I appreciate how Wendt et al. (2022) acknowledge this diversity
and subsequent survivance of Indigenous peoples:
At the same time, commonalities exist in relationship to settler-colonial nations, policies,
and societies. Perhaps most important, when we refer to Indigenous Peoples, we are not
designating only a set of self-identified individuals, but also sovereign Nations with their
own traditions, governance structures, and land claims … Indigenous Peoples are not
mere victims, however, and have strategically, creatively, and resourcefully resisted
colonial violence and oppression for generations—a testament of their strength,
resilience, and survivance. (p. 803)
With the above in mind, in this project I used the following terms as directly quoted by
sources and where appropriate: (a) Indigenous, (b) First Nations, (c) Aboriginal, (d) Métis, (e)
Inuit, and (f) Native/Native American. Additionally, I periodically used the acronym for First
Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) when referring to Turtle Island First Peoples groups. Lastly,
considering my own story, experience, and relationships, I also used the terms, Stó:lō, referring
to the Coast Salish people group upon whose land I live now, Māori, Tongan, and Samoan

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referring to the Indigenous First Peoples of New Zealand and Lingít, referring to Indigenous
Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America.
Settler
For this project, settler, refers to anyone who has taken up residence on these lands – so
called Canada –who did not originally inhabit them. Furthermore, settler colonialism can be
understood as a mindset and way of being, rather than an identity. La Fevre (2015) shares that,
Settler colonialism is a distinct imperial formation. Both colonialism and settler
colonialism are premised on exogenous domination, but only settler colonialism seeks to
replace the original population of the colonized territory with a new society of settlers
(usually from the colonial metropole). This new society needs land, and so settler
colonialism depends primarily on access to territory. This is achieved by various means,
either through treaties with indigenous inhabitants or simply by ‘taking possession’.
(para. 1)
Two Eyed Seeing
Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall (Bartlett et al., 2012) developed the concept of TwoEyed Seeing within science educational curricula. Based on the Integrative Science
undergraduate program created at Cape Breton University, this idea teaches science-practitioners
how to weave together Western and Indigenous ways of knowing. This concept entails seeing the
strengths of Indigenous ways of being through one eye, the strengths of Western ways of being
through the other eye, and then acknowledging and integrating both perspectives (Bartlett et al.,
2012). I aimed to hold close this purview as I completed all activities of this project. I will
expand more on this approach when I introduce this project’s research design in chapter three.
Decolonization
Some refer to decolonization as a way of being or thinking. (Fellner, 2018; Tuck & Yang,
2012) After exploring the literature, engaging in conversations, and reflecting on the experiences
that have brought me to this research, I, like many others, see decolonization not as an endpoint
but as an ongoing journey. As both a noun and a verb, decolonization calls us to actively move
onwards realizing that the terrain ahead is not always easy to navigate and that reaching a
destination is in sight only by way of generations that will come after us (Tuck & Yang, 2012).
Decolonization denotes movement beyond simple awareness; it requires active, intentional
critical reflection and deconstruction of colonial ways of knowing, being, and doing (Fellner,
2018). Some scholars and community members caution against using the word decolonization,
arguing that reaching decolonization may not be feasible. To this point, Fellner (2018) wonders

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about the challenges of the English language in depicting decolonization in an appropriate way:
“As a noun-based language that (re)creates and perpetuates colonial systems of thought and
relationships with the world, I believe its usefulness in addressing Indigenous agendas is limited”
(p. 284). With the above definitions and discussion in mind, the English word decolonization
was used in this research to represent the active processes of deconstructing colonial systems of
thought and action that restrict Indigenous perspective on the decolonization process. As Datta
(2018) describes, “Decolonization is a continuous process of anti-colonial struggle which
honours Indigenous approaches to knowing the world, recognizing Indigenous land, Indigenous
peoples, and Indigenous sovereignty – including sovereignty over the decolonization process” (p.
2).
The Landscape: Tracing My Steps
Story is central in both narrative inquiry and Indigenous methodologies (Kovach, 2021). It
is fitting, then, to begin with story. In September 2022, I attended a Truth and Reconciliation
event during which someone asked the oft repeated question, “What really is
decolonization/reconciliation and how do I do it?”. The answer given by the facilitator was by
way of sharing story. She, a second-generation settler from South Korea referenced a conference
she attended that past year. The facilitator shared that there she learned that how we understand
decolonization and reconciliation depends greatly on one’s positionality and location. The
Indigenous scholar sitting with her group offered that to him, it meant friendship and peace. The
critical race scholar she was also sitting with referred to it as active resistance to colonial power
structures (Personal communication, September 2022). Both descriptions captured my attention,
and her story encouraged me to move onward as I located and positioned myself in relation to
this decolonizing journey I am and will always be on. To introduce the goals and purposes of this
project, I offer my story, beginning by locating myself in this research. I invite you also to take a
moment to locate yourself before you spend time reading the following pages.
Citing Max Van Manen, Kovach comments, “It is not only the questions we ask and how we go
about asking them but who we are in the asking” (p. 142). As I enter this research and knowledge
sharing space, I ask myself, “Who am I?”
Who am I innately connects with where I am from which is partly why I began this chapter
with a land acknowledgement. My identity as a settler means I have privileged from systems of
colonialism, and this inherently means that my perspective and understanding of what

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decolonization means will be impacted. I hold this with care as I tend to the stories I hear and
consultations with Indigenous knowledges I engage with throughout this work. I am a settler. I
am also am a daughter, sister, friend, empathic helper, student, spiritual creation of Creator,
novice researcher, artist, and athlete among other things. I am also a White, cis-gendered, ablebodied, educated, middle-class, late-twenties female raised up in an Evangelical Judeo-Christian
tradition. These roles and identities impact how I experience the world and come to know reality.
Socially constructed identities do not personify the principal ways I would like to introduce
myself, however, it is necessary to acknowledge the ways in which social constructions of
privilege and opportunity show up through identity markers that typically characterize power and
dominance. I am aware that I may not accurately reflect all the nuances and complexities of what
it means to be a settler living in so-called Canada. This used to paralyze me. Now, it motivates
me and moves my feet forward, knowing that I get to keep learning, making mistakes, and
growing because of them.
Wilson (2008) shares; “the source of a research project is the heart/mind of the
researcher, and “checking your heart” is a critical element in the research process … A ‘good
heart’ guarantees a good motive, and good motives benefit everyone involved” (p. 60). My intent
for this project is to bring you, the reader, into the heart of this work. I invite you into the
personal and academic spaces I have occupied over the past few years to listen and learn
alongside me. I hope to introduce you to the parts of me that struggled, experiencing tension and
confusion as well as the parts that experienced epiphany and insight. My voice has been a
challenging one to use and trust in. I may not always say the right thing, but to me, that feels no
longer the point. I do not expect that this project will be one in which I will gain all the right
answers. Shawn Wilson (2008), Opaskwayak Cree community psychologist and researcher
offers us this guidance: “Research is all about unanswered questions, but it also reveals
unquestioned answers” (p. 6). Truthfully, I hope that this project generates more questions,
further curiosities, and deeper ponderings that allow for me, you, and others to grow, heal, and
connect. I only hope this is a space that holds difference in high regard, hope in realistic yet
optimistic fortitude, and healing, a wholehearted possibility. To continue introducing this thesis
research I recall a story that I came across upon my readings around a year and a half ago, told
by Secwepemc Elder and knowledge keeper Mike Arnouse in Clark et al. (2017):

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It was mainly my uncle Tommy who told me about a journey that was the message to
young kids going out on a journey in their life. It was like a person was walking through
the woods, and he really has to look at everything from tiniest creatures to brightcoloured plants, whether they are medicinal or beautiful, and stop and look at them especially the landmarks. You have to go around and look at everything - keep the picture
in your mind and your own story of what you seen - but that sometimes takes a lot of
work - your mind, heart, body, and spirit ... So, sit down and find a comfortable place on
a rock and rest and look back at what you have just seen as you walked on the path, and
when you have rested enough, you can get up and go again and continue to do the same
thing. Because if you don't do that - to look back where you came from and to
remember all the landmarks in your life - you get lost and you lose the vision of your
goal [emphasis added]. It's a short little story that means a whole great deal. (p. 165)
This excerpt reminds me the of the important goal that introductions serve. In this case, one goal
is to look back and remember where I have come from and how I came to engaging in a research
project like this one. So, I will start there.
I began thinking about this research before I began my master’s program here at Trinity
Western University. I had been deeply touched, heartbroken, and healed through some
significant relationships with First Nation youth who I worked with in Calgary before starting
this program. Their stories and lives transformed mine, and because of my experiences with
them, their families, and communities I desired to maintain these relationships and form new
ones as I pursued my goal of counselling psychology. Eventually, I hoped to work and research
alongside Indigenous communities, engaging in research that was community-led, and
respectful, meaningful, and transformative participatory research. I did not realize that to try and
do this for a master’s thesis would prove challenging due to the time I would want and need to
give to building relationships in a good and respectful way, especially considering the ways in
which research with Indigenous peoples has been oft harmful and oppressive (Snow, 2018).
Upon this conviction, I turned my attention towards feeling and reflecting upon the impacts of
colonialism in a much more personal way than I had ever before. Fellner (2018) shares that
decolonizing psychology entails active, intentional, and embodied processes in order to
“reconstruct colonial discourse through Indigenous counter-narratives” (p. 285). Reagan also
(2010) offers, “Settler stories as counter-narratives that create decolonizing space are both
interior and relational. As such, they require us to risk revealing ourselves as vulnerable ‘notknowers’ who are willing to examine our dual positions as colonizer-perpetrators and colonizer-

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allies” (p. 28). Inspired by scholars like Fellner and Reagan, I began to engage this interior and
relational space to examine my colonizer self in relation to the counselling psychology field.
As I continued to engage in literature and relationship with Indigenous psychologistscholars mentors, I was reminded to recognize that the consequences of colonialism are
widespread and have been incredibly harmful to Indigenous communities globally as seen
through higher health disparities and challenges compared to the general population (Adelson,
2005; Brave Heart & DeBruyn, 1998; Czyzewski, 2011; Gone et al., 2019; Kirmayer et al., 2000;
Kolahdooz et al., 2015; MacDonald & Steenbeek, 2015; Mukherjee & Awasthi, 2022; Statistics
Canada, 2018). This was not surprising to me as I had already witnessed the harsh impacts of
intergenerational trauma on the First Nation youth that so persistently fought to reclaim their
Indigenous identity and livelihoods on the streets of Calgary. As I became explicitly aware of
these truths for perhaps the first time, I also came to understand how important it was to see
Indigenous peoples for their strength, survivance, and resistance, not merely as victims as I had
been taught to do (Wendt et al., 2022).
As I continued critically reflecting, I was drawn to look more closely at the Canadian
health-related calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report which asks all
forms of government (provincial, territorial, federal) to recognize that the current health of
Aboriginal communities is a “direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including
residential schools” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015a, p. 2). This project
is a direct response to the TRC’s calls to action, namely calls #18, #22, and #23 1. Additionally,
this project is a response the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) and the Psychology
Foundation of Canada (PFC) coming together in 2018 to discuss how psychology could and
should respond to the TRC (CPA & PFC, 2018). I was personally touched and moved towards
critical reflection when I delved into the Canadian Psychologists’ response to the TRC document

1

18. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current
state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including
residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in
international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties. 22. We call upon those who can effect change within
the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment
of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.
23. We call upon all levels of government to: i. Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the
health-care field. ii. Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities. iii. Provide
cultural competency training for all healthcare professionals. (TRC, 2015a, pp. 2-3).

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and the guiding principles it outlined, a few of which will be expanded upon later in the literature
review.
This critical reflection prompted me to look closer at other principles and calls to action
from social activist and multicultural counselling psychologists (i.e., Ansloos et al., 2020; Cohen
et al., 2021; Fellner, 2020); which in turn prompted me to continue to look inward at my role and
place in colonial structures and ways of learning, knowing, and being. One of the conversations I
had early on with a past co-worker who identifies as Cree/Métis challenged me to consider a
component of colonialism and reconciliation that I had not as actively engaged in before –
whiteness. How does my White identity and settler status impact the way I experience my
personal life and the privileges automatically bestowed to me, including in the counselling field
and my roles in it? This question challenged me to sit with the unsettled feelings that arose in my
body when I considered my role within oppressive structures and actions.
I dove into literature in order to write a Canada Graduate Scholarship proposal,
Interrogating Whiteness: Engaging White Counselling Psychologists and Decolonization. I then
conducted an autoethnographic pilot study, Learning in Circles: A Collaborative
Autoethnography on Race, Reconciliation, and Decolonization in Counselling Psychology
Research and Practice in a data analysis class I took in the Spring of 2021. I engaged in a
conversation about race, reconciliation, and decolonization in counselling psychology with a
close friend and project consultant who identifies as Língit, Vietnamese, Chinese, and European.
I did this as a commitment to moving through the processes and questions I was hoping to
eventually to ask my research participants to engage in. I felt I could not honestly ask them to be
brave and vulnerable without me doing so first.
Through the autoethnography project, I learned that I had much to unlearn. I also
experienced shame, guilt, frustration, and confusion, unsure about what I could or should say or
do with my colonial self, mindset, actions, and attitudes. I wanted to distance myself from my
whiteness and the tension of feeling I did not know enough to be researching this topic. In this
experience, I pondered that I must not be the only one to feel this way and wondered about how
my guilt, shame, and honest attempts to decolonize myself might impact my counselling
practice. Below is an excerpt from my autoethnography that captures the heart and essence of
why I decided to propose this current project:

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A thread of not knowing was woven throughout the conversation; ‘I will not say that I
know much at all at this point’, or ‘It's one of those things where I don't even know what I
need to unlearn because I don't necessarily know what I know’. In addition to this not
knowing were responses I gave that seemed to ignore or deflect from the questions asked.
The most obvious moment this occurred was after Chantai asked me, ‘How does it impact
you to be White? What does that feel like and look like? Considering your counselling
practice and research?’ As I read through and took notes on this section of our
conversation, I noticed that I not once addressed specifically what it meant for me to be
White and how that impacted me. I noticed however, that I focused instead on the
“female” identity I possessed, the identity that felt perhaps more comfortable to bring up.
(Personal communication, June 2022)
As I continued to let this un-learning, not-knowing, and my heart and intuition guide me, I
eventually arrived at this current project, which draws together my learnings and poses questions
around how White-settler counselling psychologists experience and understand their role in
decolonizing therapeutic practice as well as the stories they tell about their journeys thus far.
Steps Forward
Psychologist Eduardo Duran (2019), Apache/Tewa/Lakota notes that to a degree, we all
internalize the personal and collective wounding of any culture that has endured the kinds of
oppression that Indigenous peoples have globally. He shares, “The wounding that is sustained by
the collective culture has an impact on the psyches of the individuals in the society” (p. 22). The
experiences of colonialism, racism, and other forms of oppression impact everyone; no one is
immune to colonial, intergenerational, and racialized trauma (Menakem, 2017). Duran
poignantly shares that to heal what he terms a collective soul wound, those who have been
oppressed must be liberated from their experiences, first with an awareness of their oppression
and second, through compelling mental health practitioners to be equally as aware of their own
soul wounds and need for healing. He shares, “It is imperative to delve into the psychology of
the healer” (p. 22). This research aims to do just that.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Imagine how you as writers from the dominant society might turn over some of the rocks
in your own garden for examination. Imagine in your literature courageously questioning
and examining the values that allow the dehumanizing of peoples through domination....
Imagine writing in honesty, free of the romantic bias about the courageous “pioneering
spirit” of colonialist practice and imperialist process. Imagine interpreting for us your
own people’s thinking toward us, instead of interpreting for us, our thinking, our lives,
and our stories. (Armstrong 1990/2005, pp. 243–244)
This literature review highlights the colonial nature of psychology and its impact on
Indigenous communities' mental health in Canada. To begin, I highlighted Indigenous
conceptualizations of health and wellness. I then outlined the CPA and PFC (2018) task force's
response to the TRC calls to action and summarized literature on non-Indigenous counsellors’
experiences and processes working with Indigenous communities. Notably, there is limited
research on the experiences of White settler counselling psychologists and their efforts at critical
reflection and decolonial practice. Based on this gap, I emphasized the need for more discussion,
reflection, and action among WCPs regarding their decolonial therapeutic practices and research.
Pre-Contact: Indigenous Conceptualizations of Health and Wellness
Research on the health and wellness of Indigenous communities is shifting from deficitbased and pathologizing models to strengths-focused and healing-oriented approaches (Brave
Heart, 1998; Kirmayer et al., 2000; Linklater, 2014; O’Keefe et al., 2023). For this project, it is
essential that I follow suit and start by telling the truth from all sides of the story. The first side
acknowledges the health and culture of First Peoples' communities before colonization. Another
related side of the story is illustrated by highlighting Indigenous resistance to colonial agendas
that the First Peoples of Turtle Island currently hold and enact. As described in the terminology
section, as we move forward in this literature review, it is important to maintain a nonessentializing understanding of Indigenous communities and cultures. This means that while I
am speaking generally about Indigenous experience, I also acknowledge that every community
has distinct practices, traditions, knowledge, and ways of understanding healing. For this reason,
I try and speak directly about each specific nation (Canada) or tribe (United States) as literature
refers to them.
Keeping the above in mind, it is maintained that in Canada prior to European contact
Indigenous peoples had “fully functional systems of health knowledge that were practiced within
the contexts of their specific ways of knowing and being” (National Collaborating Centre for

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Aboriginal Health [NCCAH], 2013, p. 3). Kirmayer et al. (2000) state that while Indigenous
communities were not immune to disease and social challenges, they had well-formed ways of
approaching wellbeing and healing. For instance, they held their own systems of governance,
lived off the land, used traditional healing approaches and medicines, and had specific and
community-based conceptualizations of child-rearing (MacDonald & Steenbeek, 2015).
Therefore, it is unsurprising that colonial disruptions deeply impacted Indigenous communities.
A few ways they were impacted include (a) adversely affecting their physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual health; (b) disrupting their ways of living, meeting, and worshipping; and (c)
distorting their connection to their children, primarily through assimilative efforts such as
residential schools and the 60s scoop. Despite this, Indigenous peoples and their culture continue
to survive and thrive in so-called Canada today (Brave Heart & DeBruyn, 1998; Kirmayer et al.,
2000; MacDonald & Steenbeek, 2015).
Linklater (2014) and Hodge et al. (2009) describe that Indigenous ways of knowing and
being view health wholistically, encompassing not only mental health (i.e., the state of the mind)
but also spiritual, emotional, and physical health. Furthermore, Indigenous communities typically
embrace a wellness-based model rather than deficit or illness-based medical models of Western
psychology and psychiatry. In their grounded theory study examining the concept of health for
the Stó:lo Coast Salish of the Pacific Northwest, nursing researchers Labun and Emblen (2007)
identified three main themes: understanding health as balance, spirituality (i.e., traditions, rituals,
and ceremony), health as a continuing journey, and transitions as “those times of change”. They
suggested that understanding Coast Salish health concepts in this way would enhance nurses’
cultural competence in their interactions with Stó:lo patients. Likewise, in their ethnographic
study Hunter et al. (2006) found that urban-based First Nations Peoples view healing as a holistic
process that involves following cultural paths, balance in spiritual, emotional, mental, and
physical health, and sharing in the circle of life by cultural interactions between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous health professionals.
Similarly, Fijal and Deagan’s (2019) critical synthesis of the literature on Indigenous
conceptualizations of health found that among Indigenous populations, there is a shared
understanding of the holistic approach necessary for the health and wellness of their peoples.
Specifically, in their review the authors found that balance, community, and land were most

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often described as being connected to and important for maintaining health and wellness. The
TRC (2015b) summarizes these themes well:
Aboriginal health practices and beliefs, like Aboriginal peoples themselves, are diverse.
However, a holistic approach to health is common to many Aboriginal cultures and has
also been increasingly validated by ‘Western’ medicine. A belief shared among many
Inuit, Métis, and First Nation people is that a sacred connection exists among people, the
Earth, and everything above it, upon it, and within it. For purposes of healing, this means
activities such as “on-the-land” or “bush” healing camps where participants can
experience the healing power of the natural world. (p. 163)
The idea of on-the-land or place-based healing is essential to Indigenous communities,
linking the importance of land, water, ecologies, and geography to spiritual and communal
meanings of health and wellness. In a qualitative study highlighting stories of what health and
healing means to Anishinabe Elders, we hear again how important conceptualizing health is via
connection to the land; “… this spiritual connection to land, practised through ceremony, is the
foundational strength upon which the Anishinabe build and sustain the power of their social
relationships, which are critical for health and wellbeing” (Richmond, 2018, p. 174). Josewski et
al. (2023) define place as “a grounded, material, emotionally resonant, well-known, and deeply
cared-for location within the broader, less intimate ‘space’…” (p. 2). This grounded-ness is
important to consider, as it has been referred to as essential for the decolonial LandBack
movement in Canada and beyond. LandBack is not a metaphorical statement, much like
decolonization is not a metaphor (Tuck & Yang, 2012). Instead, LandBack refers to the
embodied, felt, lived, and experienced mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional notions of
health and Indigenous survivance that comes from connecting to and living off the land.
Landback is an important notion for understanding pre- and post-European contact, as well as
understanding frameworks of healing that come from the deep and longstanding connections
Indigenous peoples have to the land.
As we move forward in this literature review, now speaking to how psychology as a
system was raised by “colonial parents”, I invite you, as Josewski and colleagues (2023) do, “to
take a moment and look toward the earth. To territory … which might be stolen and occupied.
Toward the ground. Toward the small, the all-too-often overlooked” (p. 3).
Tripping on Roots: Colonialism and Psychology
The concept of Landback is important to highlight, especially considering that settler
colonialism and its impacts are widely recognized as the primary social determinants of health

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for Indigenous peoples in Canada (Czyzewski, 2012; Linklater, 2014; Nelson & Wilson, 2017).
Considering how important land, spirituality and community are, it is understandable that the
ongoing effects of environmental dispossession and cultural upheaval continue to have
detrimental impacts on FNMI peoples of Canada. As a result, the health disparities that
Indigenous peoples face are understood as physical, emotional, and mental manifestations due to
settler contact. This contact instigated a violent loss of land, culture, spirituality, language, and
traditional family structures (Kirmayer et al., 2000). Mary-Ellen Kelm (1999) masterfully
highlights the way in which Aboriginal bodies, and thus their health and wellbeing, became
central to social and political forces and interactions upon European contact. Kelm illuminates
how upon European arrival, First Nations peoples were incorrectly targeted and blamed for their
own “ill-health” and disease. She shares that Aboriginal leaders have long identified that
lingering medical and mental health challenges exist for Indigenous communities due to
European contact, rather than something genetically inherently wrong about their peoples—a
common assumption at the time that continues to be perpetuated as a stereotype today.
Defining Colonialism
Colonialism as demonstrated above is a mindset. In this current project, colonial thought
and action refer to the ways of knowing, being, and doing that originate from systems
intentionally exerting power, control, and dominance over Indigenous minds, bodies, and lands
(Waziyatawin & Yellow Bird, 2012). For this reason, it is important to understand that
colonialism in Canada operates on multiple levels (Nelson & Wilson, 2017): (a) Structurally,
colonialism can be understood through broad and institutionalized processes and policies which
perpetuate colonial structures; (b) distally, the impacts of colonialism are seen through
experiences such as racism and poverty; and (c) proximally, colonialism can be viewed as the
direct personal effects such as poor health and unemployment. However, it is important to note
that these levels may become convoluted. Nelson and Wilson (2017) warn that mental health
research and practice involving Indigenous communities may inadvertently shift focus away
from broader colonial structures and instead emphasize individual factors. In healthcare, this can
result in a medicalized approach to treating these problems within the person, rather than
recognizing colonialism as the structural and detrimental force that it is.
Despite the suffering and loss that Indigenous communities have faced, they continue to
display resistance and resilience towards current colonial systems. As I have outlined above, this

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fact must not be overshadowed by the discussion of colonial suppression and subsequent
community challenges (MacDonald & Steenbeek, 2015; Minet, 2021). With this context in mind,
I next elaborate on how psychology as a profession has been built on colonial roots and how this
has impacted therapeutic work with Indigenous Peoples.
Colonial Thought and the Field of Psychology
As far as traditional Western textbooks go, the field of psychology was founded in 1879
by Wilhelm Wundt. Since then, the field has developed varying schools of thought and practice
such as clinical, applied, and counselling psychology and many scholars have contributed to
developing theories of human behaviour, pathology, and healing. In Canada, counselling
psychology became popular in 1987 (Bedi et al., 2016). As a science and a philosophy,
psychology has contributed to the way in which we view mental health and wellness, optimal
functioning, and normative social relations. Certainly, psychology has been influential and
helpful in many ways. However, as with any system (i.e., the medical system) designed to
understand, categorize, and group humans, the profession of psychology has also been a
significant source of power and oppression, abuse, discrimination, and marginalization.
Formal apologies have recently been made by both the American Psychological
Association (2023) and the Canadian Psychological Association via the task force document
(CPA & PFC, 2018), accounting for the harmful ways in which the psychology has perpetuated
colonial oppression and discrimination towards Indigenous Peoples. Specifically, the CPA and
PFC task force outline the ways in which psychology as a profession was developed in the “same
political climate that gave rise to the residential school system and participated in the process of
cultural genocide” (p. 8). The document hosts an acknowledgement of accountability to the
harms done to Indigenous Peoples on the part of the profession of psychology in Canada. It does
so by detailing the ways in which the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists’ four main
principles2 have not been upheld and/or have been misused in relation to Indigenous
communities. In summary, the document outlines how psychology has historically failed
Indigenous Peoples by (a) not acknowledging the harmful federal policies like residential schools
2

The Canadian Psychology Association outlines its ethical principles as 1. Respect for rights of dignity of

persons and people, 2. Responsible caring, 3. Integrity in relationships, 4. Responsibility to society (CPA, 2017, p.
4)

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and forced adoptions which impacts their mental health intergenerationally (Kirmayer et al.,
2014); (b) providing mental health care that often ignores Indigenous cultural understandings of
health and healing, leading to harmful and possibly retraumatizing treatments (Duran, 2019); (c)
not ensuring that all psychologists working in diverse settings have engaged in the necessary
cultural safety and competence training, thus reflecting bias and ethnocentrism in their practice
(Fellner et al., 2020; McCormick, 1996); and (d) not respecting Indigenous social structures,
utilizing inappropriate assessments and tools which support discriminatory practices.
Duran and Duran (1995) highlight how the development of psychotherapy involved “a
therapeutic system that has its root metaphors deeply entrenched in the causes of the presenting
problems themselves” (p. 18). Their reflections underscore the entrenched colonial foundations
of psychology, highlighting the urgent need for transformative change within the discipline. The
following sections delve into how these failings directly affect work with Indigenous clients and
highlight existing research on how psychology can better support Indigenous healing. This
summary sets the stage for discussing the task force's recommendations on how psychologists
are being called to respond.
Colonialism and Social Control in Mental Health. According to Duran (2019) one of
the main ways that psychology perpetuates a colonial agenda is by using the field of mental
health as a form of social control as well as by perpetuating discourses of “deviancy” regarding
typically marginalized populations. Duran refers to Foucault’s (1967) writings exploring how the
mental health profession became a form of social regulation. For example, Cullen et al. (2020)
explain how psychological theories that developed in the 19th and 20th centuries prioritized
certain social identities over others (e.g., through eugenics and Social Darwinism). In the mental
health field, historically and now, control is gained through dominant systems attempting to
define for society what constitutes health and wellness (Duran, 2019; Kelm, 1998; McCormick,
1996). This includes enacting the necessary means to rid society of those who do not comply
with the “norm” such as assimilative federal policy like residential schools in Canada
(MacDonald & Steenbeek, 2015). Furthermore, multicultural research consistently shows that
people from different racial backgrounds, sexual orientations, or physical abilities are typically
diagnosed as more “pathological” to the extent that their behaviours diverge from a
psychologists’ own cultural group (Constatine et al., 2001). This is especially poignant from a
Eurocentric perspective (McCormick, 1996).

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Another perspective on mental health systems as social regulation is McCormick’s
(1996) research on culturally appropriate counselling practices among First Nations people of
British Columbia. Both he and Duran’s (2019) research highlight that a key concern for First
Nations clients seeking care is the difference in beliefs regarding the causes and solutions to
mental health issues. McCormick argues that “one culture should not impose its concepts of
causation or systems of classification on another culture” (p. 164). McCormick helps us
understand this concern in our Western context citing Dinges et al. (1986):
As the problems which arise among Indian groups—partly as a result of the patterns of
behaviors and explanation encouraged by Western mental health theory—become
progressively more Western in nature and etiology, practitioners would be able to
respond to the problems which they shaped over time to fit their own therapeutic
concepts and techniques. (p. 272)
Jordan (2021), a marriage and family therapist and researcher, provides another clear
picture of the ways mental health was and is used as a colonial tool of social control by utilizing
discourses of deviancy. For example, one of the goals of settler colonialism is to claim terra
nullis (i.e., Latin for belonging to no one, or, empty land). Upon contact with Indigenous
territory, settlers faced the reality that they were not alone on the lands they sought to live on and
thus created narratives of Indigenous “pathology” labelling Indigenous peoples as “savage” and
dangerous, in need of containment or removal. If unable to be removed, Indigenous people were
instead assimilated into the mainstream culture via official government policy like residential
schools or forced adoption (Kelm, 1998). When they resisted assimilation into colonial culture,
they were diagnosed inherently lazy and with low intelligence. To these points, Leeuw et al.
(2009) share:
We argue that the embodied realities of Indigenous peoples were and are produced and
perpetuated through texts, legislations, government policies and acts of state that
(re)produce, rely on, and perpetuate understandings of deviance, particularly mental
health and addiction deviance, in Indigenous peoples. (p. 283)
Subsequently, racialization, referring to a socially constructed process of ‘othering’ someone
based on their race or culture, infiltrated settler spaces including the mental health field. This is
seen presently through over-pathologizing Indigenous peoples with more mental health issues,
overrepresentation in jail and child protection systems, as well as exploitation of Indigenous
peoples through mental health/health research (Fellner et al., 2020). The narrative of 'Indigenous
deviance’ remains today and is seen through the abovementioned examples and explicated

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through descriptions of the social control that persist as psychology continues to decide what is
considered “normative” means of mental health and subsequent healing.
Misconceptions of Health and Healing. Without culturally derived psychotherapeutic
approaches, psychology will likely continue to perpetuate the colonial agenda for those seeking
traditional healing alongside or instead of Western methods (McCabe, 2007). Misunderstanding
Indigenous clients' concepts of health and healing can hinder the provision of appropriate
therapeutic approaches. As previously described, this misunderstanding is built into our current
system: Duran (2019) describes that movement of the profession towards empirically tested
theories validated only by a Western positivistic approach is like a scientific guise for Western
white supremacy. Indigenous scholars and allies in applied psychology, note the need to “[point]
out how the individualistic nature of psychology serves to pathologize Indigeneity, while
protecting the field by deflecting from holding socio-political structures accountable” (Fellner et
al., 2020, p. 642). As counselling psychology was built from and continues to rely on Eurocentric
colonial ways of knowing and being, Indigenous communities’ mental and emotional health
continues to be misunderstood and inadequately supported (Fellner et al., 2020).
McCormick (1996) shares that though First Nation’s people suffer from similar mental
health issues as the general population, issues like suicide, depression, violence, and addiction
are often seen in higher rates in Indigenous communities. He shares that many Indigenous clients
are hesitant to engage with counselling approaches that intrinsically uphold colonial dynamics
and that do not incorporate important above mentioned cultural and spiritual healing practices
that are central to Indigenous communities. Blue et al. (2015) share that counselling methods
with Indigenous communities need to be based on deep respect and be beneficial to the
community, not only the individual client one is working with. They offer helpful guidance for
non-Indigenous clinicians in their article based off research and personal experience working
with communities (see, pp. 6-13). They share that non-Indigenous counsellors may inadvertently
cause more harm than good due to their influence and position of power modelling a culture
other than the client’s own. This emphasizes the importance of counsellors to understand and
acknowledge White privilege as well as the social-psychological point of view positing that even
if counselling may help an individual person, strictly Eurocentric approaches seek to add little to
a client’s community and may accidently cause more harm than good (p. 16).

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Duran (2019) further points out how psychology has diverged from its original meaning:
“the study of the soul or spirit” (i.e., from Latinized, psykhē, meaning, breath, spirit, soul). He
notes that this shift was rooted in the Enlightenment's Cartesian mind-body split and marked the
beginning of individuals and communities becoming disconnected from their "soul-world" (p.
21) resulting in a focus on individual pathology and diagnostic categories. He explains that as
Western therapeutic processes developed during this time, the human mind was deemed as
separate and superior over the natural world and consequentially, a loss of connection to the
“soul-part” of humanness occurred. This is in direct opposition to most Indigenous cultures’
beliefs about God, human, and other-than-human life (Blue et al., 2015). In this disconnect,
spiritual injury, for example, becomes irrelevant resulting in a disembodied and decontextualized
approach to healing clients and selves alike, thereby neglecting important cultural and spiritual
roots. As introduced previously, spirituality, connection to land, and a holistic approach to
healing are essential health and healing considerations for many Indigenous communities
(Hunter et al., 2006; Labun & Emblem, 2007; McCabe, 2007; Richmond, 2018). Neglecting
these components in mental health support with FNMI clients would thus be possibly detrimental
and less impactful.
Inappropriate Assessment. The concept of balance that we learn from Indigenous ways
of viewing wellness and health presents a problem for Western based, mind-body split ideals that
formulated psychological practice and assessment. According to the CPA and PFC (2018) there
are limited numbers of psychologists utilizing assessments in Indigenous communities and when
assessments are posed, they usually lack cultural relevance. For example, the use of the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 was investigated in its use with
“American Indian” populations in the United States. Results from the mixed-method study
indicated significant differences in endorsement rates between the First Nation sample and the
MMPI-2 normative group. Taken together, results indicated that the personality assessment
might actually pathologize Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours rather
than accurately assess psychopathology (Hill et al., 2010). In an Australian study, O'Conner et al.
(2015) found that psychologists working in urban areas reported experiencing contradictions
between typical White Western approaches to assessment and appropriate communication
strategies. Similarly, Mullins and Khawaja (2018) found that psychologists needed to flexibly
adapt and work out their own methods of mental health care and assessment on a trial-and-error

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method, meaning that there is not one “fixed” way to approach assessment with Indigenous
communities as assessment practice often implies.
Extant literature also speaks to how psychological assessment may be better incorporated
with and for Indigenous communities. For example, Wendt et al. (2022) explore possible best
practices for psychotherapy with Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the United States. In their
conceptual article, the authors describe this being a “thorny” question for a few reasons. First,
they recognize the settler-colonial nature of psychological practice. They also acknowledge that
due to colonial research traumas, Indigenous clients/participants are rarely represented in clinical
trials that may support building better assessment practices. They also consider the ethical
considerations of ongoing settler colonialism in research and practice and how this may limit
access to gaining insight into this problem of best practices. At the intersection of colonialism
and mental health they propose four paths to incorporating better psychotherapy practices with
Indigenous peoples, each with their own strengths (berries) and weaknesses (thorny patches).
The paths are: (a) empirically supported treatments, (b) culturally adapted interventions, (c)
common factors of evidence-based therapeutic practice, and (d) traditional healing and grassroots
cultural interventions. The authors urge psychologists to engage in more community-based
research and adopt greater cultural humility to enhance Indigenous mental health, which
inherently requires increased support for traditional healing and Indigenous-led cultural
interventions.
Culturally Safe Therapeutic Practice. The above examples have illustrated how
important cultural considerations are in offering therapy or psychological care to Indigenous
peoples. Duran (2019) describes his own personal experiences of learning about Indigenous
trauma and distress through community stories, sharing that one of the first tasks of his clinical
career was to perform needs assessments for a First Nations community so that he could develop
a behavioural health program. Duran shares that “as patients started to approach me, I would
give strategies such as behavioural interventions. They rejected these and insisted on talking
about their dreams” (p. 17). Duran learned the importance of attending to these dreams as well as
other ways of understanding suffering using the language of the community members, such as
ancestral wounding, soul sickness, or spiritual wounding. Eventually he coined the previously
introduced term, soul wound, to convey the cultural intergenerational trauma that First Peoples
have faced.

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As has been thoroughly established, it is essential to address culture and understand the
soul wound in psychotherapy to improve mental health support for Indigenous communities. Just
as the historical and present traumas associated with colonialism are considered social
determinants of health (NCCAH, 2012.), the concept of cultural continuity and resurgence is also
recognized as a determinant of health for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. For instance, studies
have demonstrated how culture moderated suicide attempts in Canadian First Nation youth
(Chandler & Lalonde, 2016). Rowan et al. (2014) conducted a scoping review of cultural
interventions to treat problematic substance use amongst Indigenous populations incorporating
Western and Indigenous ways of knowing to do so. Assessing results through at least one of four
holistic outcomes (i.e., spiritual, physical, mind/mental, heart/social/emotional) they determined
despite some variability, that culturally based interventions were more helpful for addictions
support in Indigenous populations. In McCabe’s (2007) study, findings show that Indigenous
resurgence and reclamation of culture in the mental health field can occur through engaging in
traditional healing practices. McCabe offers that the most significant difference between what
participants shared as being helpful for their healing journeys from conventional psychological
methods is the belief in the healing spirit and the absolute requirement that healing considers a
person’s spirit or soul (Duran, 2019). Taken together, the above studies demonstrate how
impactful culturally safe therapeutic approaches are and how important they are to apply as we
consider how to enact anticolonial shifts in psychology.
A Slow Pace: Psychology’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action
Like Duran (2019) posits, psychology is meant to be a way of reconnecting people to
themselves — to their souls. Duran also reminds us that when a healer is split off from their soul,
helping clients reconnect to their soul-worlds becomes an impossible task. McCormick (1996)
iterates that ethical counselling and research practices with Indigenous clients requires mental
health practitioners to “understand the traditional worldview of First Nations people” (p. 286)
which innately involves a comprehensive understanding of colonial structures, historical trauma,
spirituality, as well as Indigenous perspectives on health and wellness. Furthermore, Fullerton
(2021) states that settler therapists need not only learn about FNMI history but experientially
engage in what it means to decolonize self and practice. This said, counselling psychology (CP)
is moving more intentionally towards positive and culturally humble therapeutic practice and
research. Fellner et al. (2020) document that CP is a leading force in critiquing standardized and

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pathologizing approaches to mental health care and has contributed to the advancement of
relationship-oriented and alternative ways of healing.
Despite these moves, colonial discourse continues to be upheld in the mental health field
both through continued silence surrounding the historical roots of current Indigenous health
concerns as well as continual acts of racism that reinforce the reality that systems of care are still
untrustworthy for Indigenous clients (Fellner et al., 2019). For example, in British Columbia
(BC), the In Plain Sight (IPS) Report sheds light on Indigenous-specific stereotyping and racism
that occurs on a regular basis in BC health care systems. Only 16% of the IPS respondents
reported not experiencing discrimination or stereotyping in their visits to health care facilities
(Turpel-Lafond, 2020). However slowly, psychology is shifting the way that it attends to its
colonial roots and current state. As previously introduced, the CPA recently spoke to how the
field needs to address the mental health concerns of Indigenous Peoples of Canada more
appropriately (Ansloos et al., 2019; CPA & PFC, 2018). CPA and PFC’s task force document
has guided these shifts as well as the purpose and background of this current study. The intent of
this section of the literature review is not to outline in detail the task force’s response, but to
highlight some of the main guiding principles to which this project aims to be a direct response.
As previously outlined, the task force’ report poses guiding principles which apply to psychology
as a discipline of practice in general and principles that relate to more specific areas in the field
(see CPA & PFC, 2018, p. 12). It is challenging to delineate only a few of the guiding principles
in relation to this project, as the concept of decolonization and anticolonial praxis are not
categorical, structural, or linear processes. However, in relation to this current study, I now
outline the principles of cultural allyship and literacy, critical reflection, and education and
training.
Cultural Allyship
The task force defines cultural allyship as a call for psychologists in Canada to not only
learn about Indigenous peoples but to stand with them. This involves expanding one’s view of
Indigenous epistemologies, learning about specific ceremony, tradition, and Indigenous
spirituality, as well as understanding the impacts of colonization. All this learning is meant to
increase cultural safety and build a foundation from which to deconstruct cultural assumptions
embedded within mainstream psychology. This principle applies to all areas of psychological
practice including research, teaching, and professional service. However, in the context of White

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settler psychologists, researchers, and educators, allyship is a critiqued notion. In a paper on
unsettling allyship, White settler authors Kluttz et al. (2020) argue that allyship must go beyond
performative acts, necessitating not only knowing about but critically unlearning colonial
practices and mindsets which centre White colonial knowledge, privilege, power, leadership, and
bodies. Likewise, Kutlaca and Radke (2022) describe a possible pitfall of performative allyship.
Though stemming from good intentions, this kind of allyship is more strongly motivated by
personal needs rather than a genuine concern for the “disadvantaged” group. This may look like
engaging in easy, visible, and “costless” actions which do not actually critique the system or
epistemology in question. This kind of performative allyship may further harm the disadvantaged
group as well as the performative ally themselves. I have come to understand that the concept
ally is not something that, in this project’s case, a White settler can or should necessarily title
themselves. The same Cree/Métis colleague I mentioned in the introduction offered this lesson to
me early on in this research journey. Ensuring that psychologists not only learn about culture and
allyship generally but rather learn about and engage with localized knowledge is a way that this
kind of performative allyship can be mitigated (CPA & PFC, 2018).
Cultural Literacy
The task force iterates that creating space for localized knowledge of specific cultural
protocols and unique community perspectives on distress and mental health is crucial to move
towards more culturally safe and decolonized psychological practice. Other authors also note the
importance of cultural literacy. For example, Nuttgens and Campbell (2010) share that as culture
is inextricably a part of the counselling setting, it is essential for the therapist to gaze inward at
one’s own cultural conditioning as well as having particular (i.e., not only essentialized or
generalized) knowledge of an FNMI client and their specific culture. In the Canadian context,
Gone and colleagues (2019) expand this point on cultural literacy by referring to the context of
historical trauma (HT). Specifically, the authors share that the historical oppression and
psychological trauma that characterizes HT sets Indigenous peoples apart from other racialized
groups: “This follows from the fact that race, racial identity, and racial discrimination affect

Indigenous community members differently than for other contemporary ethnoracial
minority groups” (p. 21). Being aware of these distinctions is noted as a component of
cultural literacy and humility which may aid psychologists in cultivating cultural safety for

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Indigenous clients, students, or research participants (CPA & PFC, 2018; Fellner et al.,
2020).
Critical Reflection
The task force report writers also describe that in addition to cultural literacy, it is
incumbent for the psychologist to be able to locate or position themselves regarding their own
cultural story, their ancestors and family’s role in colonization, and their current place and space
in a field guilty of perpetuating colonial systems of thought and practice (CPA & PFC, 2018). A
humble and honest example of this approach is seen in Reid’s (2020) researcher positionality
statement. An environmental researcher, Reid defines himself as a settler with mixed EuropeanMi’kmaw ancestry. Reid describes through his lived experiences how he came to describe
himself not as an Indigenous researcher but a settler one. He acknowledges the contested views
that may exist at his positionality statements and to this, reiterates the importance of truth in truth
and reconciliation:
Truth must be spoken by the person to whom it is true, and my truth, which comes from
my lived experiences, does not speak to that of the Mi’kmaw community in which I
work, so it would be inappropriate for me to assume that role. (p. 4)
Other researchers call psychologists to this critical reflection such as Fullerton (2021),
Kovach, (2021), Morris, (2022), and Nutgens and Campbell (2010). Karlee Fellner, Cree/Métis
(2018) emphasizes this critical reflection especially considering decolonizing curriculum. Fellner
offers that students must be led to critically examine how racism, stereotypes, prejudices, and
moral judgements manifest through the actions of professional psychology: “This necessitates
deconstructing various configurations of settler privilege, and critically examining the pervasiveisms that continue to be justified and enacted against Indigenous people” (p. 287). Furthermore,
Fullerton shares that, “Critical self-reflection involves a substantial analysis of the links between
individually held beliefs, socially imposed beliefs, and the ways power is exercised through
practice” (p. 219). Fullerton expands that this requires clinicians to examine hidden assumptions
that are embedded in individual practice. The author reminds counsellors/clinicians that unlike
some scientific and psychological modalities have taught us, we are not neutral agents. We bring
our experience, ideals, values, and belief systems into the therapeutic process and it is an ethical
imperative for counsellors to continuously engage with critical self-reflection. Socially just
pedagogy and decolonial curriculum and education/training are key areas to implement critical
reflexivity.

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Education and Training
The task force brings our attention to key themes and considerations shared by the two
distinguishable yet related principles of education and training. Regarding cultural literacy
training and self-location, the task force identifies that undergraduate and graduate psychology
training needs to incorporate more comprehensive Indigenous cultural literacy training as
described above. However, Ansloos et al. (2022) share that there only a limited number of
Canadian programs that offer Indigenous-specific courses—most of which are elective
coursework and not mandatory for degree completion. In more direct relation to this project,
graduate level and continuing education institutions have ethical obligations to alleviate
ignorance and encourage cultural humility. Graduate level education can have a direct impact on
empowering communities and facilitating integrated knowledge approaches such as decolonizing
research frameworks or utilizing concepts such as two-eyed seeing. The report outlines various
other recommended changes such as having fewer barriers for Indigenous students to obtain
undergraduate/graduate degrees while maintaining community contact, as well as more
Indigenous-specific doctoral programs.
The task force recommends ongoing training and supervision for counsellors working
with Indigenous communities through course-work as well as intentional relationship-building
with community members (e.g., through friendship centers). Presently, there are rising efforts
across the globe in counselling and education research in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada
(e.g., Cullen et al., 2020; Fellner, 2018; Hotere-Barnes, 2015) to better understand the
mechanisms of decolonizing and Indigenizing counselling training programs, research, and
clinical practice. In Canada, Fellner (2018) shares that professionals in psychology and allied
disciplines can enter into meaningful and beneficial work with Indigenous communities through
actively decolonizing and Indigenizing research, practice, and education. Referring to her
dissertation research, she describes an embodying decoloniality framework, Braiding the
Sweetgrass, as a three-strand interconnected process of deconstructing what is not working in
practice and research, restor(y)ing colonial narratives through community-based Indigenous
perspectives, and identifying how these perspectives and practices can be engaged by
communities and psychologists. These strands are stronger together than alone and summarize
well the above-mentioned task force principles.

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In summary, Ansloos et al. (2019) share that it is crucial for many non-Indigenous
psychologists to “become more actively engaged in their own learning about Indigenous peoples’
experiences” (p. 277). For Indigenous practitioners, the authors highlight the need to continue to
advance Indigenous knowledge and wisdom in the field and carve out spaces for Indigenous
students to contribute to the necessary shifts. With Indigenous presence and voice in Western
research and practice brings Indigenous thought, custom, culture, practice, and bodies (Kovach,
2021, p. 266). This impactful presence also brings hesitancy, especially for the non-Indigenous
practitioner. For some, hesitancy displays an active resistance to change, and for others this
hesitancy reflects passive dismissal. However, in Western universities Kovach (2021) points out
that there is also an uncertainty of how to include, without subsuming, Indigenous knowledges.
Kovach remains clear that non-Indigenous researchers and practitioners who desire to become
allies must continue to contend with these unsettled feelings – cultural allyship, critical
reflection, cultural literacy, and education and training are some identified beginning points for
psychologists to consider. The next section outlines research depicting decolonizing perspectives
and reflections as well as lessons learned by non-Indigenous counsellors/therapists in their work
with Indigenous clients.
Pulling up Roots: Decolonization and Unsettling the Settler
Decolonization is not a Metaphor
As you may recall from the introduction, I relayed a teaching I received at a TRC event at
my graduate institution. In response to someone asking, “And so then, what really is
decolonization and how do I, as a scientist do it?”, one of the speakers, a settler- educator, shared
her own experiences of attending at a conference in which she was enlightened to the idea that
decolonization likely looks different depending on your social, cultural, and personal positioning.
This idea is reflected in literature speaking about decolonizing clinical and counselling
psychology (Bowden et al., 2017; Conyer, 2020; Fullerton, 2021; Green and Sonn, 2005; Jordan,
2021; Nuttens & Campbell, 2010). Further, it is important to understand the implications of
referring to decolonization in a way that recentres colonial discourse and practice. Tuck and
Yang (2012) speak to this tendency, warning us of referring to decolonization as a metaphor or a
discourse that resettles the settler and moves us “towards innocence” (p. 3). They suggest that
decolonization requires an unsettling and re-establishing of the word as a verb (decolonize) and a
noun (decolonization) and as something that stands on its own in contrast to other critical

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theories, social justice, or multicultural movements. It has also been stressed that raising critical
consciousness is only the beginning of decolonization, which should ultimately be defined by
Indigenous peoples, leaving the role of non-Indigenous settlers, even those trying to be allies,
uncertain (Schmidt, 2019). This uncertainty is a key process of the “decolonizing struggle”
(Fullerton, 2021, p. 219).
The Settler-Therapist Decolonial Struggle
Qualitative and critically reflexive autoethnographic and narrative studies demonstrate
that engaging the decolonial struggle can evoke uncomfortable emotions like guilt and shame
(Fullerton, 2021; Jordan, 2021; Fellner, 2020). This is because settlers cannot only engage
“theoretically” with decolonizing but must experience it personally before ethically applying
these learnings to challenge dominant narratives in the community (Fullerton, 2021). For
example, Conyer (2020), a White Australian psychologist writes about the experiences that have
challenged her to think about decolonization differently. She shares:
I was struck by the assertion that good intentions to alleviate some of the impacts of
colonisation within one’s own sphere of influence is not equivalent to decolonising and
may be another form of appropriation that primarily serves the settler by relieving
feelings of guilt or responsibility. (p. 104)
Grappling with this tension requires humility, community, and commitment to critical reflection.
Like colonization is not a one-time event, the act of resisting and dismantling problematic
worldviews and systems is also not a one-time event. As Suchet (2007) powerfully asserts, “the
colonizer within can never be shed, only disrupted, over and over again” (pp. 883–884).
To the best of my knowledge, there is limited literature that highlights the specific
experiences of allied-settler psychologists working with Indigenous communities. More broadly,
studies have involved investigating measures of therapist self-perceived multicultural
competencies (Glockshuber, 2005; Lee et al., 2022), or inquiry into how culture is incorporated
into therapy sessions (Porter & Owen, 2024; Sue, 1998; Trevino et al., 2021). Regardless,
Bowden et al. (2017) conclude in a narrative inquiry into two “non-Aboriginal” psychologists
working with Canadian First Nations communities that, “Often little is said about the changes
that take place in counsellors who engage in regular self-reflective practice and work in crosscultural contexts” (p. 55). There may be many reasons for why this is, but delineating these is
beyond the scope of this literature review. However, researchers and scholars working to
understand and shift the impacts of colonialism and its consequences share that likely this lack of

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what is “not said” is in part due to how settler-colonizers have been taught to maintain complicit
silence – not talking about our histories and direct or intergenerational participation with cultural
genocide helps us avoid uncomfortable feelings such as guilt, shame, regret, and uncertainty
(Morris, 2022). Anti-racism and activist scholars posit that settler-colonizers deal with the facts
of our uncomfortable histories by not talking about them (Kendi, 2019; Menakem, 2017).
Fullerton (2021) argues that the only way to begin shifting colonial therapeutic practice and offer
more culturally safe environments is by engaging in the decolonial struggle of confronting these
uncomfortable feelings that come with talking about our colonial-selves.
Resma Menakem, social worker and somatic experiencing practitioner in the United
States utilizes research on trauma to explain the avoidance that “white-bodied” (p. xiii) people
have around engaging in reflection on race, racism, and colonial violence. Menakem (2017)
offers that, “we have tried to teach our brains to think better about race. But white-body
supremacy doesn’t live in our thinking brains. It lives and breathes in our bodies” (p. 5).
Menakem and other multicultural therapists suggest that an important step for healing the
impacts of racism and colonial supremacy is to get white bodies together in groups of three or
more to discuss and reflect on their nervous system responses to conversations around race,
power and privilege (Bartoli et al., 2015; Menakem, 2017; Johnson, 2023). These conversations
will likely bring up uncomfortable emotions for white-bodied therapists.
For example, research into the experiences of White counselling psychologists working
in multicultural settings describes the motivating and detrimental reactions of guilt and shame
(Bartoli et al., 2015; Fullerton, 2021; Jordan, 2021; Parker & Schwartz, 2002). Parker and
Schwartz in particular have identified that often, shame responses are most apparent in White
counselling students learning multicultural counselling competencies. They highlight research on
shame and how the experience of shame can limit empathic understanding and elicit negative
secondary emotions like distress and humiliation, ultimately impeding on the counsellor-client
relationship. If, however, the counsellor is able to work through these emotional responses, they
can actually enhance the counselling process.
Leaning into our emotional reactions and responses – which for a colonizer-identifying
person might be guilt, shame, defensiveness, forgetfulness, and confusion (Jordan, 2021) – and
to the stories and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples across the globe is essential to an
active engagement in decolonization. The need for more White settler voices to speak up about

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their socio-cultural identities and positions in colonial settings is the only way to begin to undo
problematic worldviews, beliefs, and daily life practices (Fullerton, 2021). In studies
investigating therapist lived experience in working with Indigenous communities, this speaking
up translates to critical self-reflection involving one’s own cultural identity, reflection on
whiteness, shifting worldview beliefs, and interrogating problematic ideals of cultural
competency.
Critical Self-Reflection and Therapist Self Awareness
As has been covered already in a description of the task force’s recommendations, it is
ethically imperative for settler psychologists to engage in self-reflection and self-awareness
(CPA & PFC, 2018; Fellner, 2020). Nuttgens and Campbell (2010) highlight that therapist selfawareness improves our ability to understand how we are impacted emotionally by people and
experiences in a way that we are able to respond more effectively. Regarding working with
Indigenous communities, in Bowden et al.’s (2017) narrative study, participants demonstrated
therapist self-awareness in that they were able to learn from the experiences of working with
communities that challenged preconceived worldviews and beliefs they held. This self-awareness
led Bob, one of the participants, to shift his perspective about what it meant to be a nonIndigenous ally by being taken outside of his comfort zone and, “forced to re-examine his
preconceived notions and stereotypes” (p. 55). The authors share that this participant’s identity
was redefined as he critically reflected on issues of “race, ethnicity, oppression, power, and
privilege in his life” (p. 54). Similarly, Fullerton (2021) describes the goals of critical selfreflection as being culturally safe therapeutic alliances with Indigenous clients. This requires
counsellors to “reorient their gaze, place themselves under scrutiny, and experience the
unsettling discomfort that accompanies this process” (p. 222).
The ability to redefine one’s beliefs and subsequent identity in this way contributes to the
important work of undoing ethnocentric thought that has been shown to limit therapeutic rapport
and trust in cross-cultural counselling relationships (Nuttgens & Campbell, 2017). Given that it
is well known that the therapeutic relationship is one of the most essential conditions for change
and healing in psychotherapy, attending to factors via critical reflection that may limit this
relationship building has been shown to be essential (Arnow et al., 2013; Bachelor, 2013;
Duncan et al., 2003). It is maintained that learning about one’s own settler cultural identity and
ancestry is an important part of this process (Hotere-Barnes, 2015).

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Reflecting on Settler Cultural Identity
Ethnocentrism and cultural literacy can be resisted and expanded respectively by
reflecting on one’s cultural identity (Nuttgens & Campbell, 2010). Culture may be defined many
ways. Gone (2011) refers to culture as “shared patterns of activity, interpretation, and interaction
that remain both durable and dynamic over time” (p. 188). Cultural identity is how one makes
sense of these shared patterns within their historic and social contexts. Since cultural identity and
continuity are protective factors for a person’s psychological and emotional well-being (Oster et
al., 2015; Gibson et al., 2021) it is important to consider these constructs and experiences as they
pertain to mental health services and approaches to supporting and standing with Indigenous
communities. Connection to cultural identity is cited as being essential to improve therapeutic
rapport and is necessary for both the client as well as the healer whether that be a counselling
psychologist or traditional healer (Duran, 2019; Hotere-Barnes, 2015). Duran (2019) elucidates
that specifically, it is important for healers to consider who they are spiritually, socially, and
individually. Furthermore, for the White therapist, reflecting on cultural identity needs to occur
by way of reflecting on whiteness as well as clarifying a secure yet humble attachment to one’s
culture as a White person. For many White people, this is not something we oft have considered.
As Suchet (2017) relays,
For most people, that is a strange question for which they have no answer. Whiteness is
that which is not seen and not named. It is present everywhere but absent from
discussion. It is the silent norm … This silence is central to the power of whiteness … It
is important to understand that whiteness is not only about race and racism. Whiteness is
a lived experience. (p. 200)
Bartoli et al. (2015) expands the above notion to White counsellors, positing, “We must
offer Whites the vision of an anti-racist White identity, through which they can begin identifying
both as Whites with unearned privileges as well as Whites that can use their privileges to subvert
the status quo” (p. 254). Notably, one cannot speak about colonization without addressing
whiteness as a significant factor in upholding harmful power dynamics. Jordan (2021) effectively
addresses colonization and whiteness in the therapeutic context. The author cites Fanon (1967)
sharing that “colonial racism corrupts white persons’ souls because of a worldview reliant on the
dehumanisation of others” (as cited in Jordan, 2021, p. 108). Jordan continues, sharing that
White family mental health practitioners must effectively work to dislocate themselves from
their Eurocentric cultures which uphold whiteness as the norm. This cultural dislocation pertains
to therapists and researchers acknowledging that they are entering mental health contexts in

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which differing cultural understandings of health and healing exist. For racialized persons, they
are required to negotiate their culture daily to fit the majorized culture. Part of the privilege of
whiteness is that majorized therapists do not have to do this and thus are accountable for our
power in these spaces (Conyer, 2021).
Jordan (2021) calls this negotiation a negotiated space, that is, a space in which
majorized practitioners and researchers learn to recognize the value and limits of our worldview
rather than “abandoning it with the hope of adopting another’s” (p 179). As part of the work of
unsettling the settler and decolonizing mental health practice, Jordan highlights the need for
White therapists to develop a secure cultural identity themselves by acknowledging the salience
of racism, the reality of White supremacy, the knowledge of hidden self and familial histories
and ancestries of the land we live on, and through developing a racial consciousness. In New
Zealand, Hotere-Barnes (2015) also speaks to the notion of clarifying a strong cultural identity in
White (i.e., Pākehā) researchers engaging in educational research with Māori. Hotere-Barnes
emphasizes that valuing the richness, paradoxes, and challenges of Pākeha cultural identity adds
complexity and strength to the relationships and research efforts. At the same time, it is
important to be critically aware of the power dynamics that influence Māori-Pākeha relationships
in research. Being critically aware and culturally humble is key to this cultural identity
connection process.
Reflecting on (The Problem) of Cultural Competency
Reflecting on what it means to be culturally competent and to incorporate culturally safe
and culturally relevant approaches is the final main theme that appeared across limited literature
on non-Indigenous therapists working with Indigenous communities (Mullins & Khawaja, 2018).
Cross and colleagues (1989) define cultural competence (CC) as “a set of congruent behaviours,
attitudes, and policies, that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and
enable that system, agency, or those professionals to work effective in cross-cultural situations”
(p. 13). Multicultural counselling competencies (MCCs) have become popularized over the past
decade and have begun to be included in graduate training as part of the accreditation process
(Davis et al., 2018). However, studies have demonstrated that therapists often have better
outcomes with White clients than with “racial ethnic minority (REM)” clients (Mosher et al.,
2017, p. 221) emphasizing the need for more “culturally competent” therapists. MCC theory
implies that certain competencies can predict therapy outcomes and can be clearly defined and

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taught to trainees. According to that program of research, therapists' levels of competency can be
reliably distinguished and these competencies are seen as consistent characteristics inherent to
the therapist (Davis et al., 2018). However, multicultural therapists and researchers have begun
to problematize the notion of competency regarding culture in counselling.
Davis and colleagues (2018) share that challenges in connecting MCCs with therapy
outcomes include discrepancies between therapists' self-assessments and client ratings, as well as
issues with the measures used to assess MCCs. While some studies show a link between client
perceived MCCs and therapy outcomes, current MCC measures have been criticized.
Additionally, MCCs are not consistently seen as stable therapist traits, as client ratings of the
same therapist often lack convergence. An evolving perspective supported by recent research is
the acceptance of a multicultural orientation framework (MCO) approach specifically centred
around the idea of cultural humility (Owen et al., 2016). Hook et al. (2017) describes cultural
humble practice as focusing on the process, values, and interactions between the therapist and
client. It is a process of being open, self-aware, being “egoless”, and “incorporating selfreflection and critique after willingly interacting with diverse individuals” (Foronda et al., 2016,
p. 213). Shifting away from the language of 'competency,' which implies a fixed 'end goal,' and
adopting a culturally humble and open framework instead guides the therapist towards a lifelong
commitment to deeply understanding both themselves and others. As a dynamic interaction of
culturally embedded experiences, the therapy setting requires this culturally humble approach.
As previously mentioned, MCO and cultural humility require continual therapist critical
reflection and learning about their own cultural identities. In their study, Bowden et al. (2017)
delineate that this humble approach often looks like therapist admittance of “not knowing”,
meaning that therapists must attempt to learn from cultural providers, Elders, and traditional
healing systems preferred by their clients. Furthermore, cultural safety, a term coined by a Māori
nurse by the name of Irihapiti Ramsden (Papps & Ramsden, 1996), is another useful concept and
process that clinicians are being encouraged to utilize in their work. Cultural safety refers to “a
focus for the delivery of quality care through changes in thinking about power relationships and
patients’ rights” (p. 493). This important concept has been limitedly studied but is shown to be
qualitatively more effective in working well with Indigenous communities (Kruske et al., 2006).
Cultural safety emphasizes that clients determine what is culturally safe and whether a clinical
encounter meets that standard (Brascoupé & Waters, 2009). This approach shifts the power

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dynamic in the therapeutic relationship, allowing clients to define what is culturally relevant to
their needs and values. Instead of applying a universal approach to cross-cultural counselling,
cultural safety responds to power dynamics, supports Indigenous sovereignty, and questions
dominant social hierarchies. This focus on shared power relations makes cultural safety
particularly beneficial in cross-cultural Indigenous counselling (Curtis et al., 2019). Thus,
research on cultural competency, humility, and safety taken together reflects the important work
that counsellors and healers must continuously do as they critically reflect on their cultural
identities and engage in the decolonial struggle in their work.
Tying it Together: Chapter Summary
This literature review has provided an overview of how psychology as a system has
perpetuated colonial oppression in mental health care and research involving Indigenous
communities. I first highlighted the survivance and resistance of Indigenous communities in the
face of colonial oppression and broadly defined what health and wellness means to these
communities. I discussed how psychology in Canada is being urged to respond to the TRC
through more culturally aware and humble education, training, assessment, and counsellor
cultural literacy. I then discussed the important process of reflecting on counsellor whiteness and
power in order to remain self-aware and open to engaging with diverse clients in a culturally safe
way. Literature reviewed explored the ways in which counsellors have begun to engage this
work, however, there is a significant gap in research exploring the experiences of White settler
counselling psychologists (WCPs) and their decolonial attempts in practice. This study aims to
respond with transformative action to the TRC calls to action and psychology’s response and to
address the research gap regarding the experiences of WCPs working with Indigenous clients.
Considering the above review, this study’s research question(s) ask:
1. How do WCPs experience and narrate their personal and professional decolonizing
journeys?
2. What is a WCP’s role in decolonizing their therapeutic practice?
This research is my humble attempt to embrace no longer “not talking” about whiteness,
colonial power, and my own and others complicity and resistance to alternative ways of knowing
and being in counselling psychology research and practice. Like I presented previously, the need
for more White settler voices to speak up about their socio-cultural identities and positions in

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colonial settings is the only way to begin to undo problematic worldviews, beliefs, and daily life
practices (Fullerton, 2021).

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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
... Life is both more and less than a story. It is more in that it is the basis of a variety of
stories, and it is less in that it is unfinished and unclear as long as there are no stories told
about it.
—Paul Ricœur, Time and Narrative, Volume 3
The following section details my research design, highlighting a critical-relational
research paradigm— valuing decolonial research attempts— as it relates to my choice of
narrative inquiry and arts-based research methods. Additionally, in this chapter you will be
formally introduced to the participants (Pseudonyms; Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige), and the
beautiful work that they were involved in over the data collection and analysis period. I detail
how art was used in data collection as well as the narrative analysis approach I took to construct
the personal experience narratives contained in chapter four. Before I continue, I would like to
share a brief note on researcher voice in qualitative and narrative research design.
Like many emergent qualitative research processes, this project has evolved in a cyclical
pattern. I have experienced a continual “coming back around”, as I have moved and been
transformed by this journey of research. As I have walked this research path, I have at times
found it challenging to use and share my researcher voice. Ely (2007) highlights this concern for
narrative researchers, sharing that “speaking up” in our research texts is often challenging for a
variety of reasons including what we have been taught about writing and research in academia,
as well as our own personal sensitivities, reticence, social position, and how we see ourselves as
writers—or not. Given that narrative research is meant to illustrate how other people experience
life, narrative researchers may keep silent so that research participants can fully articulate their
own stories themselves. This also looks like allowing readers to interpret the texts for
themselves, another important component of narrative research. Ely clarifies, however, that a
researcher’s voice still must be heard. I shared part of my story in this document’s introduction
as a way of situating myself and my voice in this project and I continue to weave in moments of
reflection and story in this section and beyond. This narrative research project inherently
involves the voice of myself and my participants, together constructing narratives in response to
the research questions. My social, historical, cultural, and relational context, along with my
previous experiences have influenced how I came to this research project as well as how I
understood my research participants and their stories throughout the process.
Methodology, Method, and Research Paradigm

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This project has involved intentionally navigating and engaging with Indigenous ways of
knowing and being, while also recognizing my position as a European settler-researcher (Held,
2019; Reid, 2020). My attempts in this engagement, both the ones that are helpful and ones that
are not, exist as the challenging pause and necessary reconsiderations that Kovach (2021)
identifies:
Indigenous methodologies are a call to the non-Indigenous scholars to adjourn disbelief
and, in the pause, consider alternative methodological possibilities … how we make room
to honour both and bridge the epistemic differences is not going to be easy. This will be a
challenge so long as the colonial relationships surrounding the reproduction of
knowledge persist. (p. 29)
In this necessary struggle, I asked myself how other colonial-settler counselling psychologists
and/or researchers experience their lives and themselves as they learn and grow as allies in the
field. To honour my research story and relationships with Indigenous ways of knowing and
relating, I relied heavily on integrating Western ways of knowing alongside Indigenous tradition
and wisdom. As previously introduced, the concept of two-eyed seeing has guided and continues
to guide me and this project's research design and procedures.
Furthermore, I was inspired by Levac et al.’s (2018) description of linking frameworks
that scholars who are engaged in the work of reconciliation and decolonization have shared to
further assist in bridging Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and being in research.
Considering this, the frameworks of métissage and bricolage came into my purview. In both art
and research utilizing creative expression, the terms métissage and bricolage encompass artistic
techniques and broader philosophical issues, offering opportunities within qualitative research. In
art, the term métissage stems from the Latin word mixtus (i.e., mixed) and refers specifically to
cloth made up of two different fibers (Scotti & Chilton, 2018). Bricolage, a French word for
tinkering, artistically represents the act of creating something with items immediately at hand
(Scotti & Chilton, 2018). In qualitative research praxis, métissage and bricolage together
promote the idea of creatively embracing different types of methodologies and procedures woven
together, enhancing the depth, complexity, and rigour of research projects.
In other words, this research entailed the explicit reliance on my intuition as I “tinkered”
with “pieces” of research questions, methodology, method, and analysis procedures. Intuition is a
familiar phenomenon to both the creative and research process. Janesick (2001) states:
If we can help describe how we use our intuition and creativity in our research projects,
all of us benefit ... Like the artist who uses paint and brushes or the dancer who uses

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movement, the qualitative researcher uses many techniques as tools to ultimately tell a
story. (p. 533)
Shawn Wilson (2001) also describes this intuitive nature of research and the necessary inclusion
of intuition especially in Indigenous methodologies sharing that, “A big part of my method has
involved intuitive learning” (p. 178). By relying on intuition and creativity, and integrating
frameworks such as two-eyed seeing, métissage, and bricolage, I drew together an arts-based and
narrative method of inquiry and analysis. This methodological choice was appropriate as I was
able to situate these methods within my decolonial-critical-relational research paradigm to
explore and engage with this project’s research questions and purposes.
Narrative Inquiry
Narrative inquiry has many facets depending on one’s context, project, philosophical
assumptions, and academic discipline (Lynn-Butler, 2018). Illustratively, Chase (2005) defines
narrative inquiry as “an amalgam of interdisciplinary analytic lenses, diverse disciplinary
approaches, and both traditional and innovative methods—all revolving around an interest in
biographical particulars as narrated by the ones who live them” (p. 651). For this study,
specifically, I drew from McCormack (2004) and Fraser (2004) in their applied approaches to
utilizing NI. From a more philosophical stance, Spector-Mersel (2010) and Clandinin et al.
(2021) inspired my theoretical understanding of NI. A few central tenets hold true across
narrative inquiry stemming from the just mentioned narrative researchers, expanded upon next.
These tenets and methods complimented my research story and purpose of exploring participant
experience and life-stories as a way of engaging with the research questions.
Narrative inquiry and analysis are based on the presumption that humans are storytelling
beings and is a relational methodology that foregrounds experience (Riesmann, 2008). Narrative
researchers utilize narrative inquiry to learn about the ways that individuals and groups shape
their identity through stories as well as to expand our understanding of individual identities
(Spector-Mersel, 2010). In aiming to understand general social processes, some narrative
researchers believe that it is necessary to focus on the personal embodiment of these processes in
actual practice —that is in actual narratives. Furthermore, some narrative inquirers focus on
expanding a sounder understanding of the phenomenon in study while others take a step further,
seeking to achieve personal, social, or political change. I chose narrative inquiry to meet both
goals of knowledge development. In hearing participants narrate their decolonizing journeys, I
aimed to expand knowledge on an often-overlooked topic while also encouraging participants to

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embrace new insights and learnings gained from sharing their stories, facilitating personal and
social transformation in their clinical practice and personal lives. Related to these goals of
knowledge development, I believe that we make meaning of our experiences through narrating to
ourselves and others what we know and how we have come to know it (Riesmann, 2008).
Connelly and Clandinin (1988) call this personal practical knowledge and define it as,
… a particular way of reconstructing the past and the intentions for the future to deal
with the exigencies of a present situation … a narrative, curricular understanding of the
person is an understanding that is flexible and fluid … people say and do different things
in different circumstances and, conversely, that different circumstances bring forward
different aspects of their experience to bear on the situation. (p. 25)
This reconstruction was a central process in the narrative analytic procedures of this
project, influencing how I listened to participants as they told and retold their stories at various
points and in various ways. This involved the way that narratives were constructed through
collage-making, retold as participants reflected on their artwork, and reconstructed as I created
interpretive —personal experience— narratives for each participant. This process integrated
participant art, focus group conversations, and individual interviews to reflect their stories and
the realities they conveyed to me and to each other. Furthermore, this narrative reconstruction
aligns with a critical and constructivist belief that reality is a product of personal creation and coconstruction (Spector-Mersel, 2010). In essence, we learn, adapt, and share knowledge and
experience through creation of narratives, making meaning through the stories we tell.
Narrative inquiry also emphasizes relationship and collaboration. According to Bochner
and Riggs (2014), our lives are storied and co-authored through collaborative enactment and
dialogue with other “characters” we engage in relationship with. They posit that due to our storysharing nature the “idea of a unified, fixed, and singular self ontologically prior to and apart from
a person’s living experience is replaced by the notion of a multiple, fluid, and negotiated identity
that is continuously under narrative construction” (p. 195). In the same way, Indigenous
methodologies highly value relationality in research approaches such as storywork (Archibald,
2008) and Shawn Wilson’s (2008) explication of Indigenous relational research principles.
Guiding principles from Nêhiyaw and Saulteaux scholar, Margaret Kovach (2021), indicate that
qualitative research related to Indigenous knowledges should respectfully and responsibly collect
stories, with the goal to understand the self in relation to others: “A self-reflective narrative
research process that honours multiple truths is congruent with an ethos of nisitohtamowin (a
Cree word for understanding) or ‘self-in-relation’ (Kovach, 2021, p. 26). Relatedly, we are

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continually co-constructing knowledge in relation to our world and those around us, and this
knowledge informs what we tell ourselves and others about who we are and where we aim to go.
In this narrative research project, knowledge is co-constructed between participants and
me, recognizing that this knowledge is continuously and experientially shaped by cultural, social,
personal, and embodied contexts (Clandinin et al., 2022). We cannot separate our individual
narratives from the broader cultural and societal discourses, specifically the colonial and
anticolonial discourses alive in places and communities in so-called, Canada. Narrative inquiry
can also illuminate how power and oppression are perpetuated and represented through social
and cultural narratives. Given the colonial context that my research participants and I are in and
due to the goals of a critical-decolonial research paradigm, I aimed to understand and address
power dynamics through the research process. Colonial narratives have powerfully shaped the
systems of mental health and approaches to counselling (Duran, 2019; Fellner, 2020) and
challenging these colonial narratives by inviting (anti)colonial discourse involves speaking to
those involved in the systems of power, encouraging silence to be broken, and stories shared to
promote critical reflection, awareness, and anti-racist enactment (Kendi, 2023). I was curious,
then, about what narratives were developed by and for individuals who are genuinely engaging
with their role in colonialism, and who were aiming to foster anticolonial perspectives within the
counselling profession.
However, I have wondered at points of this project if I was centring the wrong voice and
story; that of the settler-colonial counselling psychologist. I wondered if doing so would
perpetuate silencing underrepresented voices in the research sphere. In a conversation I had with
mentor and guide Siyá:m Patti Victor, Switametelót, I shared these fears around centring settler
voice in this project. Patti helped me understand that the silence that settler-colonialists have
chosen needs to be broken not perpetuated. A power shift begins to occur as we honestly face our
own complicity and silence in the movement towards anticolonial approaches to health and
wellness. This “non-silence” coincides with Morris’ (2022) narrative family history study which
speaks to the way settler-colonizers erase notions of our uncomfortable history to increase our
subjective security by not talking about it. Not talking inevitably leads to not knowing, and to not
know further enforces a culture of ignorance and avoidance of taking appropriate accountability
and action in decolonizing self and practice.

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Finally, Clandinin et al. (2022) highlight the embodied nature of narrative inquiry, noting
that, “our understanding, therefore, involves our whole being – our bodily capacities and skills,
our values, our moods … our aesthetic sensibilities and so on” (p. 46). In the social sciences,
embodied methodologies are increasingly gaining recognition. Vachelli (2018) suggests that the
body plays a central role in qualitative research and art, specifically the use of collage, is a
modality through which an embodied experience can be facilitated (Scotti & Chilton, 2018).
Ritenburg et al. (2018) describe how "embodied knowledges live within the body and are
expressed through it" (p. 70). I aimed to understand not only how participants spoke and
articulated their narratives but also how they engaged and shared their stories in an embodied
way. I believe that our bodies hold meaningful and storied knowledges. Thus, engaging in art
and using the body to tell a story through collage-making was an integral part of my attempt to
facilitate “whole-bodied knowing” in this project.
Arts-Based Inquiry: Collage-Making as Method
Arts-based research, or inquiry, (ABR) involves employing creative arts methods across
various stages of research such as data collection, analysis, and re-presentation. ABR practices
adapt tenets of creative arts to explore research questions holistically, blending theoretical
insights with practical applications (Leavy, 2020). Art is an explorative process through which
the researcher either individually or with others engages creativity and artmaking as a mode of
inquiry (McNiff, 2018). ABR can expose people to “new ideas, stories, or images and can do so
in the service of cultivating social consciousness” (Leavy, 2018a, p. 10). A distinct benefit of
ABR is that it seeks not only to be accessible to those with artistic talent and training but is a
cross-disciplinary epistemological and communicative approach that can be available to every
person. This is exemplified in therapeutic approaches such as expressive art therapy (EAT),
which utilizes a variety of arts in a supportive setting to facilitate experiencing and expression of
feelings and meanings. In EAT, the process of creating whatever art form, no matter the finished
product, is a process of self-discovery, encouraging holistic, evocative, and participatory
processes which can be means to create critical awareness (Rogers, 1999). This self-discovery is
essential for the project’s (re)storying process, aimed at decolonizing self and practice.
Personally, I have engaged in collage making for several years before this project’s
conception, utilizing this artform in personal journaling and gift making. I have found it to be a
useful way to reflect and explore otherwise difficult to articulate feelings and thoughts. Through

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various discussions with my thesis committee, I recognized the importance of incorporating an
active and embodied form of inquiry. Consequently, I chose ABR to complement narrative
inquiry. I chose to use collage as a modality as it was one that I am familiar and comfortable with
myself, and it is known to be a more accessible form of artmaking (Scotti & Chilton, 2018).
Knowing that art can be challenging for some people to engage with, I wanted to be able to
speak to the process and be a resource for participants as they worked on their piece. Thus, two
main purposes for using collage as data collection and analysis were (1) participant selfdiscovery and (2) visual elicitation in follow up interviews (Orr et al., 2020) which I will discuss
in more detail in following sections.
For this project, one purpose of utilizing collage is its embodied nature. The movement
involved in changing body posture, flipping through magazines, cutting out images, and
arranging them to create something new fosters an embodied engagement that aids in making
meaning and (re)storying one’s experiences. Relatedly, Scotti and Chilton (2018) describe the
specific use of collage in research as a transformative-critical tacit of inquiry. This interactive
and collective approach to inquiry and analysis fits well with how Kovach (2021) and others
describe embodied ways of knowing and decolonizing (Fellner, 2021; Ritenberg et al., 2014).
Participants each shared that creating their collage and reflecting on it afterward gave meaning to
their experiences and raised awareness of their historical, social, and political contexts in light of
their therapeutic practice, meeting the goals of using collage as method.
Data Collection and Analysis
Participants
Those who utilize artistic and philosophical “bricolage” are called bricoleurs (Yardley,
2008). This term refers to the person who creates using whatever materials that are available. For
this research project, I include materials to mean not only the physical items that participants
utilized to create their collage, but also the relationships, stories, sensations, emotions, and
thoughts that became and were available to us as we (co-bricoleurs and myself) embarked on this
research journey together. Throughout the rest of this document, I use the terms “co-bricoleur(s)”
and “participant(s)” interchangeably and refer to myself as researcher-bricoleur.
Co-bricoleurs were selected using criterion-based sampling to enhance opportunities for
rich, informative engagement (Morrow, 2005). It was crucial to involve individuals who were
available, willing, and able to reflect on and provide insights into their personal and professional

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helping journeys related to the research questions (Palinkas et al., 2015). Participants for this
study self-identified as White and were required to have at least 1-2 years of experience in the
mental health field, either through undergraduate work or master's program practicums or postgraduate work experience. They needed to be actively engaged in a helping profession and reside
in the Greater Vancouver area, able to attend an in-person artmaking focus group. Participants
were also expected to demonstrate a commitment to lifelong reconciliation and allyship with
Indigenous communities in Canada, be interested in holistically reflecting on and sharing their
decolonization experiences, and be proficiently fluent in English, as all sessions would be
conducted in English. This commitment and suitability were self-identified and confirmed during
an initial phone call where I provided details about the research topic and its significance.
For recruitment purposes, I provided my immediate connections in counselling
psychology with a poster (see Appendix A) and an email invitation (see Appendix B) to
distribute to potential co-bricoleurs. I requested that my connections share the invitation with
anyone who might be interested in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland area. Given the tactile
and kinesthetic nature of artmaking, individuals who could not participate in person for the
collage-making focus group would be unable to engage in the project. Interested participants
were given a letter of informed consent outlining the research purpose, procedures, potential
risks and benefits, and confidentiality procedures (See Appendix C) and this was reviewed in the
initial phone call and before the focus group commenced.
A total of four participants, three self-identified White settler females and one White
settler male, took part in the study. Three of the four participants were known by me directly and
one participant was connected to the project through a personal connection. I met the
requirement for non-coercion by fully informing each participant of what the project was and
what their involvement would entail, ensuring full informed consent was provided in the
beginning of our work together as well as throughout the project. I was able to learn a great deal
from participants who because of our prior relationship trusted the space I held for them. This
trust invited participants to share their stories vulnerably with me as well as offer suggestions
and input on how the research procedures might unfold, as Colin did when he shared that the
focus group should be 3 hours instead of my initially proposed 1.5.
Embodied Engagement: Collage Focus Group

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Research participants were invited to participate in a collage focus group and individual
follow up interviews, as well as a final member checking conversation. The focus group and
individual interviews took place over the period of August 2023–October 2023 and the final
debriefing conversations took place over March 2024–June 2024. Before data collection, I hosted
two practice focus groups and two practice interviews with several individuals as a pilot study to
seek feedback and refine procedures to be as streamlined and effective as possible.
The collage focus-group involved coming together for three hours one morning during
which time participants engaged in creating collage artwork in response to prompts relating to
the research question (See Appendix, D for focus group facilitation guide and prompts provided).
I provided collage materials such as high-quality cardstock paper, various magazines or pre-cut
images that cover a range of topics and issues for diversity, scissors, glue sticks and clear varnish
for the completed project, as well as a variety of other craft items that might be useful. Prior to
the group, I had invited participants, like Scotti and Chilton (2018) suggest, to bring an image or
item that they might like to include in their collage or use as inspiration representing their
personal experiences with their journeys of decolonizing self and practice thus far. No participant
ended up bringing in an item or image.
I began the group with introductions and invited participants to share whatever they felt
comfortable sharing about who they were, where they worked, and what they were hoping for or
concerned about for the day. To further support participant artistic freedom and process, I
introduced the group to the idea of “big C” and “little c” creativity—a concept I had been taught
in my own creative journey—and offered a grounding land acknowledgement meditation (see
Appendix D) to bring participants into their bodies and a thoughtful state of mind. I then invited
co-bricoleurs to respond to the provided question(s) and prompts by cutting and pasting images,
words, and objects that represent to them their process of decolonizing their personal and
professional selves. Participants engaged mostly independently on their art making for the full
two hours allotted to the collage-portion. After they were finished, I invited participants to reflect
and share about their piece together. I asked them to reflect on what it was like to build their
collage and to share what it meant to them in that moment. Participants engaged openly and
honestly, sharing with each other as well as asking questions or making meaning of each other’s
work during this debriefing time. This conversation was audio recorded and was included in
transcription and analysis.

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In keeping with the reciprocal and respectful axiological perspectives of relational and
decolonial research (Kirkness & Barnhart, 1991), co-bricoleurs were given the option to leave
their collage with me or take it home as their property and bring it with them to the follow-up
interview. Each participant desired to take the collage home and so with their consent, I took
pictures of the collage to ensure accessibility for the follow-up interview and to display in the
findings section.
Follow-Up Interviews
The second step of data collection was individual semi-structured narrative interviews
with participants (See Appendix E for interview protocol). Two of the four interviews were held
in person and the other two were held over Zoom. The interviews were all approximately one
hour in length and were audio and/or video recorded and stored on a secure USB device. The
purpose of the second interview was two-fold. First, in narrative inquiry, it is recommended that
there are “repeated conversations” (Riessman, 2008, p. 26) to allow for further exploration,
clarification, and collaboration (Nasheeda et al., 2019). The follow up interview allowed for
participants to expand upon the reflections they gave in the focus group, as well as reinterpret
and add to their understanding of their collage and how it reflected their personal and
professional decolonizing stories. Using the collage in individual interviews elicited rich
narratives that may have been otherwise difficult to articulate. These interviews provided
additional opportunities for deepened connections and meaning making about participant’s
decolonizing stories and selves. Each participant shared with me at some point in the individual
interview that they were grateful for the opportunity to engage with collage as it helped give
clarity and meaning to experiences and thoughts that otherwise would be untold, ignored, or
abandoned. Indeed, Bagnoli (2009) shares that including non-linguistic techniques in qualitative
research supports more holistic communication and “outside the box” thinking which can
generate new insight and possibility (p. 548).
During the interview, participants were asked a series of open-ended narrative questions,
beginning with how they came to be in the counselling profession as well as questions like,
“What does your collage mean to you?”. These open and story-eliciting questions allowed for
participants to begin where it felt right for them in that moment and share whatever came to them
naturally. More direct questions such as “Was there a specific moment in which you began to
recognize the need to decolonize yourself and practice?” allowed participants to further develop

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and share a narrative of their decolonizing journeys. Importantly, in narrative research, we
understand that narratives are often told in multiple different ways depending on context and
who one is telling the story to. During the interview process, I was aware of my own voice,
experience, and the influence that I may have on how participants shared their stories with me.
For example, at times I sensed participants attempting to keep themselves focused and on track,
reminding themselves out loud to come back to the topic if they felt they were going off on a
different trail. In these moments, I aimed to follow the participant’s lead, trailing along beside
them where they felt led to go. I also directly acknowledged moments of resonance with the
participants, adding in a few of my own thoughts and experiences which we both connected to
and expanded upon in our conversations. Fraser (2005) shares that in narrative interviewing, it is
important to engage participants in friendly and informal ways, processing stories with
participants along the way. The interview process felt much more like a conversation (Fraser,
2005) with participants sharing detailed stories which reverberated off what I was becoming
aware of in myself as they spoke. This gave me the opportunity to intuitively reflect and inquire
about certain details spoken and unspoken as the participants shared. I captured my own
responses after interviews by journaling or with voice memos and these reflections helped
inform analytic procedures and interpretations of findings.
Data Analysis
As researcher-bricoleur, I pulled together various analytic strategies to search for and
parse out meanings from interviews, collage processes, participant comments, and my own
experiences captured through field notes. Riessman (2008) explains that interpretation occurs
alongside data collection; these processes are intertwined. In this project, interpretation occurred
during focus groups, participant interviews, and my subsequent reflections. To support these
interpretive activities, I kept a detailed researcher reflexivity journal as well as had multiple
conversations and reflection meetings throughout the collection and analysis process with my
supervisor and thesis committee. This aided in the way that my interpretive thoughts were
unfolding as well as maintained the integrity and transparency of the research process.
Fraser (2005) offers that making use of different tools and methods in narrative analysis
is helpful as this “patching together” can contribute to deeper insight and understanding. Below I
offer a brief description of what constituted ‘data’ in this project and introduce the analytic
framework of “storying stories”, a process of narrative (re)construction (McCormack, 2004) that

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I followed. Next, I elaborate on my transcription procedures and the process of (re)storying
narratives, followed by the development of a settler decolonizing journey trail map that describes
the patterns found across participant narratives. I conclude this chapter with a discussion of the
rigor, trustworthiness and ethical considerations of this project.
Stories and Collage as Data
In order to establish analytic procedures for this project it was important for me to first
identify and outline what exactly constituted “data” in this research. Spector-Mersel (2010)
shares two main principles to consider when deciding how to interpret and analyze stories. The
first of which being that stories themselves are data, not simply a channel to the data. Thus,
stories are treated as object for examination. Secondly, the author emphasizes the holistic
requirements of narrative data analysis, ensuring that researchers attend to “big and small
stories” as well as the sociohistorical-familial context in which they are told. Additional to
stories told, were collages made and reflected upon. Deciding how to incorporate these various
data components together became an important process throughout the analysis period. Part of
what guided this step was intuition (Janesick, 2001). I also pulled from studies citing how
drawing focus group and individual interview data together can deeply enrich qualitative
research projects (Lambert & Liselle, 2008). Regarding the collage artwork as data, Orr et al.
(2020) suggest that interpreting and analyzing participant created elicitation tools, such as
artwork, should be done together in the context of the interview to avoid researcher
misinterpretation or decontextualization. Co-bricoleurs were thus asked to describe and interpret
their collages in their interviews considering questions such as, “What does this mean to you?”,
or “How does this collage represent your decolonizing journey?”. I used the resulting discussion
text as the focus of analysis according to the “storying stories” design that I articulate below. My
goal throughout the course of data analysis was to gain a multilayered understanding of
participant personal experiences by immersing myself in the interviews multiple times (Fraser,
2004; Nasheeda et al., 2019). The interpretive process of transcription facilitated this process.
Spoken to Written: Transcription as Interpretation
A particularly important component of my narrative analysis strategy was to transform
the spoken word into written text which subsequently was used in the “storying stories” process
introduced earlier and expanded on next (McCormack, 2004; Riessman, 2008). Riessman offers
that interpretation does not happen after transcription is complete but is innately interwoven

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throughout the entire process. The act of transcription is considered an imperative step in
narrative analysis as it allows researchers to get up close to the data and begin to identify with
the narrative processes in the story (Fraser, 2004). Transcribing each interview myself allowed
me to deeply reflect on participant stories including the order of events, our joint theorizing and
reflections, the emotions experienced, and the meanings and epiphanies we shared. I became
close and familiar with the tone, pacing, and plot of each participant’s interview which supported
the analytic procedures all the way through to writing up findings. Through this process, I
became so familiar with the transcripts that I could cite specific lines and stories.
For the first round of transcription, I listened to the recordings and took reflective notes
guided by Fraser’s (2004) questions (e.g., “What ‘sense’ do you get from each interview?”,
“How are emotions experienced during and after the interview?”, and “How curious do you feel
when you listen to the narrators?”). I listened a second time, correcting any transcription errors
from the transcription software I used and began to clean up the text by removing unnecessary
“ums,” “likes,” and other filler words that did not add to the context and tone of the interview. I
also scanned the text while listening for paraverbal markers noting any of importance within the
transcription text (e.g., [she laughs]). As I went through the transcription texts a third time, now
without audio, I took notes of my reactions, curiosities, and clarifications I wanted to address
with participants in our follow-up conversation. I also employed a preliminary open coding
process where I labeled potential patterns or specific stories or segments of narratives that stood
out to me. Fraser (2004) acknowledges that the challenge in this phase is attempting to
disaggregate long chunks of talk into specific stories or segments of narratives, as oftentimes a
single story ebbs seamlessly into another. I began to call these chunks of text “located
narratives” and then shifted to calling them “micro stories,” relating back to Spector-Mersel’s
(2010) explication of big and small stories. Guided by my research questions, I pulled these
micro stories out of interview transcripts to focus on as I went through our conversations a fourth
time. At this point with these now located micro stories, I was ready to begin storying stories into
personal experience narratives.
(Re)Presentation and (Re)Storying
As briefly introduced, my analytic conceptualization of the data was informed partly by
McCormack’s (2004) storying stories process, which I also refer to as (re)storying. Riesmann
(1993) articulates that “stories re-present the outcome of a series of reconstructions” (p. 220).

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This re-construction and re-storying process unfolded as I worked with the data. The first
reconstruction occurred when my participants reflected on focus group prompts and created their
collage. A second reconstruction took place as they relayed their experiences to me. A third layer
of reconstruction occurred as I transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted the shared experiences. A
fourth layer emerged during member checking, and finally, a fifth layer will unfold as you, the
reader, engage with and react to the reconstructed narratives. McCormack explains that storying
stories integrates two narrative inquiry frameworks: analysis of narrative and narrative analysis
(Polkinghorne, 1995). Analysis of narrative involves identifying stories as data and then
analyzing these stories to uncover common themes. Narrative analysis, on the other hand,
involves collecting descriptions of actions and events as data, such as creating collages, and
using this data to generate stories through a process known as emplotment. When these forms of
narrative inquiry are combined and the (re)storying process takes shape, participant personal
experience narratives result.
In order to create these personal experience narratives, McCormack (2004) as well as
Lynn-Butler (2018) highlight Labov and Waletsky’s (1997) approach to differentiating stories
from surrounding texts by looking for identifiable boundaries. First, I searched interview texts
for the beginnings and ends of stories by looking for phrasing such as “Well there was this one
time” and “Yeah, so that’s what happened”, or I sought out less direct returns to the present
moment in the conversation. I then examined the content in between and closely surrounding
these points for the abstract which summarizes the point of the story. I looked for the evaluation,
which highlights the significance or reason for telling the story. Additionally, I looked for a
series of linked actions or events organized chronologically or thematically. I gave each story a
title and noted down phrases signified resolutions or codas (i.e., conclusions and a return to the
present).
As I searched for stories and restructured them following the above story elements, I
began to recognize and note repeated kinds of stories such as stories of participant shame and
guilt, family conflict and misaligned beliefs, implementing decolonization in counselling
practice, and fears or hopes for what the future of psychology may look like. These patterns
existed both within an individual participant’s narrative and across different participant
interviews. I noted these patterns down as I went and came back to them later. While I was
completing the (re)storying process for each participant, I worked with the focus group

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transcripts in a similar way, eventually bringing the texts together into one whole narrative
representing participant personal experiences as McCormack describes. It is at this point where
the usefulness of bridging frameworks such as bricolage and métissage became evident as I
creatively pulled together various analytic approaches. However, this was yet a puzzling process,
and I initially felt quite stuck as I attempted to figure out how to bring all these narrative pieces
together. At that time, I engaged in my own personal collage process, both to represent my own
decolonizing research journey and to move through the current analytic “stuck-ness” I felt.
Below is an image of the collage I created at this point in the process.

Figure 1
Where Do We Go from Here: Analytic Collage

Note. My reflexive analytic collage. This work represents both my own journey,
learnings, and hopes as I engaged in the research as well as supported the analytic
strategy of allowing intuition to flow and trusting that my heart would move my feet. You
can view this collage from multiple perspectives and be impacted in different ways as it
is viewed from various angles. This is reflective of my research and decolonizing
process.

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Making my own collage in this way helped remind me of my initial purposes for the project.
Representing my own decolonizing journey in art form helped move the stuck-ness out and
through me. At this point I continued reconstructing participant personal experience narratives
featuring their decolonizing journeys as they had been told, retold, and represented to me in the
various ways I have just described.
In addition to representing personal experiences of each participant, I decided to work
distinctly with their collage descriptions. This process was guided by intuition as well as the
method of inquiry that writing is according to Richardson (1994):
I consider writing a method of inquiry, a way of finding out about yourself and your topic
. . . a method of discovery and analysis. By writing in different ways, we discover new
aspects of our topic and our relationship to it. Form and content are inseparable. (p. 516)
In order to inquire through writing, I illustrated participants collage-making process in a
summarized narrative which I called collage-stories. The reflections and stories participants
offered in our conversations about their collage-making processes coincided with patterns and
meanings shared regarding their decolonizing experiences and journeys. I created participant
collage stories in different styles to capture both the essence of each participant and my
impressions of their artwork based on the focus group and interview process. For example, For
Clara and Bex’s collage descriptions, I wrote a “found poem”— creating a poem using lines of
text from our transcribed interview (see, Ely, 2007, pp. 575-577)— a third-person narrative
description of Colin’s collage to represent our voices together, and a “thematically sub-titled”
first person narrative of Paige’s collage as this reflected how she went through her collage with
me. I shared these pieces with participants in our follow up conversation so that they could
highlight any changes or additions that they might want to make. An example of these pieces of
writing are included as appendices (Appendix F). However, portions of these collage stories are
also interwoven into the findings chapters in various complimentary ways.
Re-Viewing Re-Constructions: Member Checking
Reissman (2008) recommends having “repeated conversations” with research participants
as it allows for stronger connections to be formed between participant and researcher and
therefore can support richer disclosure (p. 27). This project involved several rounds of
conversations, starting with an initial phone call, followed by the focus group, individual
interviews, and a collaborative (re)storying process, which included a member-checking
conversation with each participant. After completing the reconstructed personal narratives and

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collage stories I sent them to each participant. I asked them to provide a title for their collage —
which I share in the next chapter. I invited them to review their narratives for accuracy, making
any comments or corrections they deemed necessary. In this invitation, I included guiding
prompts such as (a) What emotions/sensations do you experience while reading the narratives?
(b) Was there anything surprising to you? (See full debrief/member checking protocol Appendix
G).
It was enlightening to hold these follow-up conversations with participants, all of them
citing that they found it very meaningful to review their personal experience narratives and
collage stories. As they saw themselves through the narratives we crafted together, participants
expressed that this process deepened their internal connection to their work, broadened their
perspectives on their experiences to date, and affirmed their progress and as clinicians
attempting to engage well with decolonial mindsets. Colin was the only participant who added an
extra paragraph of writing on his collage story, sharing further thoughts and summaries that
came to him as he read. I also recall Paige declaring that she thought to herself, “Oh wow, I said
that?!” and that these moments were valuable, inviting her to continue to develop critically
reflective self-awareness. Bex and Clara offered that it was validating to see themselves reflect in
a way that creatively and deeply resonated with their experience. In our member checking
conversation, Clara offered,
I love this poem: The words that came out of me, I thought, ‘this really resonates
with me’: At first it felt like it was of somebody else, I wasn’t expecting it. It really
does represent the collage, how I see things and how I practice, and it continues
to represent how I feel about things. I have the collage on my wall here, still
looking at it. I was inspired by it the poem, like, wow this actually came from me!
It was validating and helped me feel acceptance, this is who I am …
Conceptualizing the Narratives
Fraser (2005) offers that oftentimes narrative researchers employ the use of metaphor to
conceptualize narrative analytic procedures. From the outset of this project, I have been taught to
envision decolonizing as a journey containing many moments of discovery, crossroads, boulders,
pitfalls, and moments of rest along the never-ending way. As I immersed myself in the data,
worked with stories, collages, and co-created personal experience narratives, I noticed in
participant narratives different points of beginning, stumbling, starting again, and learning from
the paths others have walked before. This maintained the journey imagery and so I went along
with the metaphor. As I sat with the stories and listened to what they were telling me, I found

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myself drawing out “trail maps” and making connections between participant personal
experience narratives in this visual way. As I have alluded to throughout this chapter, my
intuition has served as a steadfast guide throughout my research process. Using intuition and
following Fraser’s (2004) guidance, I combined patterns of significant themes from participants'
personal experience narratives into what I called narrative trails. I titled each trail to signify an
overarching theme that captured sub-stories within and across participant narratives. These trails
illustrate the shared experiences participants shared with me and reflected themselves, telling us
in personal ways about what it might mean, look like, and feel to be a WCP on a journey of
decolonization. The trails are brought together in a visual representation (see Figure 6) which I
introduce and discuss in the next chapter.
Rigour and Trustworthiness
In conventional academic terms, rigour is an important concept concerned with
maintaining high quality and consistent qualitative research. However, what is considered this
kind of research is being challenged and renegotiated as alternative approaches to research are
being explored and engaged with (Abo-Zena et al., 2022). In upholding two-eyed seeing, I have
considered and evaluated this project’s rigour through the lens of Western academic conventions
(Morrow, 2005), noting the overlapping and distinct criteria that decolonized rigour entails
(Abo-Zena et al., 2022). Morrow (2005) shares the importance of evaluating qualitative research
against the researchers’ paradigmatic assumptions. My decolonial-critical-relational paradigm
which I framed as a bricolage of assumptions about knowledge, reality, relationships, and values
is interwoven through every stage of this project. This bringing together and embracing a
mixture of methodological approaches founded on interconnected paradigmatic assumptions
adds depth, complexity, and rigour to the research project (Scotti & Chilton, 2018).
Abo-Zena et al. (2022) critically analyze mainstream depictions of rigour in social
science research, positing that the language of rigour “furthers a European conceptualization of
knowledge production as normative” (p. 313). This conceptualization upholds a Eurocentric
worldview of the human, implicitly centring whiteness. The authors maintain the need for quality
research in psychology, and yet challenge current notions of rigour. They describe high quality
research as (a) researcher critical self-reflexivity; (b) prioritizing decolonial research practices as
the goal of research projects; and (c) co-construction of research intentions and procedures.
Researcher Critical Self-Reflexivity

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Abo-Zena et al. (2022) describe that a decolonial approach to rigour centres researcher
self-reflexivity that focuses on our own histories and positionality. Morrow (2005) also
emphasizes the critical paradigm commitments to self-reflexivity. I have engaged extensively
throughout this project in learning about my own cultural history, settlership, and familial roots
as a way to better position myself both as researcher and as practitioner on these stolen lands I
live. I kept many journals over the course of this project in which I wrote poetry, doodled
images, or spent time collaging as a way of reflecting my own research story and colonial
positionality. Beginning this document with my research story is also a way that I self-examined
and positioned myself in the research. In addition to journaling, much of this self-reflexivity
came in the form of meetings and emails with my thesis committee and conversations over tea
with Patti Victor, Switametelót who I met with at various significant points throughout the
research, as well as the friends and colleagues I have introduced to you already. Dr. McDonald
and I committedly spoke about our positionality and colonial participation in psychology and
academia at almost every meeting we had over the past three years. These ongoing conversations
cannot be captured in the “walls” of written word but sit in our hearts and minds as I, we, have
transformed and grown due to engaging in this project.
Decolonial Research Practices
Abo-Zena et al. (2022) further highlights that high quality research commits to
decolonizing research in that research practices “situate all aspects of the scholarly process
within historical and sociopolitical contexts, challenge dominant frameworks, and broaden
frameworks to both name and end epistemic violence” (p. 313). Similarly, Morrow (2005)
defines consequential validity as the success with which research achieves its goals of social and
political change. One of the ways in which I actively sought to do this was through enacting the
decolonial and critical lens of my research paradigm. Inviting participants to critically reflect on
their own participation in colonial structures as one of the main goals of the project inherently
involved challenging power dynamics and systems of violence that continue to be perpetuated in
psychology. Increasing critical consciousness about issues of power and oppression as well as
the potential of the research to create change is one way that this project attempted to create
social and political impact (Morrow, 2005). The personal is political and individual critical
reflection through artmaking resulted in greater awareness, understanding, and commitment
towards anticolonial therapeutic practice in the participants and in myself. This fits with how

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Leavy (2018a) describes ABR in that it can expose people to new ideas, stories, or images, and
by doing so, can challenge dominant ideologies or narratives as well as cultivate empathy for self
and others in the process.
Relationality and Respect
Abo-Zena et al. (2022) shares, “Informed by emic perspectives and patterns, researchers
should … co-develop and adjust questions, methods, practices and procedures to capture,
meaningfully and ethically, the breadth and depth of the lived experiences of those whose lives
are the focus of inquiry” (p. 314). Relationships are the backbone of this research, inspiring its
conception and maintaining its evolvement. Having fewer participants allowed for richer
information gathering to occur due to the close relationships that were developed during the
course of the research. A critical researcher is also intentional about engaging participants’ voice
at every stage of the research process. I introduced participants as co-bricoleurs and did so
intentionally to emphasize their co-researcher role alongside me. I was flexible with the
interview protocol, being okay to abandon the questions and go where co-bricoleurs went. Each
participant shared that their involvement in this study has supported their practice and way of
approaching their work, as it has my own, demonstrating the shared impact and relational
contributions of this research.
I also relied on multiple conversations, or as Morrow (2005) defines it, “member
checking”, by offering two engagements, the focus group and interview, as well as providing
participants with their personal experience narratives and collage descriptions to review and
comment on. These conversations allowed for rapport building, deeper exploration, and
transformative reflection. The relationality of this work was maintained not only through
participant relationships but also as I engaged in conversations with those who accompanied me
at various points which I highlighted in my research story. Relationship to people as well as to
land was transformative for me during this research. I developed (and continue to develop) a
preliminary understanding and relationship to Stó:lō land and teachings, connecting to nature in
moments of confusion, reflection, and pause during the course of this project. This included
taking some meetings outside with my supervisor and with one research participant for our
follow up interview, walking, talking, and connecting to land as a part of the research.
Authenticity

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The notion of authenticity is another important rigour element in this critical and
interpretive research for a few reasons. First, authenticity applies to evaluating researching
involving the arts through achieving “aesthetic power” (Scotti & Chilton, 2018, p. 366). In
research, aesthetic power refers to the capacity of one's art, descriptions, and representations to
evoke emotions, stimulate deeper thoughts, and provide insights to both participants and
readers/viewers. The ability of the writer to engage their audiences or readers in having their own
epiphanies and insights is one key aspect of aesthetic power. By sharing participant collages in
the findings chapter and not providing detailed descriptions of each piece of art, allows for
readers to make their own meaning and be impacted in personal ways by the art. Further,
Morrow (2005) posits that authenticity and thus trustworthiness of a project is also evaluated in
how participant’s understanding and appreciation of others’ perspectives can be enhanced. This
occurred during the focus group in participants witnessing each other’s art and making meaning
of it together.
Morrow (2005) also describes authenticity criteria as ensuring that various perspectives on
knowledge are acknowledged and that these individual viewpoints are refined, expanded, and
elaborated. This occurred across all stages of the research, from the collage making, to
expanding on reflections in the individual interview, to my reconstructing narratives in data
analysis and then in sharing the resulting (re)storied narratives with participants thereafter.
Finally, authenticity also pertains to the extent to which it encourages both individual and social
action. Each participant shared with me during our individual and member-checking interviews
that they had posted their collages in their office or around their home. They reported wanting to
be able to view their art and have conversations about it with clients, family, or friends if asked.
They shared with me how the collage specifically helped bring to light steps that they wanted to
continue to take moving forward, such as incorporating art into their professional and personal
practice as well as shifting their practice to align with the insights they gained about
decolonization and reconciliation during the research.
Ethical Considerations
In addition to applying for and receiving ethical approval from the human research ethics
board, I applied a few important ethical considerations to this project. Research has been utilized
as a colonizing act in the past and present (Kovach, 2021). A goal of this current project was to
decolonize approaches to research related to Indigenous knowledge and experience. As

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previously mentioned, this research has been guided by two-eyed seeing with the goal of
learning from Indigenous and Western epistemologies using the strengths of both for knowledge
production and insight. With this in mind, I considered and applied multiple facets of what
ethical research means in this study involving a deep consideration of values and axiology in
research. Kovach offers a guiding discussion around the term axiology and its connectedness to
Indigenous research. She relays Wilson’s (2008) understanding of axiology, stating that
“Axiology is thus asking, ‘What part of this reality is worth finding out more about’ and ‘What is
it ethical to do in order to gain this knowledge, and what will this knowledge be used for?’” (p.
34). Kovach reminds us that these questions are to be applied to our relationship with other
people and the natural environment.
As such, it was important to maintain relationship with Indigenous mentors, key
informants, and knowledge keepers who challenged me do this research in a good way. I use this
term as it has been taught to me by close friends and trusted scholars (Kovach, 2021; Minet,
2021; Wilson, 2008). As Kovach offers, “in a good way”, miyo, is a Cree word which means
“good, well, beautiful, valuable” (p. 98). She goes on to offer that ethics, regarding Indigenous
communities and methodologies are undifferentiated from good relations. By connecting with
key informants and establishing multiple research conversations as part of my research design, I
have been able to uphold in meaningful ways this axiological and relational underpinning of
good research. This understanding takes ethics beyond institutionalized consent processes and
internal ethics boards reviews and into the 4R’s of ethical research: Respect, relevance,
reciprocity, and responsibility (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 1991).
Furthermore, as a part of a critical and decolonial research paradigm, it is essential to
consider power relations and dynamics between researcher and participants. This was addressed
by the collaborative and highly relational process of data collection and the member checking
conversations. Additionally, I considered how art practice may bring up feelings of frustration,
uncertainty, or insecurity in participants. In order to ethically care for participants, I opened the
focus group with a grounding mediation and a discussion on the difference between little c and
big C creativity, emphasizing the importance of the process rather than the final product. In
addition to thorough informed consent which addressed participant full ownership of the art,
participants were well informed of what this study might entail of them emotionally and
relationally. Regarding art ownership, ABR researchers Scott and Chilton (2018) define the

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importance of including a consent conversation before art making data collection commences
regarding who owns the finished product. It was natural and readily acceptable to me and to this
project’s goals that art ownership begins and ends with the participants. This consent
conversation took place in written form as well as verbally, with me asking and reminding
participants that they could take the art home with them and keep it if they desired, requesting
only that I could capture pictures of the art for findings and dissemination. Scotti and Chilton
(2018) also speak to the potential copyright issues that may exist in using other people’s art, such
as images from magazines, to produce new art, “appropriation art”. They share that fair use
principles apply in ABR research, meaning that if no economic gain (and only a portion of
original material is used) results from participant artwork then copyright issues are less ethically
challenging.
Chapter Summary
This chapter has outlined my research design process situated in a decolonial-criticalrelational research paradigm. Being guided by linking frameworks such as two-eyed seeing,
métissage and bricolage and informed by literature, I intuitively drew together narrative inquiry
and collage-making as a reflective method to address the research questions and goals.
Participants were involved in conversations about the research from the very beginning, often
offering suggestions and changes to the set up along the way. This co-construction was
maintained as I collected stories through art and conversation as well as during analysis in which
I worked with these stories to create personal experience narratives. Participants acknowledged
the ways that this research has impacted them and their clinical work, which meets various points
of decolonized and critical rigour standards and principles. The following chapter expands on the
introduced journey metaphor, relaying findings through narrative trails and discussing these by
utilizing a visual trail map. Let us continue to walk this good path together and see what we learn
along the way.

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CHAPTER FOUR: STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED IN CIRCLES
Stories go in circles. They don’t go in straight lines. It helps if you listen in circles
because there are stories inside and between stories, and finding your way through them
is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. Part of finding is getting lost, and when
you are lost you start to open up and listen. (Tafoya, 1995, p. 12)
This chapter of stories is a gift for me to present to you. The words and images expressed
here are heartfelt offerings shaped by many hours spent listening and re-listening to Colin, Clara,
Bex, and Paige as they vulnerably shared their stories through their collages and subsequent
research conversations. In the following pages, I have the privilege of sharing the re-storied
personal experience narratives and collage artwork that participants openly and honestly offered
to me, to each other, and to themselves. As the epigraph introducing this chapter highlights, I
have engaged deeply with these stories, moving back and forth between participant narratives,
my own reflections and responses, and then returning to the narratives again, in the iterative
process inherent to narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). The following pages house
the most poignant lessons, reflections, and truths that participants and I shared and realized along
the way. I introduce each person briefly before sharing an image of their collage3 including the
titles they gave them and a quote to describe their art. I then share each person’s personal
experience narrative that we co-created during data analysis. Following these, I present the
identified patterns of shared meaning across participant narratives by describing five narrative
trails that participants have followed on their journeys.

Colin

3

Throughout participant personal experience narratives, I have linked some references to the collage back

to the original image in this document for ease of viewing. However, I also have linked the collages all together in a
PDF here so that they can be open and viewed alongside the narratives and findings.

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Colin, (49) self identifies as a White male counselling psychologist of European descent
with a Christian background. He has been working in the counselling field for over twenty years.
His experience spans government and non-profit agencies, supporting youth, children, and their
families, including significant work with Indigenous communities. Born in Eastern Canada and
raised in the Fraser Valley area, Colin emphasizes that his cultural self-perception is deeply
influenced by where he lives, which also shapes his professional approach. Below is the collage,
The Way Forward is Through, and an accompanying descriptive quote that Colin shared during
our interview.
Figure 2
Colin’s Collage: The Way Forward is Through

I really wanted to make this side [left side of collage], sort of, kind of a "unicorn
side". But the, [sigh, exasperated] I mean, we're like running around in the dark.
Sometimes it feels like we're doing, we are on what I think anyway is just the
beginnings of reconciliation. And it was it was hard to find that. I think as we get
cutting through [the collage, and in our lives] then stuff starts to happen. Kind of
like, as I cut out images, the theme kind of came out. I started to get clear in my
mind, where I was going. (Colin)
Colin’s Personal Experience Narrative

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I grew up in a conservative Pentecostal setting, a charismatic branch of the Protestant
church. The approach to Christian spirituality was very black and white. As I began my pastoral
theology degree, I noticed my discomfort with this setting. My biggest issue [in church spaces]
was I was not allowed to ask questions. I tried offering alternatives to what was being taught and
was warned to be careful or that I lacked faith. I wasn’t buying it. So, I started to do a lot of self
and classroom study. I became, I asked, I looked around me. We all struggle, we all fail, why are
we pretending like we “get it” or know how to live better than someone else?
That’s not what I knew Jesus to model. I looked at the culture and approach to
Christianity and realized quickly that I wasn’t buying into it too much. So, I went through like a
faith crisis. I had to over like ten to fifteen years, unpack and redevelop it. It was a jump, I
almost didn’t make it; drinking helped. The younger version of me might be surprised at what he
saw now! It felt like I was two separating bubbles, separating slowly over time. The Dean of Men
in Bible College pointed me towards counselling psychology so I took six months of bridging
courses and got my degree, and it was a much better fit for me, I think, than pastoral or ministry
careers. Now, I’ve moved away from what my old Christian spirituality taught me. Things like
separating the saved from unsaved, spirit-filled from not spirit-filled. Working with different
cultures, specifically Indigenous cultures in my work now, I have experienced this heart sense of
knowing that Creator loves those we might judge the most, just as Creator loves me. Spiritualty
and counselling, yeah it is all connected, it blends together.
My first practicum and internship started off in a church and then the pastor of that
church started a new church and I attended for ten years. That really helped my new theology
and spiritual beliefs develop. Then my pastor became my clinical supervisor. After that, I got out
of the field for two years and bartended and then I got my first gig with the agency I am at now
and have been for twenty years. It is here where I first started encountering Truth and
Reconciliation (T&R). I was exposed to ceremony, celebrations, and Indigenous cultural
sensitivity training. I work[ed] with Indigenous clients and families as well. I was also exposed
to a lot of politics. It felt at times that my learning and exposure was like all my eggs were in one
basket. I didn’t always understand the political reaction to things, and I think my view on T&R
is a bit jaded because of that. I think that sometimes we are hoping for a quick and magical
“unicorn” [left-hand side of collage] fix, basing our solutions on [neocolonial] ways of being.
Like in my collage, it’s like the organic rice chips represent other ways where we're trying to

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sort of beat the system, find another way which is just sort of a repackaging of the same product.
We are talking about decolonization but are we actually decolonizing? To what extent do we
want to decolonize?
I think I learned it all together there, at work, both sides of things. I felt jaded and I also
started to carry along with me times where I had great compassion and understanding. I wanted
… I was urged to work more alongside Indigenous communities. I still have a whole lot of room
to grow. The spirituality that I had grown and developed helped me see how Jesus was present in
those who needed help and in me. This really helped me get through all the politics. It would be
nice to have this connection be a part of life outside my job too.
I see and recognize that to some, I am a strange White person. I come from a colonial
background, like European, White. And I value and believe in the importance of Indigenous
healing. I look to them to lead us in like, our environmental crises. We need them like fathers and
mothers to show us how to take care of our land again. It’s like the time my stepdaughter went
missing. I was at work; my partner was at home panicked. My partner started knocking on doors
trying to figure out if anyone had seen her. There was one family, an Indigenous family, at the
end of the road. Their yard was always a huge mess. They spent the next couple hours helping
find our daughter. It was that family – I want friends like that. It’s like, there is a point where we
will all have to come together. It’s like that feeling of when I am with Indigenous clients, and
they are not judging me nor I them. We are two humans and yes, we’ve been raised different.
They have been impacted by residential schools and have suffered; I am a European colonialist.
It’s not about taking away from the pain that is there, not drowning any of that. It’s all in the
room. Yet here we are two people connecting and that’s a moment of reconciliation to me.
One of the dialectical behaviour therapy skills that I like to teach is something called
opposite action to emotion and another one, “coping ahead”, where you imagine yourself doing
well in a stressful situation coming up. Even though we’re not, like past the scissors in this, we
can still certainly jump there and act like we are even when we don’t feel it. Like on the collage,
we are stuck in these extreme approaches to solving problems and I don’t think it works very
well but occasionally we can still jump and build a house with a wild, organic, natural yard. We
can jump to moments that bring us all together, like looking to the stars and science of figuring
out what’s there; we are all interested in what our place in the universe is. I think that’s a really
neat thing we can all do together, jump together there.

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I have gone to several Indigenous cultural trainings, and I ask hard questions, trying to
understand, and sometimes I get a bit of a hand slap or judgement. I am told to be reflective of
my own levels of racism. It’s like when I was in church, “you lack faith, be careful”. I thought,
can there be a way we all can exist together here and speak truthfully and respectfully? I can
know to correct myself when my words are not accurate, and can others too? This reminds me of
a powerful community moment of reconciliation that I had during a blanket exercise training I
attended. The facilitator gave three instructions: Be proud of where you come from, notice the
guilt and shame, set it aside, and trust that our intentions together are good and caring. It was
the first time I was ever invited to do that. Those rules gave me permission to be real,
transparent, I can be sincere. That helped me to shift and get me back on the path – if I was ever
on any kind of rabbit trail, it helped me get back on the path of reconciliation with everybody.

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Clara
Clara (47) self identifies as a White female therapist, born in Canada to Greek immigrant
parents. Though she lived in Greece for a few years when she was young, Clara has spent
most of her time in the Greater Vancouver area. She has been seeing clients as a therapist
for three years in Vancouver. She has worked in a variety of settings including agencies
supporting women and children as well as in private practice. Clara shared that she has
not yet directly worked with Indigenous clients but does work with a variety of culturally
diverse clientele. Below is her collage and accompanying quote describing her process.
Figure 3
Clara’s Collage: “Seeds”.

We began. Words kind of just popped out. Images pulled me in. And then I
found, 'trust your gut’. Words popped out in the strangest of places. In
advertising! I used to be in it, I hated it with a passion. But I moved towards the
ads, to take something out of them. I don’t know where the words belonged

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before. Now they’ve become their own thing. The one tiny thing, odd on its own,
becomes a part of the whole. (Clara)
Clara’s Personal Experience Narrative
I wanted to become a counsellor right out of high school. But my path didn’t take me that
way. It was too hard. I hadn’t worked on my own traumas. So, I went into marketing. After a few
years, I had it with that field, I hated it with a passion and so I came back to Vancouver and got
into holistic healing. I did that for 12 years. I did reflexology and got my certificate in Reiki
energy work and then I started doing Indian Head Massage. I started to notice that the healing
work wasn’t enough for the clients. I couldn’t help them further; I needed more skills, and I knew
they needed counselling. I thought it was too late for me to go back to school. I was thirty-six.
But my parents were very supportive, and they said it is never too late. So, I went back. The
courses I took had a strong social justice focus and I began to learn and think more about things
like colonization, cultural appropriation, decolonization … Coming from the holistic healing
field, there was so much cultural appropriation. Though we were taught specifically about where
the methods came from, in a lot of the tools and practices we used like saging, there was no
concept of understanding decolonizing in them. Most of us were White. If I had known what I
know now, I would have practiced a little more consciously. I don’t regret being a part of those
practices because they were so healing to others and myself, but I would have liked to be more
aware and acknowledge, give credit to where it is due.
I started learning more from the influences around me, living and working in different
kinds of spaces than I was used to like working for a feminist organization and then in graduate
school when I decided to do research, that’s where I really became interested in reconciliation
and yeah … decolonization. It is a bit ironic though because this is still colonial land. There
doesn’t seem to be decolonizing happening. We can do it, maybe in symbolic ways and
honouring Indigenous land, peoples, but we are still very much benefiting from colonization.
There is this constant conflict in being here. And I constantly say to myself, “If I want to really
decolonize, I should just leave” … but I’m not leaving. I was born here and I have Greek
heritage, my parents were immigrants. It feels strange to ask, ‘What is my participation being
here on this land?’ And yet here I am. So, I ask myself, what is the best I can do? It took time for
me to learn this. At times, I avoided it. It’s easy to say you know, I’m a busy student, I have to
focus on just surviving. It is easy to avoid taking accountability for your piece, how you exist in

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this world. There was a lot of justifying lack of action. What really is decolonization or
reconciliation?
I began to learn more in my own research in a post-colonial space. I wasn’t doing the
reconciliation work, but I got to speak with people who have done it, genocide perpetrators
reconciling with survivors. What I saw in this reconciliation work is there’s no power imbalance,
there are people taking accountability, feelings of safety, and there’s hope. There was a felt
sense in witnessing that. “Trust your gut” is what I always say to my clients now. I was at a
conference in the community I was researching having lunch and talking with people and they
heard I was from Canada they said “oh! There’s Truth and Reconciliation happening in
Canada!”. And my instinct, my instant response was, “Well [laughs], but the land is not given
back, right? We’re still colonized.” I feel I am not the right person to speak to these things, not
well versed or actively involved. It is difficult to relate that back to here to our context. I don’t
know how to make those connections.
Speaking broadly, societally here there is no decolonization, but in practice, what can we
do? As a counsellor I’m a person that brings some privilege. I’ve been to university, I’m
established here, I am in a position of power simply because of what I am doing. I have to be
aware of my position. And, it’s so important to notice where your clients are coming from and
where they are at too. In my research, I could have gone in all “forms, ah sign informed
consent!”, which we did of course, because we have to do things a certain way. But we were
there, in the post-colonial village. I saw them. They were saying, “You have to stay and have
food. We have to cook together one day”. So, I went one day and all we did was just eat and
drink and celebrate. Half the village showed up. It was therapeutic. Now, that was research, but
bring it back into the counselling room and I have learned to ask and reflect, “What is important
for the client for their own healing?” Sometimes, it’s me showing up as a human being with
vulnerabilities. We share food together. If a client brings me a donut, I’m going to eat that
donut! Counselling is so much more than talking. What I do know is you’ve got to start from the
ground up. Talk to the people who are impacted, what do they need? I ask, “Who are you, what’s
your name?” and really look at the individual you are working with and ask them, you know,
how to actually pronounce their name. This is meta for me; asking their name is like really
allowing the person you’re working with to tell you who they are. We are not filling in the gaps
for them. It’s honouring the clients whose boundaries have not been honoured historically. Don’t

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make it convenient for me. Sometimes it’s such a small thing, but it allows somebody to be seen.
Who are you really?
Now, there is a motivation to go beyond what I was already doing, a greater
responsibility. Part of that might be now I am fully practicing, I’m fresh out of school. As a
student I had cut myself a lot of slack, you can only do so much for others when you’re
completely depleted of your own resources. Now I feel like, okay, it’s done. Now I need to be part
of the movement. No more excuses which, in part, this comes from actually nurturing myself. I
have more time for self-care. And I am not saying I am doing this work necessarily all that well.
But I do know I am trying to do the right thing and also holding those around me accountable.
Not calling them out aggressively but inviting others to act with integrity. What I do know to
work and help, I share. I also learn. I will make mistakes, and I try not to doubt myself.

Bex

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Bex (31) grew up in the Lower Mainland, BC and identifies as a White, Christian female.
Bex is another recent graduate of counselling psychology and has worked with a church
and in private practice in a church setting for just over two years. As you will find out
through her story, Bex emphasizes how important it was to her to “not only be a
therapist”. She also engages in the profession of healing by writing and photography.
Below is her collage and accompanying quote describing her process.

Figure 4
Bex’s Collage: On Witnessing

It was such an interesting experience of being like, “Okay, here's what I have”,
not knowing what I was looking for really. And so, a lot of it was finding things for
me that felt like they resonated on like a heart level, which is what I feel like a lot
of the whole process of decolonization has been and continues to be for me … I
liked this girl who's sitting in front of a window, just kind of looking. And so I kind
of built it off of off of that, that sense of like, being, existing, and witnessing. And
then as I found more pieces, I felt like I kind of crafted a bit of a narrative and so,
you know, I put this girl here. To me, it felt like me looking at everything.(Bex)

Bex’s Personal Experience Narrative
I was never like, “I want to be a therapist”. But I was doing my undergrad in psychology
and then near the end of it, my third year, suddenly I was like “Oh! I could do my masters”. I

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had this internal knowing that I was supposed to do a master’s in counselling. The whole way
through my program, though, I was like “this isn’t going to be everything”. There’s other stuff I
am passionate about too. I was not sure how it would look, but I wound up loving it. I think it is
important to remember there is always more to helping than counselling. I valued and value
helping people, but I don’t love the word “helper”. It centres the “us” which, like in my master’s
degree when people would take personality tests and be like, “oh I’m a helper!” I would be like,
“ick”. I have this discomfort with being considered “the one who helps”, as though I have this
thing to offer you. I think maybe some of this could be tied into my family. My mom is such a
helper and so much at the expense of herself. I feel like I see that often with clients who identify
as helpers too, sometimes it becomes about making us feel needed. I prefer like, healer or guide.
I try to facilitate spaces where people can exist and explore together, therapy being one facet [of
many] that I can do that in.
I began to become more aware of colonization and its impacts when I started my own
trauma therapy. It was just at the end of my undergrad degree. I had gone through three full sets
of therapy before someone said the word “trauma” to me. From there, I started to understand
brain science and what happens when you go through childhood and intergenerational trauma.
Starting to understand that from a lived experience made me start to reframe the story I had
been told about Indigenous people and their experience. Growing up I heard things like, “it’s in
the past”, as if what happened to them was eons ago. The last residential school closed in my
lifetime. That’s significant. That’s close. Starting to realize all this made me begin to ask, “how
does this impact my work?” And then all through my master’s program we just started talking
about it [colonization, decolonization].
I remember taking a cross-cultural course in which the professor made the case asking if
therapy is just an “indigenous”, meaning “native to us” Western healing method. It was really
challenging, and I had this moment of “oh … does therapy actually work?”. I thought, ‘Here I
am in this course, this master’s program and the professor was making a case saying that like,
when we go to other countries and offer them therapy after a traumatic event, it often does more
harm than good’. We want them to have therapy as though “we have the answers” but they want
to go to the temple and make an offering, and that’s healing for them. It made me question
everything in my life almost. It’s like we have created the need for therapy because we’ve
created all these problems. It made me realize the level of impact colonization has had on

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Indigenous communities around us. We came in and changed everything, ripped away culture
and resources. We thought we were doing the right thing. And for me, a White Christian, I
represent that to people. It was really eye opening. It felt like I was completely restructuring my
worldview. It was deeply unsettling, not so much the need for decolonization, that felt right, but
especially with regards to my faith and to me personally. I had to ask myself, ‘hold on, why do I
believe what I believe?’
I was also dealing with the shame of being different. For once I was the religious
minority in a group of people – in my classes. I’ve grown up around not very progressive
environments my whole life and that’s what is steeped in me and in Christianity the idea of, “this
is the truth, this is the way this is”. I’ve very much been in the middle and so in church I felt
progressive but in school, it was different. I felt like I saw ‘Christian religiosity’ mirrored in my
super neoliberal classmates. The jargon or virtue signalling didn’t feel very authentic to me.
They would ask, “what if my client hates gay people or is anti-trans?”. Like, would they be able
to sit with people different than them? This kind of thinking doesn’t create space for relationship
and curiosity, it creates a lot of room to demonize other people.
Immediately after that cross cultural counselling course I saw my first client ever. He
was a 60-year-old First nations man from Williams Lake. Working with him was so beautiful. I
thought, “Ok, I actually have to put this to practice now”, like, talking about race. I was very
aware, I’m a White woman sitting across from this man who grew up on reservation, his family
members in residential schools. I didn’t feel equipped. There’s so much fear about saying the
wrong thing. When I brought up residential schools and what happened to him, his cultural
background he was like, “oh …” [softly, reflectively]. He told me he wasn’t used to actually
being heard like this in a health context. That moment, for him, it was meaningful. And he was
teaching me a bit about the medicine wheel and like things that he has used in the past. He gave
me a gift, smudging sage, for Christmas, it was so honouring.
Yeah, so I think of all these pieces and just kind of drop into myself, my body, and ask
“how can I shift the way I work?” So that I am not centring myself, not the one with all the
answers. How can I help people heal in ways that feel good to them? What if it is, you know,
integrating a medicine wheel, or sitting outside with our feet in the grass? Why does it have to
look a specific way? It is uncomfortable, conversations about race, because I think they draw
you into the narrative we are taught – to not talk about those things. But then, what is my duty to

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the person sitting in front of me? What is my responsibility to the world around me, to engage
authentically, taking off the colonial aspects of our culture – capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny?
How can I get these out of myself and create spaces to allow others to do that as well? I don’t
have the answer for that. It’s one of those things where I end up feeling so powerless. How do I
embody that and surrender the performing decolonization and actually decolonize?
So much of therapy is trusting the process, which as I have been learning, feels in
alignment with Indigenous cultures, not that I know much. It’s like as opposed to being
connected to this one theory or thing to be effective, like here is your problem let me tell what it
is and then fix it. Rather it’s more of a relational, collaborative, existential, mystery; a story, a
relationship with another person – that feels more decolonizing or on the way to it, I guess.
Being more mindful, too, connecting with the Earth, being present. It feels more holistic. A lot of
this work is intentional but also experiential over time, in hundreds of small ways, so, it can be
hard to grasp if I’ve even being working towards this in any way. Going through the collage and
this process, has helped me put words to my journey. I notice the discomfort and yet, I want the
fullness of the narrative. I don’t really have a way to end this …
Paige
Paige (25) grew up in Alberta and moved to British Columbia recently to start her
master’s degree and is now in her second year. She identifies as a White female with
German ancestry. Paige holds an undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in
sociology and has worked in various social service settings, notably at an addictions
centre in Alberta. Currently, she is completing her clinical hours at a private practice and
a university counselling centre. Below is her collage and accompanying quote describing
her process.

Figure 5
Paige’s Collage: Pilgrimage Towards Tender-hearted Horizons

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What I made on the collage
was actually more hopeful than
I was expecting it to be. I can be a part of the change. It’s like even if I’m the only one
“doing the work”, which I know I am not, but me doing the work is still a piece that’s
pushing our little boat forward towards a better future. If we’re going to make it to the
horizon or to shore … it takes the collective to be on board with that. I took a class on
race and racism in university and lots of Indigenous studies courses. In those spaces I
felt like I wasn’t held back in my understanding of the world. Other people are here.
Humanity all in the same boat, but sometimes it can feel like some people are trying to
row in the opposite direction. (Paige)
Paige’s Personal Experience Narrative
I slowly fell in love with psychology. It was a serendipitous kind of process. I started off
in business but it felt gross, like I was trying to pigeonhole myself into a “brain space” and
ignore the emotional parts of me. I thought ok, I should be good at math and the more academic
stuff. And well, psychology is academic, but in a different way. During my business degree, I
took a psychology elective while minoring in sociology. I feel like psychology makes you think

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about the world differently, to a tertiary level not just black and white. It asks you to dig deeper
and look at the nuance. Whereas with business, it was like economics and calculus and stuff, it
wasn’t as meaningful to me. With psychology there’s so many ways to make meaningful change.
I have always thought that individual people have more of an influence on the world and on
change than we think we do. With psychology, it feels like I have found my people … I’m not in
this battle alone.
Until entering my master’s program a year ago, it was encouraged and enforced that I be
more cognitive, to think critically, to shut down the emotional piece. I discovered in doing an
Enneagram test that I am more of a “gut-sensing” type. Psychology allows me to sit in that gut
space more. It was nice to know that I could be empathic for a living! To have this, a tool I can
actually use to help people. I am trying to get myself out of only the cognitive headspace into the
more heart, emotion, gut-centred space. It’s been challenging to learn but really rewarding to
see when something meaningful is being touched on and to share that with another person. It’s
sacred and beautiful. Like, when I think of the incarceration rates and disparity that exists for
Indigenous people, or like missing and murdered Indigenous women, those statistics feel
“numbery” but, they also hit something deeper. It’s frustrating and I feel angry, it feels like a
cold splash of water on my face, “How does this happen?!” As I share this, I am trying to
connect the semantics of what is occurring to the inner felt sense, like to hear or see statistics as
a number and to let that number hit me internally. In my heart.
Engaging in decolonizing my helper self was something I was connected to early on in
my undergraduate education. I feel like this was informed more by sociology and Indigenous
studies classes than psychology. I wanted to hear Indigenous voice in my education. I wanted to
have “ammo” for arguments constantly thrown at me from my family about Indigenous peoples
like, “why are they arguing for land?”. I wanted to have concrete things to share, “well actually
this is how things work”. I wanted to better understand the background noise, the racism and
stigma Indigenous clients might be facing and how this shows up in therapy. I feel like the
psychology classes I was taking did not get into issues of being a White counsellor with an
Indigenous client or how Indigenous peoples might encounter therapy, that kind of thing.
I grew up in a very White community. Like, in middle school there was a boy who was
Korean and a girl who immigrated from India, and everybody else was White. In high school,
there was a larger Filipino group, but everyone had their little cliques. I just gravitated towards

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White people. And yeah, now I think I feel timid in asking questions about culture and
experiences in session because I don’t want to come across as the ignorant White person. I feel a
lot of guilt about being White, about having a German background. I feel that maybe people will
see me and assume I have certain beliefs, biases, or ignorance. This colonial mark on me that I
can’t get rid of. So, I feel nervous to say anything. I would never want to say something harmful
or believe something that would hurt another person, so that colonial piece becomes kind of,
fragile. I feel a lot of doubt. The butterfly on my collage is a personal reminder, I think, that I
can dismantle the racist narratives I grew up around, but I don’t have to just approach that
process with the axe. I don’t have to cut off my background, who I am, and look at it with shame
or disdain. I can acknowledge how that part of me and my history allows me to show up. I can
have some compassion in dismantling that in myself.
I remember watching a student on my practicum team work with an Indigenous client. I
remember thinking how I might engage with that client differently. But then I thought, am I
approaching this person differently because they are Indigenous? Is this coming from a place of
wanting to be congruent and honour their identity or is it coming from a place of feeling like
everyone could, should, be treated somewhat the same in a counselling setting? That piece of not
wanting to do the wrong thing comes up again. There is tension there. If I were to make a
mistake and say something wrong or show up not in the ‘right way’ for an Indigenous client and
they suffered because of that, I think it would be hard to remember that my heart was [in the
right place]— well I don’t even know if that’s ok to say — I don’t know where to go to make that
tension go away. I don’t think it ever will. Inside, it feels like something in my core wants to
expand or emerge. Maybe, I can just be like, “oh actually, I don’t really know”, and be honest
with my client – humbly commit to learn.
I remember when I was maybe eleven or twelve and my mom’s school where she worked
was getting rid of a bunch of old books. One book was called ‘Indian Captive’, a historical
fiction book. They were getting rid of it presumably because of the title and some of the content;
in some ways, the story did not portray Indigenous people well. But it did describe this young
European girl living in an Indigenous community and described their ceremonies, rituals, and
practices. I remember reading it and feeling so at home. It was a beautiful way to witness being
tethered to the world as both subject and object. I impact the world around me and am impacted
by my environment. I am drawn to connect to what it means to live as a person, connected to

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things beyond just humanity. The movement towards decolonizing myself and my practice is not
stagnant. It all is still happening and moving, growing, changing, and evolving. I am not going
back to ignorance or looking away. My colonized self is moving towards the issues I perceive in
the world asking, “what can [i] do?”. There’s this sense again, of expansion within.
Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journeys: Narrative Trails
The personal experience narratives you just read represent the unique journeys
participants reflected on with and through their collages and interviews. How you, the reader,
interprets these stories will depend on your cultural, social, historical, and familial background.
Rather than interpreting each narrative individually for you, I invite you to take a moment to let
the stories to speak for themselves and notice where you may resonate and find pieces of your
story in theirs. While each participant's narrative stood out as a distinct, standalone story,
common patterns of shared meaning emerged as I (re)storied their experiences through the
process I described in chapter three. In keeping with the previously introduced journey metaphor,
I named the patterns as ‘narrative trails’. These trails were discovered by walking with each
participant along their journey thus far, noting points of agreement and echoing between
individuals, as well as moments of differentiation and uniqueness. These trails converse with
each other, witnessing different points of a settler therapist’s journey towards decolonial
mindsets and practice.
These trails are also intersecting; they do not stand alone as single moments along a
linear road but rather come together in an interconnection of experience and movement.
Together, these narrative trails form a settler therapist decolonizing journey trail map, (see
Figure 6) which summarizes the shared meaning along participants' separate paths.

The five narrative trails that resonated across the journeys of Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige's are
as follows: (a) Awakening to Shifting Worldviews, (b) Growing Awareness in ‘Hundreds of
Small Ways,’ (c) Grappling with Discomfort: Unsettled, (Re)settled (d) Challenging the
Roadmap: Enacting Decolonization in Client Work, and (e) Unanswered Questions – We Hope
and We Press On.
Figure 6
Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journey Trail Map

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Note. Narrative trails represent the shared patterns of meaning and experience across participant
narratives. They are interconnected and interact with each other in dynamic ways.
Narrative Trail #1: Awakening to Shifting Worldviews
Each participant shared their journey of how they came to be in the field of counselling
psychology and, subsequently, their entry into engaging with decolonized ways of thinking,
being, and doing. Their move into counselling psychology, whether as a career path shift or
otherwise, was catalyzed by and accompanied with changing worldviews and beliefs. For
example, Bex offered that during her graduate program training, it “felt like I was completely
restructuring my worldview … it was deeply unsettling.” Personal experience narratives depict
how participants came to the profession, highlighting plotlines of embracing pre-existing or
evolving personal values, such as the importance of nuance, dialectics, relationships, and
personal spirituality in addition to a growing awareness of new ethics and internal motivations
towards social justice and political activism. Colin points out in his collage; “I have a bunch of
dialectical things happening here. I have a winery there. I have sort of wild fields, connected
with structure and science that are together.” He connects this dialectical way of thinking, which
in his narrative was established as being a significant shift in his worldview, to how he has
learned to see Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and being, “I love that beautiful balance

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of sort of what colonial cultures bring and mixing it with what’s been around for hundreds of
thousands of years.”
Moving away from what did not fit their evolving worldview and towards experiences
that resonated holistically —head, heart, body, and spirit—guided participants as they moved
along their career paths. The first way that the narratives trails intersect with each other is in a
growing awareness to shifting worldviews, which is emphasized in Colin’s story. His journey
from training to become a pastor to pursuing therapy was sparked by his discomfort with the
rigid either/or mindset he encountered in church spaces. The movement from black and white
thinking to embracing the grey and murky world resonated deeply for him: “And when I
discovered dialectics [ dialectical behavioural therapy], I said, yes! This is … kind of how I've
been thinking all along … it made sense.” Colin emphasized that in church spaces, one of his
biggest concerns was that he was not “allowed to ask questions” or challenge the status quo. He
shared, “I was told to be careful, or you lack faith. I knew right away … I don’t know if I can
honestly do that. And so, it [seminary] was not a fit. I fell into a bit of a faith crisis …”. Colin
offered that this crisis compelled him to think about people differently: “It’s a heart sense. The
Creator loves those that we judge the most and that we see as the most detestable just as much as
he does me, no matter who they are, no matter what they are, no matter what they believe.”
Despite his movement away from seminary and certain Christian theology, Colin emphasized
that he did not move forward by abandoning his faith all together. Instead, embracing dialectics
helped him make the “jump” from his pastoral career while also integrating his newfound
spirituality and worldview shift into the complex profession of counselling.
Paige too, shared that psychology opened a space for her to shift her worldview and
embrace the “nuances and complexity” of humanity more authentically. Paige shared that
“psychology makes you think about the world differently”, which invited her to consider and
reflect on her values and worldview more. She expressed a belief that individual people can
make more of a difference and change than we often credit ourselves to. Paige also reflected on
the boat of people she included in her collage, sharing that “humanity is all in the same boat, but
sometimes it feels like some people are trying to row in the opposite direction.” She shared that
taking classes on race, racism, and Indigenous studies in university helped clarify her own
worldview beliefs, eventually triggering her move from business into psychology. Paige offered
that with psychology she felt she was able to be a part of the change and that finding her way

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into this field was like, “… finding my people. I am not in this battle alone.” Specifically, Paige
reflected that the focus of her previous career missed the human behind statistics and numbers:
When I think of the incarceration rates and disparity that exists for Indigenous
people, or missing and murdered Indigenous women, those statistics feel
“number-y”, but they also hit something deeper. It’s frustrating and I feel angry. It
feels like a splash of cold water on my face, ‘How does this happen?!’
This emotional question from Paige underscored her ambition to switch into psychology. As she
found spaces that aligned with her values and moved her towards her passion for social justice
and political activism, she became more aware of how worldview impacted her training and
client work.
Like Paige, Clara also began her education in business, specifically in marketing. Clara
pointed out that in her collage process, words kept “popping out” at her from advertising: “I used
to be in advertising and hated it with a passion. I am seeing these ads and think, ‘Damn it!’. So, I
allowed that and said, ‘Okay, I am taking something out of it…’ I am not using ads to connect to
capitalism, I am going to take what I want out of it.” Here we see Clara grappling with her past
and finding ways to form what she used to do and felt misaligned with into something new and
authentic to her current beliefs, values, and anti-capitalistic goals. As Clara moved into holistic
healing, she sensed that here too, something was missing. Transitioning from holistic healing to
her undergraduate and then master's degree in psychology and counselling encouraged and
supported Clara’s worldview shifts. These shifts ultimately helped Clara focus on the activism
and allyship she aims to engage in now. This move from holistic healing into undergraduate
education with a social justice emphasis allowed Clara to look back on her past experiences with
a critically reflexive eye:
[looking back] there was so much cultural appropriation in that field of doing, you
know the Indian Head Massage … reflexology … And no concept of decolonizing
or understanding, for example, saging, we did so much saging and most of us
were White.
Clara concluded that, “I know better now. I had to go to university to learn about these
things … I wish I understood that better when I was in that practice … So now looking back, I
have some regrets, but also, I didn’t know better.” In a similar way, other participants also each
emphasized moments in which they realized how their worldviews and current career paths did
not align with their values and personal/professional goals. They became more aware of
alternative approaches to therapy and growth such as dialectical thinking and culturally aware

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approaches. Beginning their counselling education and careers awoke them to a growing
awareness that something in them, and thus the way they would approach their work, needed to
shift.
Narrative Trail #2: Growing Awareness in “Hundreds of Small Ways”
Participants shared that as their perspectives changed, they became more aware of what
decolonizing themselves and their practice meant to them. As I reviewed narratives and collage
reflections, it became evident that each participant experienced various moments of insight,
epiphany, or becoming aware to their (de)colonizing efforts and reconciliatory attitudes. Each
participant identified key life experiences that prompted them to examine their colonial identities
and commitments to reconciliation more deeply. They reflected on how these insights were
influenced by family dynamics, educational challenges and triumphs, and personal experiences,
all of which propelled their efforts to attempt to decolonize themselves and their work. These
“aha” moments highlighted significant points on their journeys, showing them and now us where
they began, where they are currently, and where they hope to go. It is important to note that this
growing awareness did not happen spontaneously but came to be known by participants as they
reflected, engaged, reflected, and re-engaged in their work, clinical training, and personal life.
Usually, these moments emerged not as standalone experiences but, “experientially over time, in
hundreds of small ways”, as Bex shared. “It can be hard to grasp if I’ve even been working
towards this [decolonizing] in any way. Going through the collage and this process has helped
me put words to my journey” (Bex).
A major source of insight and growing awareness around decolonization efforts, activities,
and invitations came from family connections and dynamics. For example, Paige described her
relationship with her family as one of tension and conflict due to differing worldviews and
beliefs. Paige shared that she sought out specific Indigenous studies classes in her education
partly because she wanted to have “ammo for arguments constantly thrown at me from my
family, like ‘why are [Indigenous peoples] arguing for land?’’’. Paige, referring to the axe and
the phrase, “I always felt like too much was holding me back” in her collage, connected this
family tension to her becoming more aware of the guilt she faced for being raised in White and
German family who did not uphold similar social justice values as her regarding whiteness and
privilege:

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I’ve felt like I had to cut off a piece of myself and my family … I had a lot of guilt, I
guess, about being White … in my family, we have differing beliefs about what it
means to be White with privilege. This colonial mark on me, some people may
assume I have certain beliefs or biases.
Identifying this conflict and becoming aware of this guilt catalyzed Paige to consider what her
role is as a helping professional working with Indigenous clients now and in the future.
Becoming cognizant of how her family holds opposing beliefs to her, especially regarding
whiteness and privilege, heightened her sense of awareness to how she might be perceived by her
clients. This awareness motivated her to learn new ways of knowing and being in school and to
seek out opportunities to connect in the community such as volunteering and, “reading has been
a big way that I've tried to encounter Indigenous voices, voices of people of color and their
experiences… or podcasts or even music that speaks to injustice.” Paige also offered that as she
has grown and this awareness has taken shape in her life more, she has found more compassion
for her family and herself in the process. Speaking of her collage, Paige reflects, “and I put this
butterfly there on the axe …it is this gentle reminder to have some compassion too”.
A moment of awareness important to Clara occurred during her education and coinciding
employment and research opportunities. She shares, “I started living and working in different
spaces, working for a feminist organization, that helped in of itself. But then in grad school,
when I decided to do research, that’s where I really became interested in reconciliation and, yeah
… decolonization.” Classes such as gender studies and sociology began to help Clara “open her
eyes” to the realities of the world she was living in. She admitted as well that “at times, I avoided
[the learning] … It’s easy to say… I’m a busy student, I’m broke, I have to focus on just
surviving school. So, it’s easy to avoid taking accountability for your piece, how you exist in the
world.” However, Clara shared that as she became aware of certain cultural discourse and of the
activism that existed around her, she decided she wanted something to do with it:
It took time. It felt strange, and I ask, ok what is my participation in this
[colonization, in being here]? My parents are immigrants, they suffer too. There
was a lot of justifying … and lack of action. I started learning more about being
active … trying to decolonize.
Clara made an active decision to participate in these spaces fueled by transformative experiences
researching reconciliation activities in a post-colonial community in Africa. She refers to the tree
in the middle of her collage as being central to representing the work she did in Africa and how
this helped her awareness grow around what her role is as a clinician in the current colonial
climate of Canada.

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Like Clara, Bex also began to become aware to her need to decolonize herself and her
practice. This came initially through personal trauma work and then through Bex’s education and
training. Bex shared that as a “lifer client” she had many years of therapy exposure herself. She
reflected that it was only when the therapist she was working with during her undergraduate
education acknowledged that Bex was living with her own trauma was she able to make more
sense of the collective pain and trauma of the Indigenous communities she was familiar with.
She shared, “I started to understand the science of the brain, what happens when you go through
… trauma. Starting to understand and seeing that from a lived experience made me start to
reframe the story I had been told about Indigenous people and their experience.” Bex indicated
that from this point in her life she began asking herself how this impacted her future work as a
therapist. Summarizing this growing awareness in her collage, Bex pointed out that,
There is this quote I found, ‘It is always good to be home, it grounds me, this
place, it takes me back to who I am’. Like I have said, my journey of
decolonization started with coming back to myself and realizing the ways I am a
very much a product of Western Christian culture … I have taken those off and
come back to myself … a lot of my understanding of Indigenous issues came
from what I’ve learned about the impact of my own trauma. Once I started to
understand that … I experienced this ‘healthy grief’.
Bex and others shared that these kinds of experiences were important milestones along their
journey. These experiential moments further developed their shifting worldview and
commitment to decolonial practice. These moments also led participants to experience tension
and discomfort with how they currently exist in the world and what they have been taught about
Indigenous peoples, power, and whiteness.
Narrative Trail #3: Grappling with Discomfort – Unsettled, Resettled
Another clear pattern in participant stories was grappling with discomfort. This pattern
appeared not only in the stories that participants chose to share with me, but in the process of
collage-making and reflecting on their experience in follow up interviews. Grappling with
discomfort involved participants progressing through various phases. First, they were confronted
by their whiteness and settler-colonial identities. This led to experiences of guilt, shame, and/or
confusion as they recognized their complicity in colonial structures. They felt unsettled by this
tension and found or came across people or experiences that helped (re)settle them with new
levels of awareness and self-compassion. It was an honour to witness each participant navigate
these phases bravely and honestly, each one in their personal experience narratives illustrating a

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commitment to honesty and telling the truth as Bex noted: "[I’m] noticing the discomfort and
yet, I want the fullness of the narrative."
Being confronted by the colonial parts of us can cause deep discomfort, confusion, and
shame. Bex, connected to her Christian faith, offered her own experiences of this confrontation
mainly by reflecting on her position as a clinician working within a church. Bex is aware of the
pain that religious systems have caused people especially regarding the context of colonialism
and the church; “being in a Christian context, I am around a diverse range of views … how do I
engage authentically taking off the colonial aspects of our culture … the capitalism, patriarchy,
misogyny…?” She shared on her collage the phrase, “joining pieces of history” and
contemplated how this message would help her understand her role and the tension that she
experiences when she is so involved with religious institutions and other colonial spaces.
For example, Bex recognized feeling confronted by her work with other European clients
who were processing what it meant to be White, who in doing so seemingly dismiss the history
and pain that colonial systems have and continue to cause. She provided an example of a client
who reflected to her, “Like, it wasn't my fault, I wasn't there or like … what does it matter?” In
our conversation, Bex shared with me, “that too, is a whole other level of like, oh, this is
uncomfortable, because I so disagree with you.” This thought was challenging for Bex, who
values fostering authentic and safe spaces for all her clients. She recalled feeling tension and
confusion arise when recognizing the external pressure and internal motivation to address and
challenge the problematic views her clients held about complicity in an oppressive system as
White individuals:
I do think in a way it actually becomes almost like performative, but you feel like
you have to, right? Which, again, is something I bristle against, when you feel like
you have to do things a certain way, which again, is that religious kind of spirit …
working with clients who are processing what it means to be a White person who
are very much feeling like, “well, like I've been through hard stuff”, and they're
feeling invalidated, like, is advocacy actually showing up for them and helping
them heal, and eventually be able, hopefully, to get to a place of recognizing that
like your pain can be there, but also like, colonization did some shit?
In his narrative, Colin also described a certain kind of confrontation that mirrored in some
ways what Bex’s clients were asking: How am I responsible and still held responsible for
something I was “not there for”? The possible difference in the questioning here was that Colin
sought to move one step forward, by seeking to learn, ask difficult questions, and find a way to
“respectfully and honestly walk together”, colonizer and colonized alike. In this, he questioned

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using the term decolonization if “it is not actually happening”. He wondered if it was a word that
would need to be set aside eventually due to its vague nature and confusing definition. Colin
referred to a group of images on his collage that represent “workarounds” or “cheats” in how we
attempt to move towards reconciliation and decolonization. Colin offered that the images such as
“how to beat roulette?” or “organic rice chips” as well as the unicorn represent “fantasy” ideals.
Colin demonstrated uncertainty and discomfort here, wondering that if we are not actually giving
the land back, how can we say we are decolonizing. This discomfort fostered some curiosity for
Colin, and he shared, “I have gone to a number of Indigenous sensitivity trainings, I ask hard
questions, and sometimes I get a bit of a hand slap or judgement on thinking certain things, I am
told to be reflective on my own levels of racism.” Colin expressed his frustration about these
experiences, not understanding how he would be able to learn if his questions “were not
answered”. Not knowing can produce great discomfort.
Conversely, Colin shared with me what he called a “powerful community moment of
reconciliation”, an example of what it might look and feel like to be resettled in the face of
confrontation, guilt, and frustration:
During the blanket exercise experience I had, there was a large group of both
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The facilitator gave three instructions: Be
proud of where you come from, notice guilt and shame and set it aside, and trust
that our intentions together are good, are caring. It was the first time I was ever
invited to do that. That helped me to get back on the path, if I was sort of on any
kind of rabbit trail, it helped me get back on the path of reconciliation with
everybody.
Colin expressed that this moment carried him through the politically heated nature of the work
that he was a part of alongside Indigenous families and youth. He shared that being given
permission in this way helped him be, “…real, transparent. I feel like I can walk into politically
heated meetings without the ‘guilty by association’ bricks of being White and privileged on my
shoulders. I can be sincere”. Colin was confronted here by his whiteness, and it was clear that his
frustration, guilt, and shame moved aside as he became more aware of these feelings arising in
the first place.
Similarly, in her narrative, Paige expressed her own concerns about being guilty by
association. Paige described that, for her, this discomfort shows up with her feeling “really timid
in asking questions about culture”. She reflected on the fact that she grew up surrounded mostly
by other White peers at school. She posed, “I didn’t make an effort to branch out to other

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Indigenous or other cultural groups on campus. So, yeah, I do feel nervous … about the way that
a client might perceive me, if I don’t understand their experience right away”. However, as we
went through the interview and Paige continued to reflect, she eventually shared that maybe it
was okay to offer “I don’t really know” with her clients and herself. She considered, like the
others, how bringing honesty into session might be the necessary next step. Paige processed this
discomfort out loud in our interview concluding that,
I don't know really, where to go to make that tension go away? Like, I don't really
know, I don't think that there's any number of clients that I could see that would
make that go away. I don't think that there's a number of like supervisors, I could
talk to make go away. It just feels kind of inaccessible.
Paige illustrated this commitment to humility and openness in her collage. Pointing to the
lowercase “i” she shared:
I really liked that it was lowercase because I think it gets at the humility. So, this
collage, it is like a humble commitment in that I am feeling that tension that we
were talking about; I'm still learning. I'm still trying to figure stuff out. But I am
committed to humility, the willingness to learn and to be wrong. Even though it
feels tense and unsettled.
Each participant navigated discomfort with whiteness, colonial complicity, and attempts
to shift mindset and action uniquely, however across each narrative rang clear that an essential
experience clinicians will always maintain is the unsettled and tense feeling Paige describes
above. This knowing helped direct participants in what they may be able to do or how they may
show up in their work with clients.
Narrative Trail #4: “Challenging the Roadmap” – Enacting Decolonization in Client Work
Another meaningful pattern that wound its way through participant narratives was how
each person bravely and honestly embodied the lessons they learned along their journeys and
applied their learning to client work. It was clear that participants did not spend time only
thinking about decolonizing themselves or their practice but continually aimed to enact
alternative ways of being and “doing therapy”. Clara defined this enactment process through the
words “challenging the roadmap” on her collage. She and others reflected how in our Western
counselling psychology systems we are given a set of rules or appropriate boundaries to work
within and that these oftentimes needed to be challenged. The question of how to challenge
wandered along with us in our conversations. All participants shared moments when they felt the
need to challenge the roadmaps presented to them through their training or workplaces.
Oftentimes, this challenging required them to engage in deep honesty towards themselves and

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face the complexity of their complicit historical past. This is an important intersection between
this and the previous narrative trail (i.e., Grappling with discomfort). In facing complicity and
colonial identities, participants shared being readily able to find and apply creative ways to learn
from and alongside their clients and communities. Colin illustrated this honesty in
acknowledging the reality of historical trauma and cultural identity impacting the therapeutic
space:
When I am with Indigenous clients … we are two humans that, yes, have been
raised differently. I’m a White European-background colonialist, and you are from
an Indigenous family who have been really affected by residential schools, the
60’s scoop and you’ve suffered. It’s not about taking away from the pain that’s
there, that they are Indigenous, and I am White. It’s not drowning any of that out.
No, it’s all in the room… yet here we are, two people connecting.
Colin emphasized the importance of being able to sit with this difference emphasizing the
importance of acceptance and trust between both him and his clients and that this experience
goes both ways. He also offered that alongside recognizing the pain of historical trauma was the
need to affirm the wisdom and strength of Indigenous communities. Colin referred to the wild
field images and buildings as representative of freedom and structure and science in his collage.
Colin aimed in this illustrative example to depict both/and ideals he applies in his work.
Relatedly, Colin shared openly about how he sees Western systems built from colonial agendas
as being at times useful if implemented well alongside investment in Indigenous ways of
knowing and being. Regarding clinical work, he emphasized the essentiality of seeing
Indigenous clients and communities not for their pathology but for the ways in which their
wisdom and spirituality has and will continue to guide us all in our attempts to heal land and
community:
We need them, like fathers and mothers …We really value the healing of
Indigenous communities … At the same time as I am holding that, I’m also
holding up the fact that there’s actually a lot that colonizing has brought to our
world as well.
Colin outlined the dynamic of working within colonial systems in a way that utilized strengths
from Western approaches as well as Indigenous wisdom. Others also challenged the roadmap
across their narratives sharing moments when they both utilized and challenged Western
approaches to therapy. For example, Bex discussed her thoughts on using the term “helper”. She
shared that this term produced within her an “internal ick” as, to her, it gives off the notion that:

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I have something to offer you [client] ... sometimes I feel like helping others is
often about us, making us feel needed … I feel like our brains automatically go to
that Western medical model of, ‘I have the answers, I will give them to you’.
Bex shared that her belief about what therapy is was challenged during a graduate level
cross-cultural counselling class in which the professor invited them to consider if “therapy” as
we experience it is just an,
… ‘indigenous’, meaning ‘native to us’ Western healing method … he was like,
‘research shows that when we go to other countries and give them therapy after
a [traumatic] event it often does more harm than good’ ... instead of offering
EMDR4, what if they need to go to the temple to worship and pray?
From this confronting classroom discussion to her current work, Bex shared that she has
grown to understand the importance of keeping ritual, ceremony, and spirituality interwoven into
the therapeutic spaces she creates. As an illustration of this, Bex shared her first client experience
with me, a 60-year-old First Nations man from Williams Lake. She shared how profound it was
to challenge herself to affirm and not shy away from his cultural and colonized history. Bex
reflected how he responded to her humbly inquiring about this, sharing with her that “no one has
asked me those things before” and how meaningful this was to their work together. In this
relationship, Bex shared that her client also offered her gifts such as teachings on the medicine
wheel and other forms of healing that he had accessed in the past like smudging sage which he
gifted to her at Christmas. She referred to her collage imagery of looking and witnessing (e.g.,
the two women looking at each other) and shared how these images together in context with the
rest of her collage “represent a theme of coming home and then joining together on common
ground, everyone deserving a seat at the table and joining these pieces of history”. Bex reflected
that seeing her client for all that he brought into the therapeutic space connected to this imagery.
This collaborative and didactic therapeutic engagement helped ease some power dynamics in
sessions and Bex let this interaction deeply impact her. She shared with me that the gift of her
client’s presence in her life opened her eyes. She reflected how,
All those pieces [gifts and lessons] moved me to drop into myself, my body, “How
can I shift the way I work? So that I am not centring myself?” So, I am not the
one with all the answers like this Western medical model. But how can I help
people heal in ways that feel good to them?
Bex mentioned however, that not every client has responded this way to cultural
conversations, noting that socially we, especially as White people have been “taught to not talk
4

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a kind of trauma therapy.

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about it [culture, race]”. Bex shared that some clients “brushed off” cultural conversations,
relaying them as not important to the work that they were doing together. Relatedly, Paige
implored how helpful it had been to learn about cultural identity development models in her
graduate training multicultural class. These models supported her to enact decolonizing work
bravely and humbly with clients from various cultural and racial backgrounds. She wondered,
… if I had an Indigenous client who was maybe more in the "zealot" stage
[referring to an identity development model] and not wanting to identify with the
earlier stage where they're issuing that Indigenous identity, and then in session
I’m like, look at all these Indigenous ways to practice… I wonder if that would be
more harmful?
Here, Paige is describing becoming sensitized to how incorporating culture or Indigenous based
healing practices in therapy can be both healing and further harming, depending on the client’s
current relationship with their cultural identity. Paige concluded that for her it is essential to be
aware of these models and know how to appropriately apply them in client work.
Furthermore, participants repeatedly demonstrated how important it was to intentionally
ask clients what would be effectively helpful for them for their healing. At times this looked like
alternative approaches to Eurocentric-based therapy, but other times, it included them. Clara
challenged her roadmap like others in this way by asking, “What is important to the client for
their own healing?” Her answer, given what she learned during her time researching
reconciliation in Africa, was that “sometimes, it’s showing up as a human being with
vulnerabilities, sharing food together … counselling is so much more than talking.” Here, Clara
demonstrated again the tension of working within Western frameworks in a way that allowed for
difference to be seen, acknowledged and honoured. To this point, she highlighted the importance
of asking clients,
What’s your name? Really looking at the individual that you’re working with and
asking them you know, how to actually pronounce their name. This is meta for
me; asking their name is like really allowing the person you’re working with to tell
you who they are. We are not filling in the gaps for them. It’s honouring the
clients whose boundaries have not been seen honoured, their needs have not
been honoured historically.
This courageous embodiment of decolonial approaches in client work required
participants to be deeply honest about their identities and how their colonial backgrounds might
be perceived by clients. They also demonstrated honestly and openly acknowledging the history
and pain or, “background noise” (Paige), that historical trauma presents in the therapeutic
relationship. Participants also spoke about what it meant to think accurately about what

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decolonizing themselves and their practice actually looked like. Furthermore, each person
emphasized how crucial it was for them to sense into what “felt like reconciliation”, engaging
their critical thinking about decolonization and being led to action by their heart, spirit, and “gut”
(Clara, see collage, “trust your gut”). Clara also mentioned how important it was for her to seek
out self and community care in this work, highlighting imagery that to her symbolized
nurturance and support on her collage. This embodied way forward was built off the deep
honesty discussed previously as well as like Paige commented, dropping assumptions and being
okay with not always knowing the right thing to say:
I think that because of how I show up in session, I feel like I can be maybe kind
of blunt, and just be like oh actually, like, I don't really know... just maybe being
honest with the client and bringing my own ignorance to session [hesitation,
prolonged thought in voice] without wanting to make them have to turn into
healer for me kind of thing.
Narrative Trail #5: Unanswered Questions – We Hope and We Go On
The final trail mapped from the shared patterns in participant narratives represents the
ongoing journey for those committed to this important work—the continuous effort to decolonize
oneself and one's practice. Relating to their role as White-settler counselling psychologists,
participants reflected on how they hoped for and have seen glimpses of a more healed future for
themselves, their clients, and the broader community despite the challenges, discomfort, and
mistakes they experience along the way. Present across participant narratives was the message
that this work is not something that anyone has mastered, despite wishing they could, as at times,
“It makes you feel really powerless” (Bex). Every person recognized and embraced the
continuous nature of this journey and expressed this in meaningful ways through their collage
artwork. For example, Paige pointed out the orange fruit at the top of her piece to represent a sun
that was not fully risen yet, signifying her hope and belief that we still have truth to illuminate.
Participants also offered their commitments to advancing change within themselves and
alongside others and pondered how the Earth witnesses to us the essential need for and
possibility of healing. To honour these commitments and stories shared, for this narrative trail I
present sections of each participants’ collage story descriptions, giving space for their words and
images to linger with us as we continue forward on our journeys as well.

Bex: Coming Home

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I was being drawn to images of earthiness, seeing, witnessing, and being
present. Mindful principles that are good, that to me feel so resonant with what I
know of Indigenous culture. So, to me, it feels connected … Whenever I think
about reconciliation, Indigenous issues, decolonization something like what
happens in meditation happens for me. I drop into myself. I wish I could explain
it, it feels like this good grounding inside, as well as this overwhelming feeling of
powerlessness, “What can I change?”. But then … a sense of home. As I have
found home within myself, this has informed my understanding of reality, of what
has happened on [our] lands. The idea of coming home to myself also has this
interconnectedness with others, like my first client, having conversations about
race, talking to him, a First Nations man, about receiving therapy from a White
person. It represents this theme of coming home and then joining together on
common ground, everyone deserving a seat at the table and joining these pieces
of history. I think it’s a relational solution that we need. How can we join these
pieces of history and heal and like, move forward? I know, I don’t have the
answer for that. Humanizing yourself, beyond being complicit, acknowledging this
and…I wonder how that compassion, does that kind of go inward too?
I put together like a bit of a poem from the pieces [on collage].
“As I look back over the past,
the soft morning light silently marks the common ground,
the world is unearthing beauty, however hidden or subtle,
and everyone has a story worth telling".
Paige: Illuminating Growth – It Rises with Time
I think as I was looking at it without the lines, something felt missing. I think I was
just wanting something to feel whole or complete. But I think at the same time
having some of the lines go off the page is recognizing that this isn't the complete
picture. But that it’s just a snapshot. The lines are a helpful reminder that
colonialism is a mindset … I felt like it was important to give this little [bottom left]
pocket of the collage to represent the more colonial stuff. But then all this, above
the ax, represents us heading to this brighter future. Like being nineteen working
at the addictions centre, not having awareness like I do now, being twenty-four

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and seeing those tendrils of growth. I am moving towards that like, decolonized
practice step by step. As long as I keep that intentional and close to my heart, I
think by the time I am practicing in my fifties it would be something more innate to
my practice. This lightbulb, I occluded it on purpose, cut up this black stuff, to
make it like - there’s this crown [bottom left corner] behind here - there’s this
damaged past we’ve only recently started to acknowledge. We are starting to
shed light, but shining a light does not make it go away or be different. There’s
the pain and loss and separation but there’s also all this beauty, like movements
towards reconciliation. Illuminating both a broken past and a way forward for the
next steps. The orange half, it’s like the sun on the horizon, not completely up
yet. We have not illuminated everything, it’s something that will rise with time.
Clara: It is Full of Meaning
In the middle, it’s honouring those you work with
And all around it we see the process,
Give yourself grace, trusting your gut, activism,
Honour where you come from
Doing your part, look after and nurture yourself as well,
Challenge the roadmap, be transparent and open,
Truth and vulnerability

Now, I am inclined to speak up and advocate more,
I share what I do know can work and help,
I try to not doubt myself.
I realize, I am human,
I make mistakes,
I learn from others,

I aim to allow difference to exist and feel it.
What is it like, that we all are different?
Let that take up space,
Feel into the different spaces between us,

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So much happens there.
Even in the silence,
It is full of meaning.

Colin: And as We Cut Through
I have a bunch of dialectical things happening here. I have a winery there. I have
sort of wild fields, connected with structure and science that are together, I have
my dream house that looks like something that would be in the Okanagan, on a
piece of property where all the ground around is perfectly natural, no mowed
lawn or weeds to cut, trees to trim. Natural. I love that beautiful balance of sort of
what colonial cultures bring and mixing it with what’s been around for hundreds
of thousands of years … a beautiful, serene house, very clean, and then I have a
really rustic, wild, front yard. There’s a point where we’re going to have to all
come together and say, we really value the healing of Indigenous communities,
we see the way we Europeans came and colonized, we want to see that healing
and Indigenous culture thrive, to keeping their knowledge, their culture, traditions.
Lead us. Indigenous folks are going to lead the way when it comes to showing us
once again how to act [in a good way] as humans in our world … For example, I
have here the sun and a planet, I think it's Jupiter. And then a picture of the stars
up there, right in the middle. And I think one of the things that we can do to walk
together both the colonized the colonial people, the Indigenous community,
communities and also the colonialist thinking people, is looking to the stars and
the science of looking up and figuring out what's there. I have not met a human
being who was not interested when NASA or when somebody landed on the
moon that time, or when we have a satellite that goes close to other planets. We
all want to see where our places are in the universe. And I think that's a really
neat thing that we can all do together.
Chapter Summary
The above narrative trails highlight the most poignant patterns that emerged across
participant stories and interpretations of their collages. Findings illustrate examples of how
participants grappled with their settler identities and negotiated spaces to unsettle and resettle

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themselves as they learned what it meant to approach therapeutic practice in a decolonial way.
Participants spoke often about the “heart” of the matter, finding it important to listen to what
their heart had to say and follow it as well as other important teachers along the way (e.g.,
relationships, the Land, mistakes, guilt, doubt, values, and fear). Together the stories told through
conversation and collage craft a picture that represents to other WCPs what it might look and feel
like to attempt and struggle with decolonizing oneself and one’s practice. In summary of the
narrative trails, Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige shared about how their worldviews evolved,
supporting their education and career shifts. They recalled moments that moved them towards
applying decolonial attitudes in their work and personal lives as well as moments that brought up
guilt and shame about their whiteness and colonial history. Participants described their honest
and brave attempts to ground themselves, move forward with good intentions, and maintain an
open heart for learning. They shared what decolonial actions they have begun to apply in client
work and acknowledged mistakes, regrets, neocolonial mindsets, as well as hopes for the future
of this field and their anticolonial roles in it.
I have shared bits and pieces of my story and process at essential points along this
researching way, and now is one of those important moments. As I sifted through and sat with
the lessons I have learned from Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige, my thesis supervisor asked me how
I have been impacted by this research project. One of the first thoughts that came to me was the
experience of being now more grounded in this anti-colonial work. Like what participants
described in their stories, I have experienced a slow but “steep” worldview shift and values
realignment as I have engaged my counselling psychology degree. This shift, in part, prompted
me to reflect on what it means to be impacted by colonialism as a White settler counselling
psychologist. Like Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige, I have also moved through various stages of
passion, motivation, guilt, shame, frustration, doubt, and fear and felt the deeply unsettling
nature of what it means to be on this journey. At times, this looked like hesitation, overly
cautious attempts at building relationship with Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and
tentative applications of the lessons that I have been taught from FNMI mentors and supports. I
have also found solace and comfort in witnessing other settler researchers, like those on my
thesis committee, apply this work further along on their decolonizing journeys. I have learned
what humility truly looks like from them. The experience of being unsettled in the
abovementioned ways and resettled thereafter has led me to understand how important it is to not

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fear the unsettling but remain grounded knowing it will come and go and that this is an essential
part of the process. In both my own and this study’s participant stories, this resettling process
was critical for the allowance of self and other compassion. This compassion allows us to remain
situated in humility and honesty.
As we consider what the findings together tell us, I listen to the heartbeat of this work,
the one beating through my participants lived stories and my own. Situated together, these
findings together demonstrate a confident and compassionate unsettling. Compassionate
unsettling as it comes together in the decolonizing journey trail map that introduced this chapter
invites settler therapists to engage authentically with their complicity, cultural identities, family
histories, educational experiences, and own trauma rather than stay silent and shy away from
important truths that must be heard, witnessed, and integrated into practice. It displays the way
that our individual and communal paths intersect and connect with each other: Relationship is
central in this work, no experience occurs in isolation. The findings as written through personal
experience narratives and narrative trails emphasize this reality.

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CHAPTER FIVE: TRAILING TOGETHER
This research project sought to explore and highlight the experiences of White settler
counselling psychologists as they moved along their decolonizing journeys. My research
questions asked how WCPs have experienced their personal and professional decolonizing
journeys thus far, as well as what role WCPs might have in decolonizing their clinical practice.
My goal was to highlight both the personal and shared challenges that settler-therapists faced, as
well as the lessons and successes they have seen in their anti-colonial attempts to date. To do
this, I aimed to create a safe space for WCPs to speak about these topics, express their emotions,
and tell stories that may otherwise go untold and unheard, thus enforcing the silence and white
invisibility that supports a colonial agenda. On my own journey, I have experienced great
growth, learning, and hope in speaking honestly with other trusted settler-therapists and
Indigenous psychologists who have offered their care, compassion, and concerns for the field,
compelling me to shift my approach and humbly reflect on internalized colonial mindsets and
motivations. This project has facilitated internal transformations in me that I know will continue
to support my work in counselling psychology. Though this project is about so much more than
me, I cannot go on without taking this moment to feel into and relay the gratitude I have for this
experience.
Through narrative and arts-based inquiry, this project fostered active and embodied
participant involvement. Colin, Bex, Clara, and Paige expressed that the opportunity to reflect on
their experiences creatively and authentically has profoundly impacted and transformed their
understanding of their decolonizing journeys. Participants shared narratives of the unsettling and
uncomfortable, yet central and hope-filled processes that have been a part of their
decolonial/anticolonial experiences, both personally and professionally. They revealed insights
they may have not previously noticed, leading to significant personal growth and change.
As Bowden et al. (2017) share, there is limited research in Canada addressing the
challenges that non-Indigenous counselling psychologists face when working with Indigenous
communities. This includes there being little said about what kinds of growth and lessons these
counsellors gain from their work and reflections. By providing a space for WCPs to critically
reflect and respond to inquiry around their decolonizing attempts, this project contributes to
reconciliation efforts as called for by the TRC (2015). Specifically, this project responds to calls
#22 and #23 which beckon those who can effect change within health-care systems to recognize

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and uphold the value of Indigenous healing practices as well as to ensure appropriate cultural
competency training to all health care providers. With these goals in mind, the following chapter
(a) synthesizes the participants’ five narrative trails the previous chapter within a settler therapist
decolonizing journey trail map, (b) connects the findings and their implications for training,
education, and practice, in light of current literature (c) points out various limitations and future
opportunities for research, and (d) highlights the ways that findings are relevant for the field of
counselling psychology.
Making Meaning of Findings
The narrative trails (NT) I created encapsulate how participants have experienced their
decolonizing journeys. They primarily discussed their evolving worldviews and growing
awareness of their intentions and motivations to decolonize themselves and their practices. They
also noted the tensions of shame, guilt, frustration, and avoidance that arose during these shifts.
Participants reflected on their attempts to integrate decolonial lessons into their practice despite
doubts, as well as their commitment to the lifelong and imperfect journey of resisting or
disrupting the colonizer within and without.
As I worked with the trails, I noticed significant overlap in participant experiences,
highlighting the interconnected nature of their journeys. This led me to create the trail map visual
that I introduced in the previous chapter and expand upon now. This trail map represents the
non-linearity of participant journeys and highlights intersections among the trails. This map
offers meaningful reflection and discussion points for other counselling psychologists to consider
on their own journeys. In order to explore and summarize meanings of the narratives and lessons
shared by participants, I identified illustrative words or word pairings for each intersection. I
liken these words to trail markers that remind us of where we have been, what we have done, and
where we might want or need to travel next. Figure 7 below displays the trail map with these
new markers added in, labelled as follows: Awakening, awareness, avoidance/acceptance,
anchored, acknowledge/accountable, and advancing reconciliation. These words were reflected
in some way throughout participant narratives and are also reflected in pre-existing literature in
various implicit and explicit ways. These trails and intersections do not necessarily follow a
linear sequence, so the numbering system is used purely for organization.
Figure 7
Settler Therapist Decolonizing Journey Trail Map (With Trail Markers)

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Note. The narrative trails on therapist decolonizing journeys are marked here by trail
markers, tying together the lessons from each trail and connecting to the ways that we all
may apply meanings made from participant journeys to our own clinical practice and
personal lives.
Each of the above intersections of meaning help us understand the narrative trails and
participant experiences from a lens of nuance and complexity. There are many paths to explore
and forge and each are an important part of the full journey. The first intersection I will point us
to is awakening, which relates to the way in which participants all experienced gradual and/or
sudden awakenings to a new way of understanding the world and their place in it. This
awakening process was catalyzed by career shifts in part due to misaligned values with their
current education or career paths. As participants became more authentic and shifted in their
education and career, they simultaneously expanded their view of the colonial world in which
they live, work, play, and connect. Staying awake to their complicity as White settlers living on
stolen land that “we’ve not given back fully” (Clara) was essential and found its way in each of
the narrative trails described in the trail map. This worldview awakening did not happen only
once but continued to guide participants on their journeys as they experienced diverse
relationships, new types of dialogue, and inner moments of tension and discomfort. Therefore,
awakening encompasses all the other trails within its boundaries.
The trail marker of awareness connects NT#2 (Growing awareness) and NT#3 (Enacting
decolonization in client work). This intersection is an important point to reflect on during our

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journeys. However, participants demonstrated the importance of not dwelling in awareness and
reflection without action. They recognized their colonial identities, whiteness, and the oppression
and trauma experienced by Indigenous communities through health systems. They then actively
chose to enact alternative ways of being and knowing in their practice. This did not always come
easily or naturally, but participants embraced not knowing and trying new practices anyways.
During our interviews, some participants spent reasonable amounts of time reflecting and
theorizing what they imagine needs to shift and change, rather than sharing what they have been
doing to actively deconstruct colonial mentalities. Tuck and Yang (2012) warn against staying
stuck in reflection without action for too long. This is where NT#5 becomes important,
reminding us of this ongoing and ever evolving work.
Furthermore, participants each discussed their ongoing experiences with expressed feelings
of guilt, shame, regret, and frustration as they engaged in the challenging yet hopeful process of
decolonizing their practice and themselves. The trail marker denoting this dynamic of avoidance
and acceptance is seen mainly between NT#2 (Growing awareness) and NT#3 (Grappling with
discomfort). As participants became aware of their colonial and White complicity, cultural
identities, and familial backgrounds, and reckoned with how they are part of the colonial system
that has harmed the very people they now are committed to supporting, they found themselves
grappling with discomfort and guilt. Avoidance of these feelings occurred by way of making
excuses, as Clara did in school, sharing that it was difficult to imagine fully engaging in the
resistance and advocacy work while simply trying to survive as a student. Acceptance looked
like realizing the truth of the colonial nature of psychology and accepting one’s place in it with
humility. Recall Paige’s story, where she shared coming to understand and accept that the
tension within her is a necessary and constant experience to reckon with as she engages in
decolonizing herself and her work.
Another trail intersection occurs between NT#3 (Grappling with Discomfort) and NT#5
(We Hope and Press On). The previously mentioned dynamic of avoidance and acceptance
helped participants acknowledge their roles in colonial systems and remain accountable to the
journey that they are now on for a lifetime. Paige reflects this in the fifth trail findings, in which I
share her collage reflection, “But I think at the same time having some of the lines go off the
page is recognizing that this isn't the complete picture”. Moreover, the cyclical process of
avoidance and acceptance eventually led participants to recognize that while tension persists, it is

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essential to acknowledge hope and engage in accountable, critical self-reflection both personally
and with their clients.
A trail intersection that roots all narrative trails together represents the places and activities
that participants grounded themselves in and from. The anchors that participants mentioned in
their stories significantly related to how they found a sense of home in their (a) theoretical
approach to counselling (e.g., dialectical behaviour therapy in the case of Colin, or personcentred, relational approaches like Bex and Clara), (b) Indigenous wisdoms and teaching (e.g.,
Paige finding home as she read the book her mother’s school was getting rid of), (c) ability to
connect to nature and the land (e.g., Bex sharing, “let’s do therapy with our toes in the grass”),
(d) personal faith, spirituality, meditation, and self-nurturance (e.g., each participant shared their
connections to some form of spirituality that filled them), and/or (e) through relationship and
community building. These factors were seemingly necessary to keep participants grounded and
able to move along all the other trails. In essence, anchoring to a home base by the above ways
as well as through increased cultural identity, allowed participants to continue noticing and
accepting their White guilt and shame with more compassion. Anchoring also helped them
contend with and lessen the fear of saying the wrong thing in session with Indigenous clients and
within the psychology community broadly.
As participants anchored themselves and became grounded, settled, and more selfcompassionate, their capacity to revisit and step further into advancing reconciliation in client
work, the broader psychology community, and in their personal lives expanded. Enacting
decolonization in client work (NT#4) directly impacts how we can hope for a better future, and
engaging in anticolonial discourse can be motivating and energizing to continue the journey
(NT#5). Examples previously mentioned include Bex reflecting how to appropriately respond to
White clients who may express colonial or racist perspectives during sessions, and Clara calling
other professionals to uphold higher anticolonial standards based on her learnings. Participants
acknowledged their humanness and fallibility yet recognized that failing did not necessarily
mean being complicit, but rather demonstrated active attempts to shift the way they worked.
They also acknowledged that there were inconsistencies with what they hoped for versus our
current reality. Additionally, they recognized, like Tuck and Yang (2012), that decolonization is
often erroneously referred to or understood more metaphorically than literally.

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Taken together, these trails help us see the interconnected and continually relational work
that decolonizing self and practice is. There are many paths to explore, and as Colin, Bex, Clara,
and Paige demonstrate, we often experience travelling all these paths simultaneously in one
moment, or we may stay just on one or two individual paths for a while. Journeys are varied and
unique. The trail map and preceding discussion is meant to provoke reader self-reflection and to
notice where you may or may not resonate with the interconnectedness of these trails. The ways
in which we have moved through and along and continue to move through and along these trails
encompasses the quote that opened the findings chapter, “Stories go in circles …” (Tafoya,
1995). The trail map with its now added trail markers may be used as a potential guide for other
settler therapists on their journeys. It may be a helpful way to learn to listen to their own and
other’s stories going in circles and notice that indeed this is a journey with many more paths to
trek and rocks and logs to sit upon and rest on the way.
Continuing the Conversation: Connections to Literature and New Insights
Now that I have mentioned connections between narrative trails and helped elucidate what
each trail means in relation to each other, I discuss how these findings are connected to the
existing literature. I also speak to the novel ways that these findings contribute to the ongoing
conversation. To maintain the journey metaphor woven throughout this project, I invite you to
envision the following discussion as if it were taking place as we all meet at a rest stop viewpoint
along our journey through challenging yet beautiful terrain. We stop together and take a breath or
two, sip water to replenish, and all look out over where we have come and where we yet still
need to go. I envisage those who will read this document standing in a circle with me. I see you
and the voices speaking through literature as we engage in conversation about what has been
learned, felt, gained, and let go of along the way.

The Decolonial Struggle
The narrative trails that highlight the most significant patterns in participant stories
correspond with the limited but crucial literature on non-Indigenous, White settler therapists'
efforts to decolonize themselves and their practice. Fullerton (2021) highlights a decolonial
struggle of settler therapists working with Indigenous communities and this struggle showed in
settler therapist’s stories in this study. Fullerton suggests that a decolonizing struggle includes

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learning to “see more subtle forms of violence that continue to infuse Indigenous-settler relations
including privilege, power, racism, poverty, cultural domination, cultural appropriation,
paternalism, and a refusal to honour treaties and land claims” (p. 220). These subtleties appeared
throughout the narrative trails displaying how participants grappled with the discomfort of what
decolonization means, questioning if it was even happening in Canada. Participants at times
questioned the legitimacy of what settlers claim as being decolonial, since we are not leaving nor
fully giving the land back. These questions may be seen either as a privileged avoidance or
genuine assessment of what participants have noticed in their own lives and work. These
assessments also may be oversimplifications of a much more complex process.
This is an important differentiation to make and authors such as Fullerton (2021), Fellner et
al. (2020), Regan (2010), and Tuck and Yang (2012) elucidate that the way we talk, think about,
and understand decolonization impacts how we will or will not enact it. This decolonial struggle
will persist as long as systems and institutional violence which evoke powerful traumatic lived
memories in Indigenous communities continues. Like Fullerton’s words above, literature
reviewed, and findings of this study elucidate, systemic violence pervades settler-Indigenous
relations. Practitioners and researchers working with Indigenous peoples often perpetuate these
subtle forms of power, privilege, racism, and cultural appropriation. Resma Menakem (2017)
discusses the importance of struggling through white bodied trauma—the way Menakem refers
to White supremacy as being not only a mindset but embodied experience intergenerationally
passed down — as a way to begin dismantling these violent and racist beliefs and acts. Kendi
(2019) author of “How to be an antiracist” explores a similar struggle like the decolonial one
depicted above in Menakem’s activism work. Specifically, Kendi’s teachings on antiracism may
be a useful way to continue the conversations from this study and respond to call #22 of the
TRC, previously mentioned.
Like participants shared in their narratives, they experienced and displayed moments of
considerable discomfort and questioning of their role as WCPs in decolonizing their practice.
They struggled to understand what it meant to decolonize themselves and what this could look
like in their practice. Part of what is clear in this decolonial struggle for clinicians as addressed in
the literature review is the persistent dehumanization of Indigenous peoples, practices, and
cultures by policies, practices, and individual people in health systems (Turpel-Lafond, 2020).
This includes the racist policies and systems in place such as the Indian Act of 1876 which was

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designed to control and assimilate First Nations peoples. Kendi (2019) defines a racist as
someone who supports racist policy through their actions or inactions or by expressing a racist
idea. On the other hand, an antiracist is someone who supports antiracist policy through their
actions or ideals. Kendi purports that to claim oneself as simply not racist is a neutral masking of
racist thinking and acting. There is no safe in between or not-racist space. This study’s findings
suggest that participants have been grappling with this notion as they described challenging
dominant Eurocentric frameworks of healing and mental health such as the medical model or
various colonial research practices. However, more specific reflection on what it means to be an
antiracist may prove incredibly useful to the decolonial struggle as well.
Furthermore, Kendi (2019) offers hope for an antiracist future, emphasizing, like narrative
trail #5 (We Hope and We Press On), that this is a lifelong journey. Kendi shares hope in that
these concepts are not fixed identities; one minute we may be a racist and the next, an antiracist.
A similar process seems to apply in the decolonial struggle. Participants acknowledged their
colonial backgrounds and histories and agreed that these will not change despite them attempting
to shift their mindsets and belief systems. Paige referenced her whiteness as a colonial mark on
her while also acknowledging her belief that individuals can grow, change, and heal. Kendi
further (2019) invites readers to consider that in light of our colonial and racist backgrounds and
histories we must focus on power instead of only people and on changing policy instead of
groups in order to see an antiracist future in “all its imperfect beauty” (p. 10). This pertains to
White people as well. Kendi shares that, “the only thing wrong with White people is when they
embrace racist ideas and policies and then deny that their ideas and policies are racist” (p. 128).
It is not helpful to the movement of antiracism or decolonization to conflate all White people as
racist, or to consider all non-Whites as antiracist. Menakem (2017) further elucidates this and
emphasizes the important call for White individuals to examine and address their own
intergenerational, white-bodied trauma. He reminds us that throughout America’s history, “white
bodies have colonized, oppressed, and murdered Black [and Indigenous] ones. But well before
the United States was founded, powerful white bodies colonized, oppressed, and murdered other
white ones” (emphasis added, p. 64). To this point, I turn again to Suchet’s (2017) observation
that we may never fully eliminate the colonizer or racist within, only disrupt it repeatedly. These
notions are significant to consider as we continue to respond to the TRC’s calls to action and

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psychology’s response highlighting critical self-reflection as an ethical imperative for all
counselling psychologists.
Therapeutic Practice as a Negotiated Space
In Jordan’s (2021) study, negotiated space describes the dynamic of therapy between
White therapists and Indigenous Pacifica clients in New Zealand, including Māori, Samoan, and
Tongan communities. This space is characterized by the intersection of seemingly opposing
worldviews and belief systems, particularly regarding wellness and healing. This negotiated
space, elaborated on in Mila-Schaaf and Hudson (2009), is akin to the two-eyed seeing approach
that this project is guided by. Meaning that in therapy, there is an invitation to hold space for two
healing paradigms to meet: Indigenous knowledge and the bio-psycho-social medical model of
Western knowledge tradition. Negotiated space acknowledges that neither is complete without
the other. Mila-Schaaf and Hudson relay the importance of being able to understand and work
within this conceptual negotiated space as mental health professionals as it offers Indigenous
clients more choice in their healing processes. The emphasis on negotiating space invites, as
Jordan (2021) refers, minoritized or racialized clients, to be empowered with choice to seek
treatment from the best of both worlds. The work of the therapist is to learn to recognize how
their colonial identity makes room for or thwarts this space from occurring.
The findings in this current study show how participants navigated their own negotiated
spaces, personally and professionally. Personally, this looked like negotiating one’s cultural
identity within their family context and history. Professionally this most often looked like
acknowledging difference in culture and humbly staying open to learning what the client most
preferred for their own healing. This included seeking to learn about the clients’ culture and
offering alternative ways of doing therapy. Findings suggest that participants had some level of
awareness regarding the need to offer alternative responses to healing and wellbeing. Examples
shared were therapeutic offerings such as eating food together, being on the land or engaging
with nature in some way, as well as being open to learning from their clients what culturally
relevant wellness and healing looked like for them (e.g., Bex’s client teaching her about the
medicine wheel). Participants valued Indigenous knowledge and practices while noting like
Ansloos et al., (2020) do, “completely discarding Western psychology would be impractical” (p.
271). They admitted what little they did know and emphasized maintaining relationships with
Indigenous communities and knowledges to offer culturally safe practices. They aimed to find a

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"middle ground" (Bex), balancing compassion for Western methods with the need to address the
oppression they perpetuate.
Among others, the narrative trail, Challenging the Roadmap: Enacting Decolonization in
Client Work connects to this idea of being flexible and open to shifting a chosen approach to be
more culturally relevant. This perspective aligns with Mullins and Khawaja’s (2018) study in
which participants emphasized that understanding the worldview of how each the individual
client and their community understood their problem or issue was essential to appropriate
assessment and treatment. They indicated that many times their clients opted for a merging of
approaches dependent on the client’s level of acculturation. Findings in this present study also
indicate that a counsellor’s ability to attend to each client as an individual while understanding
the “background noise” of colonial and historical trauma was a part of their decolonizing growth
and challenge. Participants shared that mutual respect, trust, and genuine care for their clients
and colleagues helped to facilitate their decolonial attempts. Additionally, Jordan (2012) offers
that therapy as a negotiated space as described above requires the White therapist to unsettle
their own cultural identities.
Unsettling Colonial White Identity
Findings from this study and others illustrates what unsettling colonial White identity looks
and feels like for WCPs (Conyer, 2020; Cullen et al., 2020; Duran 2019; Fullerton, 2021; Jordan,
2021; Suchet, 2017). However, Jordan (2021) shares that White settler therapists do not often
recognize the need to do this. In part, this is due to whiteness and privilege that does not require
us to reflect on our cultural identities. This contrasts with the reality that racialized minorities
face who are always negotiating their worldviews to fit in the majoritized or dominant society.
The way that Colin, Clara, Bex, and Paige engaged in recognizing these spaces in their lives,
provide us with honest examples of what emotions, thoughts, and overall responses may come up
for WCPs as they reorient their gaze and look inward towards their own colonial identities
(Cullen et al., 2020; Fullerton, 2021). Thus, this study’s findings connect to the stated need for
WCPs to become aware of and face their whiteness as a part unsettling their colonial identity.
This is portrayed in the way that this study’s narrative trails intersect with each other.
Participants grew aware of themselves as settler therapists holding power and privilege due to
their whiteness. This awakening led them to avoid feelings of guilt or shame before they came to
accept the tensions that will inherently exist in this Eurocentric and colonial field.

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Relatedly, Suchet (2017) reminds us that without acknowledging what automatic privileges
whiteness bestows upon a White therapist, we will continue to engage in power dynamics and
structures unknowingly perpetuating oppressive practices and colonial agendas. For example,
studies on White identity development have demonstrated that Whites with a weak or prideful
identity form are more likely to hold anti-diversity or racist views than those with a powercognizant white identity status (Goren & Plaut, 2012). If someone is unaware of their whiteness
and cultural identity (such as their European ancestry or family settlement history), they might
develop either a weak or overly inflated sense of pride in being White. Goren and Plaut found
that those holding these white identity statuses are more likely to exhibit negative inter-group
behaviours. Additionally, they found that power-cognizant whites, (i.e., ones who recognize the
power and privilege their whiteness bestows to them) displayed far more positive inter-group and
pro-diversity attitudes. Participants in this current study displayed moments of power-cognizant,
weak, and overinflated connections to being White, demonstrating the ongoing nature of
unsettling and reckoning with our white and colonial identities.
Fullerton (2021) shares, “Settlers frequently do not want to hear stories that unsettle their
identities and shatter their cores, but this is where potential transformation lies” (p. 228). In
embracing unsettled feelings and critically self-reflective mindsets, participants in this study
embraced some of the stories that as Fullerton shares, “shatter their cores”. Participants
embraced the 'painful conversations' (Colin) and the need to attend to the 'whole narrative' (Bex)
required of settler therapists committed to their anticolonial work. Embracing the full narrative
also looked like embracing the shame and guilt that results from unsettling White colonial
identity. Parker and Schwartz (2002) explore the shame and guilt that White therapists
experience in multicultural counselling training (MCC). They illustrate, as this study’s
participants highlighted, how White therapists move through processes of recognizing,
acknowledging, resisting, and eventually accepting guilt and shame around their whiteness. The
authors define shame simply: it is a reaction to one's identity rather than specific behaviors.
Shame often makes a person feel very self-conscious, attributing a negative or bad feeling from a
shameful situation to their core self, with both the situation and the person becoming objects of
scorn (Parker & Schwartz, 2002). They share that research on White therapist shame in
multicultural counselling training demonstrates that as therapists become aware of and
compassionate towards their shame responses, they are more able to develop MCCs

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competencies. The authors pose that “repression of this powerful experience [shame] may block
true empathic understanding of clients and multicultural effectiveness” (p. 314). Stories
participants shared of their own shame processes are in alignment with this notion.
Notably, Paige discussed in detail and portrays in her collage her desire to completely cut
off the part of her that causes guilt and shame, namely her White and German cultural heritage.
She, as well as the others, shared they are aware of how they might be perceived due to their
whiteness, causing them and Paige a great deal of discomfort. Participants demonstrated moving
through this shame cycle, eventually realizing that to continue to provide good work they needed
to find ways to embrace and shift this uncomfortable emotional experience. Some experienced
this shift once receiving emotional permission from Indigenous trainers or educators, like Colin’s
blanket exercise training story. Others, such as Bex and Clara, found settling by perspectivetaking and reflecting on their own personal trauma background. Taken together, these findings
both relate to and extend literature on White therapist shame and guilt, emphasizing how
important self-compassion is in the process of unsettling therapist’s colonial identities.
Unsettling Eurocentric Education and Training
This study also highlights significant tensions between needing to deconstruct Western
forms of knowledge in counselling psychology and centring Indigenous ways of knowing and
being instead. This tension emerged in participant narratives as they questioned how to
appropriately apply Indigenous cultural knowledge in their client work. Indigenous knowledge
and ways of healing have been and often are still considered less important than Western
knowledges (Fellner et al., 2020). Though this is being challenged in some educational facilities,
it is not well integrated into education and training institutions. For example, Ansloos et al.
(2020) articulate the lack of Indigenous-specific psychology graduate training programs in
Canada (aside from a few successful University of Victoria and Ontario cohorts).
Considering this, participants in this study also asked what their role was in utilizing
Indigenous knowledge and learning as settler therapists. This question is being asked by nonIndigenous therapists across training and academia globally: Who should learn from and share
Indigenous knowledge, and how should non-Indigenous allied health professionals learn to do so
appropriately (Cullen et al., 2020; Held, 2019; Snow, 2018). If Indigenous communities are
meant to be sovereign over the decolonization process, where does that leave those interested in
advancing reconciliation in academia? An illustration of these questions in this study is in

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participants wondering how to learn about and offer culturally relevant healing approaches to
their clients. To explore these questions, participants detailed experiences working with
Indigenous clients as well as what they felt was missing in their counselling training and
education. For example, in addition to grappling with the tension about colonial identity, Paige
captured the tension surrounding appropriating Indigenous epistemology in healing and work
with clients:
Paige: I think I feel really timid in asking questions about culture and about experience in
session because I don't want to come across as the ignorant White person … In
practicum, I didn’t have an Indigenous client but one of the students on my team did. I
remember thinking, ‘how would I engage with that client differently than how the person
on my team was?’ Then I thought, am I approaching this person differently just because
they are Indigenous? Is this coming from a place of wanting to be congruent or honouring
them and their identity? Or, is it coming from a place of maybe feeling like everyone
could be treated somewhat the same in a counselling setting? ... And then I'm like, oh,
look at all these “Indigenous ways to practice” [said in a playful sarcastic tone]. I feel
like, I wonder if that would be more harmful?
Participants also openly shared about their limited albeit impactful education experiences
regarding decolonizing counselling psychology. They wondered if more directly related training
and education might assist them in scenarios like the one Paige offered just above. They noted
that courses and training which incorporated two-eyed seeing and challenged Eurocentric
approaches greatly impacted them and they all wished for more education and training support
like that. These findings support Cullen et al.’s (2020) exploration of what decolonizing clinical
psychology programs entails. The authors share that in part, this occurs through pedagogical
shifts. This can be achieved in one way by challenging classroom hierarchies and fostering a
space where teachers become students and students become teachers, interchanging roles and
allowing new perspectives to be recognized and validated. Notably, for this study’s participants,
their limited learning occurred through either one or two non-mandatory courses in their
graduate training programs but mostly seemed to happen in fields other than psychology (e.g.,
sociology or gender studies). Recall that Colin did not receive any kind of exposure to
Indigenous ways of knowing and healing in his program but rather began his learning once he
was in the field already.
Though Colin was in school over twenty years ago, participants like Paige who are still
completing their program shared that the graduate level opportunities to engage in Indigenous
knowledges are limited. Dr. Alanaise Goodwill in Ansloos et al. (2020) confirms that “very little

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has changed in the structure and pedagogy of counselling psychology graduate training from the
time when I first entered the field 18 years ago” (p. 269). Indeed, whatever learning and
education participants shared having access to regarding IWOK or multicultural approaches in
psychology were limited (Bex), sought out intentionally through electives (Paige and Clara), or
simply non-existent (Colin). Dr. Henry Harder and Dr. Donald B. Rix in Ansloos et al. (2020)
comment on how this lack of IWOK impacts Indigenous students:
This is where I think the future lies. We need to make psychology Indigenous. We need
to make our ways of knowing, our epistemology, legitimate. What do our traditions,
Elders, scholars say about human behaviors? We need Indigenous ways of assessing if
children are at risk and Indigenous solutions to these issues. I for one understand why
Indigenous young people do not chose psychology to study and as a career. It is a very
long and daunting trip on a Eurocentric road. Essentially one must accept a Eurocentric
epistemology to succeed. This is an extraordinarily high price to pay. (p. 270)
Findings also expanded upon the above discussed tensions of who and how to best
incorporate IWOK into practice. Participants all offered gratitude towards learning IWOK,
offering how they felt at home with its emphasis on holism and healing. This anchoring in
IWOK alongside Eurocentric mindsets seemed to have both helpful and unhelpful implications
in participant’s lives and work. In Colin’s story we hear about his negative experience in asking
“difficult questions” and being told to consider “his levels of racism”. He was not given what he
would have considered a helpful answer. This challenged Colin and challenged me as I
witnessed his story. Hotere-Barnes (2015) affirms this discomfort reflecting that:
The ability to avoid situations where one’s knowledge, assumptions or expertise may be
challenged demonstrates one way that power can operate … If challenged by Maōri about
these apparent deficits in research approach, momentary embarrassment and an emotional
charge can be generated… Alternatively, Pākehā can become defensive and distrustful.
(p. 6)
In perhaps a less confronting way, findings illuminated how participants found comfort, solace,
alignment, and connection to various Indigenous teachings and ways of connecting such as the
centrality of relationships with others and the land. The land, nature, and being on or with the
Earth was spoken about in many ways and emphasized in each participant’s collage. This was
encouraging to see and hear, given the centrality of place that is imperative to Indigenous healing
and sovereignty (Josewski et al., 2023). Despite this, findings reveal how complex it is for
settler-colonizers to understand and enact decolonial mindsets in their lives and on these lands.
We see in statements made by Clara and Colin that decolonization is a word that does not always
make sense to them. This confusion may tempt them and others to throw the word away, shifting

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from the discomfort of uncertainty and away from relearning what decolonization does mean in
different contexts. However, given the importance of land in decolonization efforts, participants’
sharing of how connected they each are to nature and environmental issues demonstrates
commitments and hope to the decolonizing process.
Lamoureux (2022) offers that it is a gift for all of us, colonizers and colonized alike, to
embrace the meaning of living on the land better – in a good way. He shares that to decolonize
means to deconstruct the mindset underneath the action of dominating and profiting from the
land, and in their grappling participants demonstrated moving towards doing this. To decolonize
means to deconstruct and dismantle power structures that still oppress the colonized and
(re)centre Indigenous sovereignty over the land (Lamoureux, 2022; Tuck & Yang, 2012). This
study illustrates that due to intentional and thoughtful engagement in (limited) education and
training, Colin, Bex, Clara, and Paige are walking the complicated yet essential path of criticalself-reflection, dismantling Eurocentric ways of knowing, and being honest about where they
still fall short. The truth is confronting and uncomfortable, yet with the self-compassion,
community, and humility, participants aim to move forward “the best I can” (Clara).
Contributions and Implications for Counselling Psychology Practice
If the above sections entailed a moment of rest and reflection, this section is readying us
to continue our way again. We have taken in the view together, connecting around what lessons
the stories have taught us. Now, we pack these stories up, put them on our backs, and let the
shifts and changes in our hearts move our feet onward. Onward may not mean continuing the
way we were going. For some, it may mean going back down the path to explore territory that
we glazed over and missed; the lessons we have learned remind us to look again. For others, it
may mean stepping into uncharted territory moving towards something new and trusting that our
hearts will continue to move our feet in a good direction.
This research contributes to limited extant literature on non-Indigenous therapists’
attempts at decolonizing themselves and their practice. Specifically, this study adds to the field
of research and practice by way of providing space for critical self-reflection and (un)settled selfcompassion of four, plus myself, White-settler counselling psychologists on decolonizing
journeys in British Columbia Canada. Findings highlight a few key implications and
contributions this research makes to counselling psychology. The first of which being the
importance of engaging in active, transformational research. The second being how art and group

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engagement can be a way the first is achieved, and the third being the critical hope (Reagan,
2010) that is necessary for our paths forward.
On Decolonial and Arts-Based Research and Practice in Psychology
Bearing in mind a decolonial-critical-relational paradigm, research findings must be able
to elicit change, growth, and action in participants and the broader counselling psychology
community. Furthermore, like Tuck and Yang (2012) iterate, the nature of decolonization goes
beyond critical consciousness, requiring specific action other than another social justice
movement. Decolonization is not a synonym. The authors share that decolonizing is “a program
of complete disorder” (p. 2) and must not be used to support settler futurity but rather Indigenous
sovereignty. The first contribution this study has made to the field is an attempt to invite one
small step of action towards this disruptive decolonial practice. By engaging in deep reflection
with art and narrative inquiry, participants were able to reflect on moments of disruption as well
as feel and experience unsettled as they reflected with me. I also felt unsettled and disrupted as I
developed, facilitated, and wrote up this document. I stayed as open as I could to letting those
experiences and this research change me.
This disruption and unsettling may have occurred in a deeper way due to the arts-based
nature of this study. Leavy (2018a) shares that, “Recent research in neuroscience …indicates that
art may have unmatched potential to promote deep engagement, make lasting impressions, and
therefore possesses unlimited potential to educate” (p. 3). Fellner (2018) emphasizes how
important experiential learning is for decolonizing psychology training and education. The
collage-focus group workshop offered participants a chance to not only experientially reflect on
what it means to decolonize themselves and their practice, but to do so in the presence and
witness of others. This witnessing deepened participant engagement and promoted unease and
feelings of nervousness in them. Participants offered these feelings with each other which
mirrored some of the experiences they shared in their narratives later. The narratives of
participants awakening to and anchoring themselves around arts-based reflection and action
indicates how transformational art-processing can be in this type of work.
On Critical Hope
I have found hope along this researching way. Though at times myself and my
participants shared in the helplessness and overwhelm that can quickly overtake as we grapple
with phrases such as “dismantle oppressive systems”, or “deconstruct colonial agendas”, the

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creative witnessing, quiet self-reflection, and individual active engagement through a decolonial
struggle bred hope individually and collectively. Regan (2010) gifts us with educator and activist
Paulo Freire’s thoughts on critical hope. Freire identifies the importance of linking struggle with
hope in spite of the apparent hopelessness of our colonized situation. He claims hope to be an
ethical quality of the struggle for knowing and speaking the truth. Without this minimum of hope
Frier argues we cannot so much as start the struggle. Likewise, without the struggle, “hope loses
its bearings” (Regan, 2010, p. 22). Regan expands this idea offering that at times critical
reflection can be the very activity which elicits hopelessness, and that this kind of critical
reflection must be accompanied by social action.
Though a small step, the collective art making and reflection that this study invited
participants towards met this social action requirement of critical self-reflection. Hope was
reflected in participant collages alongside the truth of their struggle. These stories and lessons
beg the question of how to continue to incorporate more kinds of social action alongside critical
reflection in counselling psychology research, education, and practice. Certainly, there is much
to be dismantled and (un)learned for each of us individually and the profession collectively. The
instillation of hope that this study invited and affirmed within participants illustrates for the field
of counselling psychology that it may be possible in this decolonial struggle for painful
conversations and hopeful horizons to coexist. This hope, however, is not meant to erase
discomfort and the need for settlers to face the truth of colonial harms. Kevin Lamoureux,
Ojibway/Ukrainian speaker and author, offers a story of hope in the face of pain (TEDx, 2022). I
invite and encourage you to hear him in full for yourself. This thesis, I hope, in some way can
offer to counselling psychology what Kevin shares in his Ted Talk linked above:
And I think many of us can relate to needing to feel hope. When we can see each other in
each other’s stories, we might find that there are teachings in those stories that might help
us navigate the future. That perhaps through good relationship with one another we might
find a pathway forward for all of our kids. (13:32)
On Academic and Counselling Practice Implications and Recommendations
In addition to contributing in the above ways to research on White settler therapist
decolonial experiences and reflections, this project posits implications and recommendations for
counselling psychology research, education, and clinical practice. This section responds directly
to this project’s second research question, (i.e., What is a WCPs role in decolonizing therapeutic
practice?) via Table 1 below which outlines the various ways that participants shared about their

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own journeys. The recommendations in the table combine participant reflection and some of the
above discussed literature on decolonizing therapeutic practice. Following this table are key
implications that this study’s findings may have for counselling psychology academia and
clinical practice.

Table 1
Enacting decolonization: Clinical Implications for White Counselling Psychologists and Health
Care Professionals
Personal Considerations
Colonial Identities and

•

Accept difference. Acknowledge your power and
privilege and bring it into the room implicitly and/or if

Negotiated Space

necessary, explicitly.
•

Engage critical self-reflection individually and with
others.

•

Be aware of neocolonial biases and continually challenge
them in yourself and others.

•

Include antiracist learning and reflection in your personal
life and work.

Relationships: Engaging

•

Self- and community-care: Consider how to nurture self
in the context of community and relationships.

Critical Hope
•

Engage in and learn about local Indigenous knowledges
and ways of being. Be invested in connecting humbly
with communities and their land.

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Cultural Humility

•

110

Drop your assumptions: Learn to be okay with not
knowing and stay committed to unlearning/relearning
different ways of knowing and being.

•

Recognize usefulness in Western approaches but
challenge and critique them more often. Look for racist
policies where you work and begin speaking up about
shifting them.

Worldview Development

•

Be committed to your own spiritual growth whether that
be through personal faith, connection with
Divinity/Creator, meditation, connection to nature etc.

Clinical Considerations
Gathering Knowledge

•

Learn and know the wisdoms and strengths of Indigenous
cultures of local clients and move from that place.

•

Seek to focus on Indigenous resurgence, revitalization,
and strength rather than only on trauma, disparities, and
pathology.

Case Conceptualization

•

Gather intergenerational/historical trauma and strengths
and family heritages early on in client work.

•

Reflect on comfort or discomfort with having cultural
conversations/conversations about race in session.

Theoretical Orientation

•

Promote collaborative client-therapist engagement and
work to reduce power hierarchies, acknowledging their
persistence despite intentions.

•

Privilege relational approaches to client work.

•

Be very familiar with and acknowledge historical trauma
(Brave Heart, 1998)/soul wounding (Duran, 2006/2019).

•

Learn clients' preferred healing methods and terminology.
Discuss what has been helpful in both Western and
culturally based approaches.

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Supervision, Training,

•

111

Seek supervision with experts on matters of systemic
therapy, anticolonial/antiracist practices, multicultural

Consultation

issues, and whiteness.
•

Seek to learn from arts-based and experiential modalities
both for own personal reflection and for learning as well
as in client work.

Note. This table synthesizes implications and practical applications taken from participant
narratives as well as literature regarding White settler therapist’s roles in decolonizing self and
practice.

Academia. Findings from this study suggest necessary and ongoing shifts in counselling
psychology education. Firstly, incorporating Indigenous Ways of Knowing into all coursework is
essential for decolonizing the field, such as re-evaluating how use of the Diagnostic Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders is taught in graduate level classrooms. Additionally, as
recommended by the CPA and PFC task force (2018) and the TRC calls to action (2015), shifts
must occur at the attitude and mindset level. The critical reflection observed in this study can
support faculty, administration, and students in their own critical reflection and unsettling
processes, facilitating systemic changes in curriculum and programming. This could be achieved
through arts-based pedagogy within counselling psychology programs (Rieger et al., 2020). Art
can “help educate and foster learning about self and society and about one's place in a world that
calls for change in the face of complex problems” (Beyerbach & Ramalho, 2011, p. 203).
Given the importance of cultural literacy and humility demonstrated in this study,
counselling psychology programs should continue engaging collaboratively with local First
Nations and their knowledges to decolonize the curriculum. This requires perseverance, courage,
relationship, respect, commitment, and great humility from program directors, administrators,
instructors, and students. Additionally, ongoing working groups of students and faculty members
should gather and collaborate on their decolonizing efforts. For non-Indigenous participants, this
might involve intentionally unsettling colonial identities together, this potentially facilitated by
transforming the collage focus group into a workshop offered to undergraduate and graduate
psychology programs.
Counselling Practice. Findings from this study have implications for counselling practice
resulting in several key recommendations. Decolonizing supervision groups could engage in

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reflection and learning similarly to the aforementioned working groups, possibly through a
collage-based workshop and critical reflection practice. These groups could incorporate local
nation knowledge keeper/Elder mentorship and guidance as appropriate. Therapists might also
join Indigenous chapters offered by professional organizations such as the Canadian Counselling
Psychology Association (CCPA). This study's findings also may support clinicians who are
engaging in decolonial work to feel less isolated in their efforts to decolonize themselves and
their practice. With effective knowledge translation through clinical practice and sharing of the
lessons learned across counselling psychology professional organizations, clinicians may relate
to the stories shared, increasing critical hope and social action.
Findings also provide examples (see Table 1 for more) of how clinicians may engage in
healing practices beyond talk therapy in an office, recognizing that there are more ways to offer
healing to clients in general and Indigenous clients and communities specifically. The critical
self-reflection and emotional processing demonstrated in this study may support others in
increasing their cultural humility, possibly leading to more culturally safe practice with
Indigenous clients and communities. Findings promote a “not-knowing” and culturally humble
stance versus a culturally sensitive and competent one, which literature posits is more helpful for
culturally safe practice. This study elucidates the vital learning about IWOK for participants,
despite limited access to appropriate graduate-level training. Continued education and training
for clinicians is needed and a possible way forward is for counselling training facilities,
professional organizations, and education institutions to encourage clinicians and students to take
the San’yas Anti-racism Indigenous Cultural Safety Training Program.
Strengths, Limitations and Future Research Directions
This study sought to explore in creative and experiential ways what it means for a White
settler therapist to be on their decolonizing journeys in counselling psychology. This exploration
was aimed to facilitate engagement with task force recommendations for counsellor critical
reflection, cultural literacy, and cultural allyship/humility as well as to highlight narratives that
may be helpful for other clinicians, educators, and researchers to witness and reflect upon for
their own journeys. A notable and significant strength of this study was in the success of its
bricolage design, meaning the integration of arts-based approach via collage in combination with
narrative inquiry. Participants consistently noted that the process of creating collages to explore
the complex subject of decolonization was extremely meaningful and supportive in their personal

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journeys. It was reiterated that engaging in this collage practice helped them reflect on where
they have come from as well as continue to move them on their decolonial journeys. My
methodological approach required multiple conversations with participants, increasing trust and
depth of reflection. I am inspired by the research conversations and stories and believe that the
work this thesis enabled myself and my co-bricoleurs to engage with could be a tentative model
for other counselling psychologists to adapt and follow in future research projects and practice.
There were various limitations to this research study. As generalizability is not a goal of
qualitative research, small sample sizes are not necessarily problematic. However, the limited
number of participants in this study meant that a narrow set of contexts is reflected in the
narratives, possibly limiting transferability. Though spending more time with each participant
elicited rich data, I recommend future research include participants with a wider range of
experience in the fields of counselling as well as with direct connection working with Indigenous
communities and clients. Though decolonizing their practice was something that participants
were aware they wanted and needed to work towards, since some of them were not actively
working with Indigenous clients their reflections were mostly conceptual and theoretical, rather
than experiential and practical. Future research should focus on explorations with counselling
psychologists who are all actively involved in working with Indigenous communities.
Recruitment strategies involving relationship development and greater collaboration with local
nations would have also been helpful to utilize more for this study. Given the importance of
relationships and collaborative involvement when working with Indigenous communities, as well
as the importance of working with local knowledges and traditions, it would be beneficial for this
type of study to be extended to those who are actively involved in place-based, nation-based
community work.
Regarding future research opportunities, I recommend that subsequent studies could
include a more diverse range of therapists, including both White-settler and non-White, nonIndigenous settler therapists. The goal to speak with only White therapists in this study was
intentional as it reflected recommendations I was gifted by Indigenous mentors and collaborators
for my reflection given the innate colonial mindsets entrenched within the minds of European
settlers. However, given the diverse range of racial and cultural identities among therapists in
Canada, it is important to investigate the decolonizing journeys of individuals with intersecting
identities. Therapists inherently hold positions of power, yet those from marginalized

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backgrounds also experience oppression and racism. Their narratives as they progress along their
decolonizing journeys are likely different than a White therapists’ experience, and this diverse
range of voices can contribute helpful insights into the complex nature of decolonizing
counselling practice. Furthermore, though I collaborated with various Indigenous mentors,
friends, and colleagues, I regret not being able to involve more Indigenous voice and evaluation
of this study’s findings. Future research may include hosting a talking circle with Indigenous
psychologists to discuss this project’s strengths, weaknesses, possibilities, and faults. This would
enable more enactment of cultural humble praxis and decolonized research approaches.
Finally, future research may expand upon the trail map I created. This trail map could
serve as a preliminary conceptual framework for studies investigating decolonial and
reconciliatory efforts by counselling psychologists in Canada. The trail map may help guide
research in forming new research questions from one or more of the narrative trails such as,
“How does White guilt and shame impact counsellors working with Indigenous communities?”,
or “How can counselling psychologists better enact decolonization in their client work”?
Research utilizing the trail map may benefit from collaborating with specific Indigenous
communities and knowledges to help guide its usefulness and relevance for counsellors working
in said communities. As more research expands upon narrative trail concepts, reflections, and
ideas a framework may develop which may expand the trail map as it currently is, guiding more
critically reflective work on what the different intersections look and feel like on our journeys.
The map could likely also help inform relevant allied health professionals’ journeys such as
those in social work, nursing, medicine, and occupational therapy, as well as education and
research.
(Un)Endings: Concluding Reflections
My journey into decolonization has led me to ask what it means to be a settler in a
country in which the land we live on was taken – stolen – from the original peoples who
lived here ... This journey has been more than intellectual, it has been deeply personal,
spiritual, and embodied. It has involved a change of heart, of my relationship to land and
water, of how I understand religion, and of how I live in my body. It has changed how I
live my life.
— Denise Nadeau, Unsettling Spirit: Journey into Decolonization
How one attempts to conclude a project that means so much more than the thousands of
words contained in these pages, and one that has left a deep imprint and sacred mark on my heart
and mind is difficult to say the least. You have journeyed this far with me, and for that I am

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incredibly grateful. This thesis project is a response to the TRC calls to action, calling health
professionals to recognize and take ownership of the colonial harms done to us all. To restate
Duran (2019), we have all to a degree internalized the personal and collective wounding that
colonialism continues to instigate. This thesis has responded to the task force’s calls to culturally
humble critical reflection by inviting White settler therapists to struggle by artfully telling their
stories of decolonizing self and practice. We have walked five narrative trails together and
learned many lessons along the way. We have learned from participants’ experiences of shifting
worldviews, remaining awake and aware to the colonial traumas and healing around them. We
have together grappled with the shame, guilt, and tensions that exists as we navigate Eurocentric
ways of healing and Indigenous ways of knowing and being. We have walked the path of
challenging roadmaps and deconstructing harmful mindsets and attitudes and ultimately, we have
gathered strength in reflecting on the hope that may exist in and because of the decolonial
struggle.
I recall Bex sharing at the end of our interview, “I don’t know how to end this”. I
responded, “Ah I kind of like that, it’s like a set of ellipses at the end of a sentence, signifying
that there is much left unsaid and much left to learn and do”. Together, we finished our interview
in an unfished way as Duran (2019) does as he concludes his book on healing the soul wound:
“…this particular work will end, or rather not end because it is ‘before completion’” (p. 178).
And so, I end this unfinished work here. May our hearts continue to be touched and may our feet
continue to move towards fuller healing for our world, our communities, and ourselves.

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APPENDIX A: RECRUITMENT POSTER

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APPENDIX B: SAMPLE EMAIL INVITATION
Hi (insert name here),
My name is Breeana Hogman and I am a Counselling Psychology student at Trinity
Western University. We are conducting a research study on how clinical and counselling
psychologists/counsellors/psychotherapist (in other words, helpers) have personally embodied
decolonization processes, mindsets, emotions, and approaches in their professional and personal
work and lives. For this project, embody is meant to capture how one may be connected with
oneself as a body who experiences sensations, emotions, thoughts, and spirit together. This
research project is inspired by this researchers' personal experiences and desire to connect and
hear the stories of other helpers who are committed to anticolonial practices and mindsets in their
professional work and personal lives. This project is also a response to Canada’s Truth and
Reconciliation Calls to Action as well as psychology’s specific response to these calls to action.
Research stories will be gathered and told through a variety of mediums: 1) through a
collage-making focus group, and 2) narrative story-sharing via individual interviews. Art in
qualitative research allows participants and researcher to connect to themselves in a more holistic
way. The use of collage is a relatively approachable art-medium and no artistic skill or ability is
required to participate. Any skill level or comfortability is invited and will be supported. The
first interview will take place in the form of a focus group and then follow up interviews will be
scheduled one-to-one where we have more time to reflect on the collage experience and product,
as well as an opportunity to share more about your decolonizing experiences, desires, goals, and
feelings.
We hope to reach individuals who are either 1) students in training, new, or experienced
clinical, counselling psychologists, or psychotherapists/counsellors. We also would like to invite
those 2) consider themselves as aware of and engaged in their own personal and professional
decolonizing journeys. This could mean a variety of things, but for this project in particular
pertains to decolonization as it is defined for non-Indigenous and Indigenous relations and
reconciliation on Turtle Island (Canada).
I have personally been on my own journey of understanding what it means to “decolonize
myself” in my training and work in counselling. This word has many connotations and meanings
and being curious about and investigating this process of cultural humility has become an
innately personal and necessary component of my counselling training. The purpose of this study

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is to explore how others in helping professions experience their decolonizing and unsettling
selves through mind, body, emotions, and spirit.
I am writing to you today to see if you or anyone you know might be interested in
participating in this study. Specifically, I am looking for individuals with the following
characteristics:
-

Actively engaged in working in a helping profession as outlined above.

-

Identifies themselves as having a commitment to the lifelong processes of reconciliation
and allyship with Indigenous communities in Canada.

-

Interested in holistically reflecting on and sharing their experiences of decolonization as
it pertains to their personal and professional lives.

-

Lives in the Fraser Valley or Greater Vancouver area and is able to attend a focus group
in person.

-

Must be proficiently fluent in English as the group and interview will be conducted in
English

If you are interested in learning more about the study, please email me at
In kindness,
Breeana Hogman

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APPENDIX C: INFORMED CONSENT
Embodying Decolonization: An Arts-Based Exploration of Helper’s Experiences of
Decolonizing Personal and Professional Selves
Principle Investigator:

Breeana Hogman, MA Counselling

Psychology Student

Department of Counselling Psychology,
Trinity Western University

Faculty Supervisor:
Department of Counselling Psychology, Trinity

Western University

Purpose: You are invited to participant in a research study exploring how helpers experience
connection and/or disconnection with their decolonizing selves. This project will involve being
engaged with and aware of some of your decolonizing processes, stories, felt senses, and
experiences that you are able to reflect on and share. This project aims to create a research
atmosphere that invites holistic engagement with your body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The
purpose of the study is to engage together in collage-making and story-sharing as a way to
explore the personal processes that helpers have experienced in their work of decolonizing and
reconciling with past settler history and current colonial systems.
Study Procedures: As a participant, you will be asked to partake in two experiences. The first
will be a 90-120 minute focus-group style experience during which you will have the opportunity
to reflect on your decolonizing experiences and portray these through creating a collage.
Materials, prompts, and instructions will be provided; however, you will be invited to bring a
personal item that may help you in your reflections and collage-building. Following the collagemaking process you will be invited to share about your collage and your experience to the group
if you are comfortable. This sharing will be audio and video recorded. The transcript of this
recording will be sent to you to review before the second experience/individual interview. At this
time, you may choose a pseudonym you feel comfortable with in order to ensure anonymity (if
you would like to use your real name, there will be an additional consent to sign but this is
allowable). Whichever name you choose will be used and any identifying information will be
removed. The second experience will entail a 60-90 minute individual interview during which
you will be asked further questions regarding your collage experience and end product as well as
additional questions regarding your experiences of decolonization and colonization in your

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personal and professional helping life. This interview will be audio and video recorded,
transcribed, and used for data analysis.
Potential Risks and Discomforts: Risks associated with this research are minimal but may
include discomfort from discussing personal experiences and reflections on your journey of
decolonization. Additionally, it may be challenging to engage in collage-making as a way of
reflection if this is a new modality for you. If at any point you feel uncomfortable or distressed,
the experience (focus-group or interview) will stop and you will be able to choose to continue
when you feel ready or, end your participation.
Confidentiality: Any information that is obtained in connection with this study that may identify
you specifically will remain confidential, unless you choose to share and sign a form releasing
your real name. The artwork that you create will be yours to keep if you choose, however a
picture of the art piece will be taken for analysis and dissemination/presentation purposes. If
there is opportunity for the collage(s) to be presented in other ways after the project is complete,
(i.e., art-installation at university library or other public spaces), you will be invited to release on
“loan” your piece with the principal investigator to present in this way. Your decision to provide
your piece or not, will not in any way impact your ability to be a part of the study. All audio and
video recordings of the focus-group and interview will be stored on a password protected
computer and/or encrypted and password protected drive Interview transcripts will not include
any identifying information. Documents related to interviews will be kept on password-protected
storage device and only members of the research team will have access to these documents. No
person except the principal researcher will view the video recordings, and all audio-visual
recordings will be destroyed once the project is completed, while interview transcripts will be
kept for future research. Upon your request, a copy of the final study results will be provided to
you.
Contact for information about the study: If you have any questions or desire more information
with respect to this study, you many contact the principal investigator, Breeana Hogman by
phone at ___ or by email _______ , or the faculty supervisor, Dr Marvin MacDonald by phone at
____ or by email at ______ Contact for concerns about the rights of the research participants: if
you have any concerns about your treatment or rights as a research participant, you may contact
_____ in the Office of Research, Trinity Western University by phone at ______ or by email at
___________.

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Consent: Your participation in this study is voluntary and you have the right to refuse your
participation or choose to withdraw from the study at any time through communication over the
phone, email, or in person. Refusing to participate or choosing to withdraw from this study will
not affect your relations with the researcher or research team negatively. Please note that
withdrawal from the research will not be possible after the researcher has included your
information into the dataset, however, your identity will be protected throughout the research
process through the use of your selected pseudonym.
Signatures: Your signature below indicates that you understand the above information
and are satisfied with the answers to any questions you may have and that you have received a
copy of this consent form. Your signature also indicates that you consent to participate in this
study and that your responses may be used and kept for further use after completion of the study.
____________________________________
Research Participant Signature
______________________________________
Date
________________________________________________
Printed Name of Research Participant
Do you consent to allow your data from this study (in anonymous form) to be used in future
research? □ Yes □ No

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APPENDIX D: FOCUS GROUP PROTOCOL
Following is an outline of how I will structure and conduct the focus group collage making
experience. The following questions are examples of what I may ask to help elicit reflection and
creativity.
Introductory Script: Thank you for choosing to participate in this focus group.
Informed Consent
Before we proceed, I want to remind you that, at any point during the group you have the
choice to disclose or not disclose any information depending on how comfortable you feel. As
this is a focus group, your anonymity is not guaranteed amongst members of this group (how to
speak on confidentiality?) , you may choose to disclose or not to disclose any information,
depending on how comfortable you feel. You also may request to take a break or to discontinue
the interview at any time.
•

I will share context for the project and welcome us together.

•

I will invite introductions and offer a mindfulness activity to help center and ground the
participants.

•

I will then invite the participants to begin reflecting on the question and possible prompts
and then cut and paste images and objects that represent to them their process of
decolonizing their personal and professional selves.

Meditation land acknowledgement script:
Take a deep breath and let your mind and body drift outside to a place on the land that is
meaningful to you. What draws you here? Does being here make you feel inspired, energized?
Maybe you visit the land when you need quiet, healing, connection, playfulness, fun. As you take
another deep breath, I invite you to breathe deep into your connection with the land. Imagine
yourself offering a gift to the land, to all the Nations of peoples whose home you now reside on.
Whatever comes to mind, offer it with a sincere heart and imagine your gift being received. If
you can Let this exchange deepen your connection to this special place on the land you have
chosen today. Now breathe deeply into your body, feel the surface you are resting and become
aware of the space you are in as you slowly open your eyes. Thank you for acknowledging the
land with me in this way.
Question: At this time, I invite you to begin using the materials provided to create a collage that
represents to you your processes/experiences/connections to and about decolonizing self

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personally and/or professionally. If you need further prompts or questions, I can provide those
for you too.
Possible prompts:
-

What images or text/words can you find that represent what decolonizing is to you? What
about power? Oppression?

-

How does your body experience or react to the questions/poems? What images represent
those sensations?

-

What images, texts/words do you find meaningful that represent how you are unlearning
and relearning new ways of being and knowing in this colonial world?
What images, texts/words demonstrate to you the reasons why you are here doing this

work, and even here engaging in this research right now?
Closing Reflections
•

At the end of the group time together, participants will be invited to share their
experiences of creating their collage only if they want to and asked to briefly describe
their piece.

Invitation to share about their piece:
-

What would you like to share about the collage that you have created?
o What was it like for you to do?
o What stands out to you about your piece?
o What does your piece mean to you?
o How does it express your personal and professional decolonizing self?

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APPENDIX E: FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
Thank you for participating in this collage-making experience. We can now set up our
individual interview. I will be summarizing and transcribing what you shared about your collage
and experience and will send this to you to review if you choose before the interview. I will ask
you to either leave your collage with me or bring it with you to the second interview so that we
can use it as a point of reflection and conversation. If you have any thoughts, comments, or
questions between now and the second interview, you can contact me via email or phone.
To open follow-up-interview:
Contextualize the process. Offer a mindfulness/body scan activity to help move us into
our bodies (a moment of silence and breath, space for ritual and meditation).
Questions (Prompts in italics):
1. What was it like to read through the transcript and reflect further on the collage process?
a. What was your initial reaction to your collage? How did you react when reading
what you had shared about the collage?
b. What bodily sensations did you/do you notice when you reflect on the collage and
your story told through it? What feelings are associated with the collage and what
it represents?
c. In what ways did the collage and text reflect how you view your
colonizing/decolonizing self?
d. Was there anything that shifted for you in how you have seen your decolonizing
journey thus far either during the collage experience or after? =
With the above context created, I would love to know:
1. How did you first come to awareness of your desire/urge/need to engage in decolonizing
your helper/healer personal self? Professional self? Which came first?
2.

When have you felt the most connected to your process/journey of decolonization?
a. When have you felt the most disconnected/ what got in the way/made you feel
disconnected or resistant about/towards your personal work?

3. What does it mean to you to experience yourself as someone who is on a journey of
decolonization? What does that feel like to share and reflect about?

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APPENDIX F: COLLAGE STORY EXAMPLE
“Seeds” – Clara
We began
Words kind of just popped out
Images pulled me in
And then I found,
Trust your gut
Words popped out in the strangest of places
In advertising! I used to be in it,
I hated it with a passion

But I moved towards the ads, to take something out of them
I don’t know where the words belonged before
Now they’ve become their own thing
The one tiny thing, odd on its own
Becomes a part of the whole

But I was still unsure
How do I bring in decolonization in this?
We are still here, on stolen land …
Reconciliation, well I thought of my own research
I thought about, “the ground up”
The children on the tree, the building of the tree

In the country I did my research, there was this mango tree
The tree was from a reconciliation village, survivors and perpetrators from genocide
The farmer’s son climbed up the tree and gifted me a mango
The farmer said, “this is reconciliation”.
Working together, safety, and hope

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That tree, the fruit symbolizes reconciliation,
From the ground up
In the middle, it’s honouring those you work with
And all around it we see the process,
Give yourself grace, trusting your gut, activism,
Honour where you come from
Doing your part, look after and nurture yourself as well
Challenge the roadmap, be transparent and open
Truth and vulnerability
Now, I am inclined to speak up and advocate more
I share what I do know can work and help
I try to not doubt myself
I realize, I am human
I make mistakes
I learn from others

Allowing difference to exist and feeling it
What is it like, that we all are different?
Let that take up space
Feel into the different spaces between us
So much happens there,
Even in the silence
It is full of meaning

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APPENDIX G: FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW AND DEBRIEFING SCRIPT
Thank you for meeting for our final conversation. During this debrief, we will review the
summary you received of your individual interview to check that you feel it is accurate and
reflects the content we covered. I will also offer some preliminary themes that have come up
from analysis of the data thus far. I will also ask you a few questions and offer you an
opportunity to debrief and ask me any questions. This is also an opportunity to remind you about
if you decide to withdraw information; this can be done until data is integrated in the final
analysis and then after that, only the transcript and images of the collage will be able to be
destroyed. Audio-video recordings are destroyed upon your request or after the thesis has been
defended and completed.
Questions:
1. After reading through the summary of your individual interview, do you feel it is accurate
and reflective of the content we covered?
2. What stands out to you?
3. Is there anything you would like to change or clarify?
4. Is there anything that surprises you?
5. What have you discovered, or have you had any greater insights through this process?
6. What has this process led you to reflect on, if anything?
7. Is there anything that has not been talked about that you would like to include in your
interview?
At this time, we wish to thank you for your participation in the study titled 'Embodying
decolonization: an arts-based exploration of clinical/counselling psychologists’ journeys of
decolonizing personal and professional selves. We have greatly appreciated the opportunity to
learn from your experiences. As we end our time together, do you have any questions for me
about the research or your participation in it? Would you like to receive a summary or full report
of the findings when the study is completed?" Any questions?
After final conversation and data gathering is complete, the researcher will remind participants:

-

Remind them of possibilities of withdrawing data, which involves their transcripts,
collage pieces/the photos of the collage up until the thesis is defended and completed.

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-

Any additional questions about the research process, feel free to follow up at any point
with the PI, supervisor, or TWU HREB ethics board (contact information will be
provided again at this time).

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