Rieger, Kendra

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 two- eyed 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.

Perinatal nurses support mothers in the majority of births in Canada, holding an important role in improving respectful maternity care and reducing adverse outcomes. Trust is a recurring theme in the literature of nurse-mother relationships and a crucial component of relationship-centred and trauma-informed care. However, little is known about how trust develops when mothers have traumatic childbirths. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive descriptive study was to understand mothers’ experiences of trust with perinatal nurses amidst traumatic childbirths. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight mothers. Data analysis revealed one overarching theme; Trust in the Nurse-mother Relationship: A Shelter in the Storm, and three main themes: The Foundations and Fluid Trajectories of Trust, Developing and Maintaining Trust Through Relationship-Centred and Trauma-Responsive Care, and Barriers to Developing and Maintaining Trust. These findings can guide perinatal nurses in partnering with mothers to build a trusted shelter in the storm of traumatic childbirth.