Decolonizing Healing Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Abstract

Abstract The field of psychology is embarking on a process to interrupt the historical, colonial cycle of harm and beginning to work with and alongside Indigenous communities to understand the healing journey. From an Indigenous lens, healing incorporates more than the physical recovery; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing exists through learning, which occurs along the healing journey. This healing journey has no definite beginning or end, and as we begin to move away from pathologizing healing to a strength-based healing process, the focus shifts to relationships—relationships with self, community, more-than-human, and the land. This chapter proposes that to decolonize Western healing processes, as a field, we must acknowledge the coexistence of learning during the healing journey. Building healing capacity through learning elucidates the understanding of the past, the needs of the present, and lays foundations for the future to work towards restoring integrity and prompting balanced care.

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