A Many-Eyed Lens in Counselling Practice With Indigenous People: An Innovative Path Towards Reconciliation and Rippling

Authors

  • Theresa Kauffman Victoria, British Columbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47634/cjcp.v57i`1.72773

Abstract

 

As counselling practitioners navigate through the 21st century, holding and integrating multiple views in counselling practice with Indigenous people is more crucial than ever. Indigenous people face unimaginable health, social, and political inequalities; therefore, there is a call to action that would create ripple effect change from practitioners and as a collective. In this article, the author explores how a two-eyed lens, a term coined by Elders Albert and Murdena Marshall (Iwama et al., 2009), answers this call by honouring Western and Indigenous world views and healing. What this article adds to the literature is how practitioners can implement two-eyed seeing, which starts with exploring the self, self-in-relation, and felt sense (Gendlin et al., 1968). This article describes this reflexive process in which counselling practitioners can develop a many-eyed lens in practice that honours Western and Indigenous therapeutic lenses and our own, in walking alongside Indigenous people. A many-eyed lens illustration with an Indigenous family is presented as a way to demonstrate and foster reconciliation, healing, and hope.

Author Biography

Theresa Kauffman, Victoria, British Columbia

Theresa Kauffman is a registered clinical counsellor with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) at MHSU Discovery Youth and Family Services, Island Health, as well as Hulitan Family and Community Services Society in Victoria, British Columbia, and the First Nations Health Authority (FHNA) in Canada. She has been a youth and family clinical counsellor for almost 20 years, and her work has focused on mental health, substance use, and complex trauma with children, youth, families, and Indigenous communities. Her passion is to walk alongside youth and families in change, healing, hope, and reconciliation and to make a genuine difference in the lives of others by creating everlasting ripples.

Published

2024-07-15

How to Cite

Kauffman, T. (2024). A Many-Eyed Lens in Counselling Practice With Indigenous People: An Innovative Path Towards Reconciliation and Rippling. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 57(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.47634/cjcp.v57i`1.72773

Issue

Section

Articles/ Articles