APD1277H
This course seeks to define, redefine and locate Indigenous knowledges in the context of International mental health care. In particular, the course will examine cultural and traditional healing within the broader economic, social and political practices of psychology worldwide. While the focus is in counselling psychology and psychotherapy, it also provides a critical site to highlight challenges and transformations within mental healthcare. The course seeks to draw attention to the use of Indigenous knowledges in mental health care generally. Explorations of the currents issues and debates in the contemporary practices of Indigenous healing in psychology will be a key features of the course, for example, cultural respect and appropriation, ethics and confidentiality, competence of practitioners, and systemic and social issues. Through an in-depth analysis of International Indigenous helping and healing practices, with particular focus on Indigenous knowledges perspectives from countries around the world, the course will undertake to raise questions regarding the theory, practice, and research of Indigenous traditional healing perspectives on mental health and healing in psychology and its relationship to education of practitioners. As part of the exploration of Indigenous traditional healing knowledges, the course will also focus on how peoples from non-dominant cultures construct illness perceptions and the types of treatments they expect to use to solve mental health problems; in this respect, the course is also intended to contribute to community development and community health promotion.