When tragedy occurs within a community, the psychological effects may continue from generation to generation. Many challenges such as addictions and sexual abuse trace to residential school trauma and a time when ties to the land were severed. Understanding the impacts of these collective losses can support us to look to counter-stories of survivance. Beneath the trouble, there’s a lot of resourcefulness. Without connection to intergenerational knowledge, it’s hard to build compassion in our hearts to change the world to be better. We can draw from the strength and wisdom of the ones who have come before to help us break cycles. Like a stone dropped in the water, these shifts ripple on. When individuals heal, communities heal.

Every culture, no matter their territory, is connected to the environment (i.e. the earth provides us everything we need to access food, medicine, shelter, and tools). When we acknowledge the spirit of the land (when we communicate with, and respect, all of the beings in the natural world), we deepen our connection with All Our Relations. Learning from the land reconnects us with who we are, and revitalizes community resilience. Even at times when we aren’t able to visit nature, we can still invite the land to partner in our healing process.

Breaking down colonial ideologies/processes and recognizing how they show up is important to support self-determination and healing.

For example, in the Western medical model, feeling “not ok” or out of balance is sometimes interpreted as a personal failing, or pathologized with a label. Instead, we can get curious about whether poverty, power dynamics or systemic barriers might be what’s keeping someone from being their most vibrant self. How much of what they are experiencing is familiar, generational, or collective? Not everything that moves through us, is of us.

Acknowledging and honouring healing practices that have been used in First Nations communities for centuries helps Indigenous (and all) people heal, while preserving cultural identity. Balance and wellness can be restored by shifting our focus to survivance, resilience, and resurgence through collective care.

Symptoms of stress, shock, and trauma accumulate in our bodies. Being kind and curious as we listen to the story of our body’s experience can help us release, recover and become more resilient. The answers are within us. Giving the body a voice through movement, gesture, sound and awareness of subtle sensations can provide valuable insight to long-held patterns of thought, emotion or behaviour. What happens within the body is a reflection of deeper processes.

Indigenous peoples have been subject to cultural and spiritual oppression. Healing isn’t just a psychological process. It’s collective. Ceremonial. Through a spiritual, strength-based approach, clients centre their own wisdom, and put trust in culture for answers. We are the medicine we need.

We value Indigenous ways of healing and knowing, including spiritual practices, ceremonies, storytelling, language reclamation and traditional plant medicines. The community itself contains many solutions to its own health needs and already has much wisdom to encourage resilience and wellness.