2024, Volume 2
Article 1
Reindigenisation in the context of psychotherapy and counselling
by Brent [Tohi] Tohiariki (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Arawa (Tapuika))
This article articulates a therapeutic pathway centred in a reindigenisation construct, Puna, an indigenous-centric counselling approach. This model repositions counselling and psychotherapy away from the dominant western hegemonic reverberating with the binary of coloniser/colonised, recentering the therapeutic narrative in Te Ao Māori, drawing upon an emacipatory psychology orientated ideology. Implicit in this perspective is the centrality of social positioning in society, relating to three key areas in historical and contemporary indigenous health disparities, defined as three pillars of imperialism, i.e., capitalism, patriarchy and coloniality. Counselling Indigenous people is therefore contextualised in a socio-political narrative. Two key tenets of this approach are the importance of counsellor transparency in terms of their own positionality, and being cognizant of the intersectional fluidity of cultural identity. This paper argues that all counsellors need to have the ability to approximate their counselling interventions relative to the worldview of an Indigenous person. Given that the majority of counsellors and psychotherapists are not Māori, and the significant numbers of Tāngata Māori presenting to mental health and psychological services, this paper also examines some of the cross cultural considerations, including eurocentric assumptions of western counselling traditions as compared with an Indigenous worldview, navigating therapeutic impasse dynamics and the metaphysical nature of Indigenous ontology.