A Narrative Inquiry Into Indigenous Clients’ Perspectives and Experiences of Western Psychotherapy

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples in Canada experience mental health concerns at unbalanced rates compared to non-Indigenous Canadians, but Indigenous Peoples reportedly “underuse” mainstream (i.e., Western) mental health services, like psychotherapy. Understanding how to “best” attend to the mental health needs of Indigenous Peoples with psychotherapy has largely been hypothetical and theoretical, with little input from Indigenous clients themselves. The current study used a narrative inquiry methodology approach to gain insight into perspectives and experiences of Western conventional psychotherapy among Indigenous Peoples (i.e., clients) in Turtle Island (aka Canada and the United States). The research question framing the current research was: What are Indigenous clients’ narratives of Western psychotherapy? Three Indigenous individuals from urban areas in Quebec and Ontario participated in in-depth interviews. In an endeavour to contribute to social justice aims, such as social change in the context of psychotherapy with Indigenous Peoples, I used a theoretical framing that embraced a social justice and decolonizing lens. The findings conveyed the following main themes: perceptions about therapy, significance of the therapeutic connection, role of power dynamics, role of Indigenous culture, and impacts from research participation. Implications for psychotherapy as it relates to power dynamics are discussed, and potential contributions are offered in the hopes that the psychotherapy field may continue to better address the mental health needs of Indigenous Peoples in Canada through a decolonizing approach.