Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies

Renee Linklater

Fernwood Publishing

About this ebook

In Decolonizing Trauma Work, Renee Linklater explores healing and wellness in Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Drawing on a decolonizing approach, which puts the “soul wound” of colonialism at the centre, Linklater engages ten Indigenous health care practitioners in a dialogue regarding Indigenous notions of wellness and wholistic health, critiques of psychiatry and psychiatric diagnoses, and Indigenous approaches to helping people through trauma, depression and experiences of parallel and multiple realities. Through stories and strategies that are grounded in Indigenous worldviews and embedded with cultural knowledge, Linklater offers purposeful and practical methods to help individuals and communities that have experienced trauma. Decolonizing Trauma Work, one of the first books of its kind, is a resource for education and training programs, health care practitioners, healing centres, clinical services and policy initiatives.

About the author

Renee Linklater, PhD is a member of Rainy River First Nations in Northwestern Ontario. Her doctoral studies were completed with the Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Renee has 20 years of experience working with Aboriginal healing agencies and First Nation communities. She has worked across the health and education sectors as a frontline worker, program evaluator, curriculum developer, and educator/trainer. Renee is currently the Acting Director of Aboriginal Engagement and Outreach for the Provincial System Support Program at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.