Decolonial practices in clinical social work and mental health therapy: A model for inclusive organizational structures
Keywords:
Eutierria Therapy, Epistemic injustice, Critical adult learning theory, Medicine stories, Conscientization, Indigenous knowledge systemsAbstract
This paper explores how decolonial practices in clinical social work and mental health therapy can serve as a model for fostering inclusive, reflexive, and empowering organizations. Grounded in critical adult learning theory and decolonial praxis, we examine the transformative potential of reconnecting individuals, organizations and communities to Earth-based identities and Indigenous knowledge systems through Eutierria Therapy, a five-pillar framework integrating ecological & relational, decolonial & ancestral, communal & interdependent, embodied & somatic, and material & systemic healing practices.
Clinical social work and mental health therapy have been shaped by Eurocentric frameworks, perpetuating epistemic injustice. Decolonial approaches challenge dominant Western epistemologies by centering marginalized voices and facilitating conscientization and participatory competence, empowering individuals to examine socio-political realities and initiate change while organizations facilitate collective action.
Through medicine stories, healing narratives that honor Indigenous epistemologies, we demonstrate how decolonial practices reintroduce ancestral connections, reshape knowledge validation, and amplify diverse perspectives. Drawing from our experiences in community mental health organizations, we examine challenges and opportunities in disrupting power hierarchies and creating authentic cultural engagement.
This process transforms organizational spaces into sites where marginalized and dominant groups collaborate to dismantle colonial structures. Rather than token inclusion, decolonial work requires fundamental restructuring of operations, shifting resources and decision-making authority. We reflect on tensions when implementing decolonial practices within Western-governed institutions, recognizing authentic transformation requires fundamental shifts in power, knowledge, and resource distribution.
Ultimately, adopting decolonial practices offers a transformative model for dismantling colonial legacies within community psychology and mental health.
References
Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. Pantheon Books.
Acharibasam, J. B., Hurlbert, M., Datta, R., & Lewis, K. wâsakâyâsiw. (2024). Meanings of indigenous land-based healing and the implications for water governance. EXPLORE, 20(5), 102998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2024.04.002
Adams, G., Ordóñez, L. G., Kurtiş, T., Molina, L. E., & Dobles, I. (2017). Notes on decolonizing psychology: from one Special Issue to another. South African Journal of Psychology, 47(4), 531. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317738173
Aladejebi, O. (2021). FRAMEWORKS FOR DECOLONIAL SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: A CASE STUDY OF BLACK CANADIAN EXPERIENCES.
Albrecht, G. A. (2019). Earth emotions: New words for a new world. Cornell University Press.
Anjum, G., & Aziz, M. (2024). Advancing equity in cross-cultural psychology: embracing diverse epistemologies and fostering collaborative practices. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1368663
Arjalièsa, D.-L., & Banerjeeb, S. B. (2024). ‘Let’s Go to the Land Instead’: Indigenous Perspectives on Biodiversity and the Possibilities of Regenerative Capital.
Barra, M. P., & Jessee, N. (2024). Restoration as Transformative Reparative Practice Traditional Knowledges, Indigenous and Black Land Stewardship, and Solidarity.
Battiste, M. (2005). Indigenous Knowledge: Foundations for First Nations. 1, 1. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/winhec/article/download/19251/8353
Benton, D. (2017). Land-based pedagogies: a path to decolonizing environmental education in British Columbia. https://knowledgecommons.lakeheadu.ca/handle/2453/4266
Blume, A. W. (2020). A new psychology based on community, equality, and care of the Earth: An Indigenous American perspective. Praeger.
Bowra, A., Mashford‐Pringle, A., & Poland, B. (2020). Indigenous learning on Turtle Island: A review of the literature on land‐based learning [Review of Indigenous learning on Turtle Island: A review of the literature on land‐based learning]. Canadian Geographies / Géographies
Canadiennes, 65(2), 132. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12659
Brannelly, T. (2016). Decolonising research practices with the ethics of care. Nursing Ethics, 23(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733015624297
Brookfield, S. D. (1991). Understanding and facilitating adult learning: A comprehensive analysis of principles and effective practices. Jossey-Bass.
Buenavista, D. P., Wynne‐Jones, S., & McDonald, M. (2018). Asian Indigeneity, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and Challenges of the 2030 Agenda. East Asian Community Review, 1, 221. https://doi.org/10.1057/s42215-018-00010-0
Campbell-Stephens, R. (2020). Global majority: Decolonising the language and reframing the conversation about race. Leeds Beckett University. Retrieved June 14, 2025, from https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/final-leeds-beckett-1102-global-majority.pdf
Cavalieri, C. E. (2013). Situating Psychotherapy with Tribal Peoples in a Sovereignty Paradigm.
Chan, H., Pong, V., & Tam, K. (2019). Explaining participation in Earth Hour: the identity perspective and the theory of planned behavior. Climatic Change, 158, 309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02554-y
Chapman, R., & Carel, H. (2022). Neurodiversity, epistemic injustice, and the good human life. Journal of Social Philosophy, 53(4), 614. https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12456
Chui, C. (2021). The Roots of Practice: An Anti-Colonial Critical Discourse Analysis of Western Nature-Based Mental Health Therapies. https://doi.org/10.32920/16632328
Coff, K., & Lampert, J. (2019). Mentoring as Two-Way Learning: An Australian First Nations/Non-indigenous Collaboration. Frontiers in Education, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00024
Datnow, A., Yoshisato, M., Macdonald, B., Trejos, J., & Kennedy, B. C. (2022). Bridging Educational Change and Social Justice: A Call to the Field. Educational Researcher, 52(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x221138837
Duncan, A. C., & Perry, E. S. (2022, June 30). People stitching Earth: Advancing intersectional racial equity through liberatory ecosystems. https://changeelemental.org/resources/people-stitching-earth/
Dupuis-Rossi, R. (2020). Resisting the “Attachment Disruption” of Colonisation Through Decolonising Therapeutic Praxis: Finding Our Way Back to the Homelands Within. Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.59158/001c.71234
Evans, R., Kurantowicz, E., & Lucio-Villegas, E. (2022). Remaking Communities and Adult Learning. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004518032
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Herder and Herder.
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.
Frumkin, H., Bratman, G. N., Breslow, S. J., Cochran, B., Kahn, P. H., Jr, Lawler, J. J., Levin, P. S., Tandon, P. S., Varanasi, U., Wolf, K. L., & Wood, S. A. (2017). Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda. Environmental health perspectives, 125(7), 075001. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1663
Gopalkrishnan, N. (2018). Cultural Diversity and Mental Health: Considerations for Policy and Practice [Review of Cultural Diversity and Mental Health: Considerations for Policy and Practice]. Frontiers in Public Health, 6. Frontiers Media. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00179
Greenwood, D. A. (2019). Place, Land, and the Decolonization of the Settler Soul. The Journal of Environmental Education, 50, 358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2019.1687412
Hanson, C. L., & Fletcher, A. J. (2021). Beyond the trinity of gender, race, and class: Further exploring intersectionality in adult education. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 12(2), 135. https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.3360
Hellerstedt, K., Umans, T., & Wennberg, K. (2023). Fooled by Diversity? When Diversity Initiatives Exacerbate Rather Than Mitigate Bias and Inequality. Academy of Management Perspectives, 38(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2021.0206
Hiebert, E. J. (2015). Political Epistemology and the Subject: Epistemic Injustice as a Primary Mode for Oppression. International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, 6(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.7710/2155-4838.1134
Hoggett, P., & Randall, R. (2018). Engaging with Climate Change: Comparing the Cultures of Science and Activism. Environmental Values, 27(3), 223. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327118x15217309300813
Ismail, S. (2018). Articulating a space for critical learning with a social justice orientation in an adult education programme. South African Journal of Education, 38(4), 1. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38n4a1702
Johnson-Jennings, M., Billiot, S., & Walters, K. L. (2020). Returning to Our Roots: Tribal Health and Wellness through Land-Based Healing. Genealogy, 4(3), 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4030091
Johnston, B. (2024). Turtle Island Indigenous Psychologies: Radical Understanding.
Keane, M. T., Raciti, M., Westhuizen, G. van der, Motala, S., Stanton, S., Gilbey, K., Manathunga, C., Qi, J., & Msimango, S. (2023). Indigenous Knowledge Systems in South Africa and Australia: transforming doctoral education. Curriculum Perspectives, 43, 83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-023-00183-1
Kinnamon, C. B. (2023). "The Power to Heal and Cure": Adaptations of Western Therapy by American Indian and Alaska Native Therapists. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/999
Kirmayer, L. J., Brass, G., & Valaskakis, G. G. (2009). Conclusion: Healing/Invention/Tradition. In University of British Columbia Press eBooks (p. 440). University of British Columbia. https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774815253-023
Kodó, K. (2024). Storytelling: Adaptability and Expansion of American Indian and Indigenous Culture. Freeside Europe Online Academic Journal, 15. https://doi.org/10.51313/freeside-2024-03
Lainé, N., & Morand, S. (2020). Linking humans, their animals, and the environment again: A decolonized and more-than-human approach to ‘One Health.’ https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/fxzbk
Langmaid, G. R., Patrick, R., Kingsley, J., & Lawson, J. (2020). Applying the Mandala of Health in the Anthropocene. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 32, 8. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.434
Lazaridou, F., & Fernando, S. (2022). Deconstructing institutional racism and the social construction of whiteness: A strategy for professional competence training in culture and migration mental health.
LeBlanc, S., & Kinsella, E. A. (2016). Toward Epistemic Justice: A Critically Reflexive Examination of ‘Sanism’ and Implications for Knowledge Generation. Studies in Social Justice, 10(1), 59. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v10i1.1324
Lees, A., & Bang, M. (2023). Indigenous Pedagogies: Land, Water, and Kinship. Occasional Paper Series, 2023(49). https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1500
Levin, L. (2022). Perspective: Decolonizing postmodernist approaches to mental health discourse toward promoting epistemic justice. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.980148
Lloyd, A. S. (1972). Freire, Conscientization, and Adult Education. Adult Education, 23(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/074171367202300101
Marques, B., Freeman, C., & Carter, L. (2021). Adapting Traditional Healing Values and Beliefs into Therapeutic Cultural Environments for Health and Well-Being. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1), 426. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010426
Masud, H. R. (2019). NGOS EMBODYING DECOLONIALITY: TOWARDS EMANCIPATORY PSYCHOLOGICAL PRACTICE AND PEDAGOGY IN PALESTINE. https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1447&context=diss
Maté, G., & Maté, D. (2022). The myth of normal: trauma, illness, & healing in a toxic culture. Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Mayorga, S. (2019). The White-Centering Logic of Diversity Ideology. American Behavioral Scientist, 63(13), 1789. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764219842619
McDermott, M., MacDonald, J., Markides, J., & Holden, M. (2021). Uncovering the Experiences of Engaging Indigenous Knowledges in Colonial Structures of Schooling and Research. Engaged Scholar Journal Community-Engaged Research Teaching and Learning, 7(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.15402/esj.v7i1.69957
Meighan, P. J. (2022). Colonialingualism: colonial legacies, imperial mindsets, and inequitable practices in English language education. Diaspora Indigenous and Minority Education, 17(2), 146. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2022.2082406
Mullan, J. (2023). Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice. W. W. Norton & Company.
Ncube, M. (2022). Epistemic violence in psychological science. Issues of knowledge, meaning making and power: A critical historical and philosophical perspective. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a5nxs
O’Connell, A. (2013). The deserving and non-deserving races: Colonial intersections of social welfare history in Ontario. Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, 2(1), 1–22.
Parker, J. (2012). Sustainable environmental identities for environmental sustainability: Remaking environmental identities with the help of Indigenous knowledge [Doctoral dissertation]. Charles University. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc177240/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf
Phillips, N. L., Adams, G., & Salter, P. S. (2015). Beyond Adaptation: Decolonizing Approaches to Coping With Oppression. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 3(1), 365. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v3i1.310
Puketapu-Dentice, K., Connelly, S., & Thompson-Fawcett, M. (2017). Towards integrating Indigenous culture in urban form.
Readsura Decolonial Editorial Collective (in random order: Ratele, K., Reddy, G., Adams, G., & Suffla, S. (2022) Decoloniality as a social issue for psychological study. Journal of Social Issues, 78: 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12502
Richards, R. (2015). Bringing the Outside In: Somaliland, Statebuilding and Dual Hybridity. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 9(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2014.991074
Richardson, C., Aviles-Betel, K., Ismail-Allouche, Z., & Picard, V. (2021). Healing and Rebalancing in the Aftermath of Colonial Violence: An Indigenous-Informed, Response-Based Approach. Genealogy, 5(3), 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy5030069
Salmon, M., Doery, K., Dance, P., Chapman, J., Gilbert, R., Williams, R., & Lovett, R. (2018). Defining the indefinable: descriptors of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ cultures and their links to health and wellbeing. https://doi.org/10.25911/5bdbcdf5c89a7
Samra, R. (2023). Beyond Epistemic Injustice: When Perceived Realities Conflict. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1097/hrp.0000000000000376
Sarason, S. B. (1984). If it can be studied or developed, should it be? American Psychologist, 39(5), 477–485. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.39.5.477
Sasakamoose, J., Pete, S., O’Soup, F., & Wolfe, T. (2024). From trauma to resilience: advancing cultural responsiveness and equity in the Muskowekwan First Nation’s healing journey. Frontiers in Public Health, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1419250
Senanayake, S. G. J. N. (2006). Indigenous knowledge as a key to sustainable development. Journal of Agricultural Sciences – Sri Lanka, 2(1), 87. https://doi.org/10.4038/jas.v2i1.8117
Shafaieh, C. (n.d.). Shahidul Alam on the majority world. Harvard Design Magazine. Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/articles/shahidul-alam-on-the-majority-world/
Sinclair, R. (2016). Examining social work as a Canadian settler colonial project: Colonial continuities of circles of reform, civilization, and (in)visibility. Global Social Welfare, 3(3), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-016-0063-y
Stirling, K. M., Almack, K., Boucher, N., Duncan, A. T., Muir, A. M., Connoy, J. W. H., Gagnon, V. S., Lauzon, R., Mussett, K. J., Nonkes, C., Vojno, N., & Reid, A. J. (2023). Experiences and insights on Bridging Knowledge Systems between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners: Learnings from the Laurentian Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2023.01.007
Tamburro, A. (2013). Including Decolonization in Social Work Education and Practice. 2(1). https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/29814/1/v2i1_02tamburro.pdf
Turner, N. J., Cuerrier, A., & Joseph, L. (2022). Well grounded: Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, ethnobiology and sustainability. People and Nature, 4(3), 627. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10321
van Bavel, B., Macdonald, J. P., & Dorough, D. S. (2022). Indigenous Knowledge Systems. In K. De Pryck & M. Hulme (Eds.), A Critical Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (pp. 116–125). chapter,. Cambridge University Press.
Wilcox, A., Provencher, J. F., Henri, D., Alexander, S. M., Taylor, J. J., Cooke, S. J., Thomas, P. J., & Johnson, L. R. (2023). Braiding Indigenous knowledge systems and Western-based sciences in the Alberta oil sands region: A systematic review [Review of Braiding Indigenous knowledge systems and Western-based sciences in the Alberta oil sands region: A systematic review]. FACETS, 8, 1. Canadian Science Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2022-0052
Wildcat, M., McDonald, M., Irlbacher‐Fox, S., & Coulthard, G. (2014). Learning from the land: Indigenous land based pedagogy and decolonization. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(3). http://decolonization.org/index.php/des/article/view/22248
Williams, D., & Shipley, G. P. (2023). Indigenous Research Methodologies: Challenges and Opportunities for Broader Recognition and Acceptance. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 11(5), 467. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2023.115030
Williams, G. (2020). Explaining epistemic injustice in medicine: tightrope walking, double binds, paths of least resistance and the invisibility of power positions to those who occupy them. European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare, 8(3), 323. https://doi.org/10.5750/ejpch.v8i3.1861
Wilson, A. L., & Kiely, R. (2002). Towards a Critical Theory of Adult Learning/Education: Transformational Theory and Beyond. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED473640.pdf
