Practice 17 Presence

Abstract

Melissa and Sandra position self-reflection and presence as a starting place for learning and unlearning the layers of coloniality and other forms of cultural oppression that can seep into relationships with clients. This ongoing personal and professional practice enhances therapist cultural humility and authenticity in support of equitable and culturally safe environments for the people and communities they walk alongside. This chapter offers nurturing practices for helping professionals committed to decolonial care and relational care. The choice of themes arose from Melissa’s own evolution as a psychologist and reflects gaps in learning along her educational journey. The first thematic cluster relates to self-reflection and includes embodiment, therapist healing work, and vulnerability. The second cluster centres relationship with a focus on prioritizing relationship over skills. Next Melissa and Sandra address ethical decision-making, including presence and relationality, resistance, professional boundaries, and intuition. The section on self-care considers self-care paradoxes, burnout, community care, and supervision and mentorship. Each section of the chapter includes reflective prompts to invite readers to lean into presence through experiential learning and unlearning. Melissa and Sandra position a presence-focused journey as part of life-long learning as healthcare practitioners, and they invite readers to embrace discomfort as part of their continued personal and professional growth. The invitation to action at the end of the chapter focuses on collective empowerment, inviting readers to identify their own circle of support to continue their decolonizing healing journey.

Melissa and Sandra appreciate contributions of following co-authors to this chapter:

• Gwendolyn Villebrun introduces the Hakomi method that focuses on mindful, body-centred therapy, which aligns with Indigenous Worldviews that value a relational process and the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit.
• Kitana Connelly shares an ink on wood painting in which she envisions the energies from Spirit reaching down and taking her troubles back to Grandfather sky. The image speaks to trust and releasing control.
• Gurmukh Aujla invites consideration of the invisible shackles (i.e., mental, emotional, and societal systems that dictate how we think, feel, and behave) and provides guidance for disrupting these systems of emotions. In a second contribution he speaks to self-care, which is a central focus in his own journey and his healing work with others.
• Alexandra Zúñiga speaks to the importance of relationships and community in her work with Melissa. She reflects how to hold space for one another with openness and relational accountability as part of community care.

Co-Authors

Melissa Jay (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a cisgender nehiyaw (Cree) member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and lifelong student of yoga philosophy. She is a cisgender, able-bodied woman who moves through the world with white-passing privilege. She is a psychologist and associate professor at Athabasca University. Her work is centred in reciprocity and relationship, decolonized healing, anti-oppressive practices, and the integration of ancient wisdom and psychology. Her intention is to share trauma-informed, culturally responsive care, alongside her ongoing collaborative research exploring relational accountability, Indigenous methodologies, and ethical engagement with community.

Sandra Collins (she/her), PhD, is a co-editor of this book. She writes from the perspective of a feminist, lesbian, cisgender, woman with an invisible disability, who is a white, retired professor, and inhabits a privileged social class. Over the 25 years of her academic and professional career, she focused her research, writing, and teaching on cultural responsivity and social justice in theory, research, and practice. This is her fifth book on these topics, two of which were awarded the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Counselling biannual book award. She also received a silver medal for best e-book design by the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Gwendolyn Villebrun  (she/her), PhD, RPsych, is a Dene/Métis and a member of K’atl’odeeche Dene First Nation, Northwest Territories. She resides in Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta), Treaty 6 territory. She is an assistant professor in the counselling psychology program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. As a registered psychologist since 2005, she serves predominantly urban First Nations, those impacted by the Indigenous Residential Institutions, and children who have experienced abuse.

Kitana Connelly (she/her) is also known as TwahnaCreation. She is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in Oregon, a descendant of the Molalla tribe, the Klickitat tribe, and more. She is an artist entrepreneur amplifying the spiritual lifeways of her Indigenous culture in both modern and traditional practices. In her experience as an artist, to create means to connect with something greater than herself. These co-creations are influenced by connection to Spirit, the Land, and Ancestors. Her art is featured in several places throughout this book, including the book cover.

Gurmukh Aujla (he/him) holds a BA in psychology from Queen’s University, a paramedic diploma with honours from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and a criminology diploma from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. These qualifications are milestones on his path to serve others, guided by the principle of Seva, selfless service. He has had a career in emergency medicine as an advanced care paramedic, and he is now in a masters of counselling psychology program. He embraces healing through meditative movement and offers a down-to-earth approach that pays homage to his parents’ roots in Punjab, Indian, while embracing the best of what modern techniques have to offer. 

Alexandra Zúñiga (she/her), BA, is the coordinator for Canmore Counselling and its Trauma-Informed Yoga Psychology School. She is deeply interested in all things related to psychology, yoga, nature, and helping others. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology at McMaster University along with an undergraduate certificate in applied behavioural analysis from Mohawk College.She is also a graduate from the Trauma-Informed Yoga Psychology School 200-hour teacher training. 

Citation

Jay, M., Collins, S., Villebrun, G., Connelly, K., Aujla, G., & Zúñiga, A. (2025). Practice 17 Presence: A self-reflective way of being. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 8.1). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/op438597208