East Door

Abstract

This is the first of four doorways encountered as Fyre Jean Graveline invites readers to journey together aRound Sacred Medicine Wheel. In the Eastern Doorway, We Walk Our Talk when We acKnowledge our Collective WoundedNess. We embrace our Breath, Air, Wind, as a helper and old friend, who is all.ways with us, from our First Breath, at Birth throughout All of Life’s struggles and joys up until our Last Breath, Known as Death. Breathing Slowly in.to our Belly clears our Mind, and Connects us to our Senses, a better UnderStanding of our Body’s reActions. This is especially crucial when We are Relating with Difficulties with.in Situations or Relationships, reLiving Triggering from past Traumas, or Witnessing a painFull reTelling of Relatives’ Stories. The East Door opens Response.Abilities for Walking our Talk: (a) We acKnowledge LocatedNess: History, Cultural Context, and Lived Experiences will all.ways impact on what We are Able to do For and With our Relatives; (b) We Honour Power of First Voice as a Pathway of emPowerment; (c) We Remember that our primary Response.Abilities are to Deepen and Share our Healing Journeys; (d) We Work and Play and Pray to Be Visible as Role Models of Health and WellBeingNess, Living RespectFully and InterDependently with All Our Relations; and (e) We Grow by All.Ways turning our Wounds in.to Sap–Medicine to salve our WellBeing and to share Wisdoms for and with those We Serve: All Healing. Heals All.

Author

Fyre Jean Graveline (she/her; they/them), PhD, RSW, RCAT, is a two-spirit resilient survivor and a Métis Grandmother, educator, author, healer, artist, and activist or heARTiviist. She/they work, play, and pray to create sustainable expressive arts healing practices through an Indigenous, feminist, ecoarts-based lens, emphasizing walking lightly and lovingly on Mother Earth. She taught and practiced in education and social work for over forty years. She is the author of Circle Works: Transforming Eurocentric Consciousness (Fernwood, 1998) and Healing Wounded Hearts (Fernwood, 2005). Still emerging is her newest book LIFE as Medicine: All Healing Heals All.

Citation

Graveline, F. J. (2025). East door lived response.Abilities: Walking our talk. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 2.5). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/jw89870742