Pathway 1 Indigenous Worldviews

Abstract

The Medicine Wheel forms a conceptual framework for the culturally responsive and socially just (CRSJ) counselling pathways and practices in this book. In this first pathway, the focus is on honouring Spirit (visioning and opening) as the authors centre Indigenous worldviews as a starting place for walking alongside all clients and cultural communities. Along this pathway these and other collaborating authors introduce three practices as a foundation for the conceptual and applied practice learning throughout the rest of the book: positionality, decolonization, and Etuaptmumk, which is also known as Two-Eyed Seeing. Centring Indigenous worldviews disrupts the normalization of eurocentric approaches to health, healing, and care and opens the door to multiple perspectives on health, healing, and care. 

Melissa, Sandra, and Jessie are grateful for the learner-centred perspective of Cheyenne Johns that reinforces the importance of embracing pluralism within counsellor education, theory, research, and practice. 

• Chey speaks to the critical need for social justice-oriented counsellor training in her reflection on the invisible work that she and many other racialized students perform within higher education institutions that uphold eurocentric ideologies.

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. 

Cheyenne Johns (she/her), HBA, is of mixed Indigenous, European, and Caribbean ancestry. She is Anishinaabekwe (an Anishinaabe woman) from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and a second generation Jamaican Canadian. She is currently pursuing a Master of Counselling Psychology at Athabasca University, and she is exploring racialized counselling psychology graduate students’ experiences of invisible work for her master’s thesis. Her academic and counselling interests include multicultural feminist theory, Indigenous research methods, decolonization, social justice, collective liberation, and experiential and somatic therapeutic modalities.

Jessie King (she/her), PhD. Hadiksm Gaax di waayu. Jessie has matrilineal ties to Gitxaała, belonging to the Ganhada. She is also settler-European Irish/English on her father’s side. She is an experienced instructor, facilitator, and researcher with a background in health, philosophy, and research design. Her areas of specialization include cultural safety, Indigenous rights and contemporary issues, research methodologies, decolonization and Indigenization, and instructional design. She is living on the traditional and unceded territories of Lheidli T’enneh.

Citation

Jay, M., Collins, S., Johns, C., & King, J. (2025). Pathway 1 Centring Indigenous worldviews. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 1.0). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/hw10295674