Practice 13 Wholistic Care

Abstract

This chapter explores how a Wise Practices approach can strengthen therapeutic relationships by contextualizing clients’ lived experiences and challenges in relationally and culturally responsive ways. Drawing on Chapter 6.1 by Darlene Denis-Friske and the principle of Etuaptmumk, also known as Two-Eyed Seeing, the authors consider how whole persons, families, and communities are engaged in the formation of shared understanding within counselling practice. Continuing the practice of Etuaptmumk, they honour millennia-old Indigenous perspectives that have always centred wholistic, integrative approaches to health, healing, and care. These practices are often misunderstood as novel within eurowestern psychology, where “case” conceptualization is often individualist and reductionist in nature. Both Indigenous Knowledges and critical psychological theories offer openings for integrating diversity in ways of knowing, being, and doing to enhance conventional approaches to care. Counsellors are invited to reflect on their own cultural identities and positionalities and practice theoretical flexibility, while centring client views of health and healing to foster a sense of expectancy and hope. The chapter considers metatheoretical lenses, including ecological systems frameworks and bio–psycho–social–cultural–systemic–ecological models, to deconstruct sociocultural assumptions and elevate culture-centred, localized, relational healing practices. Challenging reductionist models in favour of multiple perspectives, the proposed ecological framework for Wise Practices creates space for nuanced, socially just understandings of client lived experiences within micro-, meso-, and macro-sociocultural contexts. The chapter issues an invitation to action: embracing ecological justice as a core element of both contextualizing client lived experiences and transforming approaches to health, healing, and care for all persons and communities.

Melissa and Sandra are grateful for the stand-alone contributions of the following co-authors:

• Kitana Connelly’s painting “Keep it sacred” positions the chapter within the Medicine Wheel to emphasize balance and wholeness. 
• Gurmukh Aujla integrates trauma-informed and yogic principles for a more holistic understanding of seasonal affective experiences.
• Judi Malone applies a contextualized, systemic lens to understand the issues that emerge within small and rural communities, noting important adaptations to practice norms such as mediating geographic barriers, tailoring services, and engaging social justice.
• Fatima Saleem and Stephanie Martin offer broad insights into Muslim views of health and healing, noting that the diversity within Muslim communities and countries of origin necessitates cultural inquiry with each client to explore their personal worldviews in relation to community beliefs and values. 

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. 

Kitana Connelly (she/her) is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in Oregon, a descendent 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.

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. 

Judi Malone (she/her), PhD, RPsych, was the CEO of the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta for 11 years. In that role she facilitated relationships and engaged social media in advocacy to both strengthen the profile of psychology and for the critical issue of access. Hailing from rural northeastern Alberta she has a passion for contexts of practice and is humbled to self-identify as both a colonizer and one of the colonized in Canada’s landscape. She has clinical expertise in trauma, the neurobiology of addictions, and professional ethics in rural and small communities and has been an instructor for Athabasca University since 2000.

Stephanie Martin (she/her), PhD, RDPsych (SK), CCC, is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education (focus: counselling psychology), University of Saskatchewan. She is also a registered doctoral psychologist and a Canadian Certified Counsellor. Her broad areas of interest include applied ethics in research and practice, collaborative qualitative research methodology, psychology of women and gender, healing from interpersonal trauma, and professional well-being and resiliency.

Fatima Saleem (she/her), MEd, RSW, CCC, is a registered social worker with over 10 years of successful experience as an educator, researcher, counsellor, and community programs coordinator. Her main interests are mental health and social well-being of youth, newcomers, and refugee populations. She believes in her clients’ strengths and abilities, and she works to empower them as they heal and recover.

Citation

Jay, M., Collins, S., Connelly, K., Aujla, G., Malone, J., Martin, S., & Saleem, F. (2025). Practice 13 Wholistic care: Expanding perspectives. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 6.2). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/si57935370