Practice 14 Relational Responsivity

Abstract

This chapter explores relational responsivity as a means of centering client culture, worldview, and preferences in collaborative healing relationships. By applying a Wise Practices lens to the co-construction of wholistic and culturally responsive counselling processes, practitioners are invited to create therapeutic spaces that honour diverse healing traditions and open further possibilities for integrating and adapting mainstream eurowestern practices through relational–ethical engagement. Drawing on contemporary literature about common factors and the centrality of responsive relationships, the authors examine the synergy between Wise Practices and emergent scholarship in counselling and psychology. Drawing on the practice of Etuaptmumk, also known as Two-Eyed Seeing, they position Wise Practices alongside conventional “best practices” as equally valid considerations in therapeutic decision-making. They offer a model of relational responsivity in practice that balances (a) traditional, cultural ways of knowing and client views of health and healing with (b) conventional psychological approaches and practitioner perspectives. Relational responsivity and Wise Practices are threaded through the themes of honouring client lived experience through cultural inquiry, co-creating cultural hypotheses using meaning-making and antipathologizing perspectives, way-making through conceptualizing change and setting therapeutic directions, and co-constructing change at multiple levels. A Wise Practices framework for therapeutic decision-making is proposed that offers a spectrum of choices ranging from culture-centred approaches to integration to suitable adaptation to eurowestern frameworks, all grounded in client cultural context and views of health and healing. The chapter concludes with an invitation to consider a Wise Practices lens as a foundation for ethical decision-making.

Melissa and Sandra appreciate the stand-alone contributions of the following co-authors:

• Ivana Djuraskovic shares a refugee story as a foundation for offering guidance on applying an anti-pathologizing lens to conceptualizing diverse refugee lived experiences. 
• Don Zeman shares stories to illustrate his approach to engaging in therapeutic conversations about sexuality with queer clients.

Co-Authors

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.

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.

Ivana Djuraskovic (she/her), PhD, is a registered psychologist working in Alberta Health Services . She has extensive training and experience counselling refugees and immigrants as well as individuals who are struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, personality disorders, and other clinical issues. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and books. She has presented her research at both national and international conferences, and shereceived the Canadian Psychological Association Dissertation Award for her doctoral dissertation. She is a permanent adjunct faculty at City University of Seattle (Calgary Campus) and a sessional instructor at Athabasca University, Yorkville University, and St. Mary’s University College.

Don Zeman (he/him), PhD, RPsych, a registered psychologist in Alberta. He has been a healthcare professional for over 32 years, first as a chiropractor (11 years), then as a sports mental trainer and sport psychologist, becoming a counsellor and psychologist most recently. Before that he was a professional figure skater and did about 5,000 performances in pair and solo skating in about 50 countries. These experiences contributed to his current social constructionist, queer, and feminist perspectives, which he brings into his teaching and counselling. He is a full-time faculty for the master of arts in counselling psychology program at Yorkville University.

Citation

Collins, S., Jay, M., Djuraskovic, I., & Zeman, D. (2025). Practice 14 Relational responsivity: Centring client worldviews. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 6.4). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/yt48326546