Practice 6 Cultural Humility

Abstract

Melissa, Sandra, and Jessie introduce cultural humility as a foundation for establishing culturally safer therapeutic relationships with all clients. Jessie positions cultural safety within its historical context, clarifying the inseparable connection between clients’ sense of safety and (a) historical and ongoing sociocultural oppressions and injustices and (b) each therapist’s sociocultural positioning. The authors suggest that cultural safety is inherently decolonizing because it necessitates therapists’ self-awareness of their own cultural identities and positionalities, social locations, and relative power and privilege. Cultural humility is further enhanced through genuine curiosity and care about clients’ intersecting cultural identities, including their socially constructed views of self and their personal and collective identity narratives. The authors point to cultural humility as relational responsiveness to the fluidity and situational nature of cultural identities. Therapist self-awareness of the subjectivity of worldviews is essential to recognizing and challenging their own potential for ethnocentrism and cultural encapsulation, which is a significant barrier to enhancing cultural safety. Reflective practice is introduced as an essential foundation for maintaining a sense of cultural humility. Reflective practice includes honest self-appraisal of values, beliefs, and assumptions, which inevitably emerge within counsellor-client relationships. Understanding how culture and social justice shape these relationships through cultural humility is a starting place for cultural safety.

Melissa, Sandra, and Jessie are grateful to be supported in this chapter by these additional co-authors:

• Gurmukh Aujla reflects on diverse views of the self and the implications for professional practice, drawing on his own ties to Eastern worldviews.
• Lisa Gunderson shares portions of her own identity narratives as a Black, Jamaican immigrant who grew up primarily in the U.S. and who continues to forge her identity as a Black woman.
• Taya Henriques and Gina Wong challenge the often-unconscious and pervasive discourse of mononormativity. Counsellors who carry this bias with them into therapeutic relationships may undermine client cultural safety and well-being.

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. 

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.

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. 

Lisa Gunderson (Akua Offeibea, she/her), PhD, RCC, ACS, is the founder of One Love Consulting and an award-winning educator and equity consultant for families, educational, and organizational institutions. She is a registered clinical counsellor in British Columbia and an approved clinical supervisor in California. For almost 30 years she has focused on equity and anti-racism issues for racialized and minoritized populations, including Black ethnic identity in Canada and the U.S. In 2023 she received the John Young Advocacy Award from VCPAC for “courageous, principle-based efforts advocating for equity and access for all students.” For almost 10 years I have worked clinically with the ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ Tribal School and the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Secondary School where I served as a clinical school counsellor, peer, and intern supervisor.

Taya Henriques (she/her), MC, RCC, MTA, is a registered clinical counsellor. Her career is based in mental health and substance use services. She currently works as a clinical coordinator and supervisor within the Fraser Health Authority in White Rock, British Columbia. Her primary clinical interests are mental health advocacy, individual and group counselling, programming and service delivery within the healthcare system. 

Gina Wong (she/her; they/them), PhD, RPsych, is a psychologist, researcher, writer, and a perinatal mental health certified (PMH-C) clinician. She is dedicated to increasing literacy, focus, and successful treatment for maternal mental health illness in Canada, particularly for women of colour. She co-founded and served as the vice-president of the Postpartum Support International-Canada. She has authored or edited three books related to mothering: Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance; Mothering in East Asian Communities: Politics and Practices ; and Maternal Infanticide and Filicide: Foundations in Maternal Mental Health Forensics.

Citation

Jay, M., Collins, S., King, J., Aujla, G., Gunderson, L., Henriques, T., & Wong, G. (2025). Practice 6 Cultural humility: Looking inward. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling (Chapter 3.2). Counselling Concepts. https://doi.org/10.71446/dj77392926