{"id":501,"date":"2026-04-15T13:46:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/?page_id=501"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:11:38","slug":"practice-6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/practice-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Practice 6 Cultural Humility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Decolonizing<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter 3.2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice 6 Cultural Humility: Looking Inward<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Melissa Jay, Sandra Collins, Jessie King, Gurmukh Aujla, Lisa Gunderson, Taya Henriques, and Gina Wong<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book: Decolonizing Health, Healing, and Care<\/a>
Published: June 1, 2025
Publisher: Counselling Concepts<\/a>
Chapter DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.71446\/dj77392926<\/a>
Book ISBN: 978-0-9738085-6-8
Format: ePub
Distributor: Vital Source<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Purchase your copy at<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Vital Source<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 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\u2019 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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa, Sandra, and Jessie are grateful to be supported in this chapter by these additional co-authors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n