{"id":571,"date":"2026-04-22T11:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/?page_id=571"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:49:14","slug":"pathway-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/pathway-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathway 8 Microlevel Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Decolonizing<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter 8.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pathway 8 Co-Creating Microlevel Change<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Melissa Jay, Sandra Collins, and Kaltrina Kusari<\/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\/vx75043278<\/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 and Sandra begin Pathway 8 by revisiting the synergy between being and doing. Many of the Teachings and practices in this book invite practitioners to lean into their awareness cultural and relational beings before they engaged in doing therapeutic work. Melissa shares a nehiyaw (Cree) Teaching about how small changes ripple outward. This Teaching honours connections between caring for ourselves as helpers or healers and caring for those we walk alongside. Melissa and Sandra positioned microlevel therapeutic change after systems level change (Pathway 7) to ensure that practitioners consider carefully systemic, contextual factors in understanding and addressing client challenges. Their intent is to disrupt conventional individualist perspectives on health and healing. This decolonial and anti-pathologizing approach creates space for multiple levels of complementary change, including change processes within microlevel contexts of clients\u2019 lives. To balance being and doing, the chapters in this pathway begin with a focus on presence and self-reflection. Embracing a self-reflective way of being allows counsellors and psychotherapist to offer the best of themselves to clients, while hold client stories with care and integrity. The chapters in the second half of Pathway 8 focus on the doing of culturally responsive care, drawing forward the focus on epistemological pluralism to invite consideration of multiple ways of knowing, being, and doing. To embrace a stance of cultural humility, Sandra and Melissa draw on the Wise Practices lens from Pathway 6 as a framework for responsible and ethical amplifying of Indigenous and other culture-centred approaches to health and healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa and Sandra are joined in this Pathway by co-author, Kaltrina Kusari<\/strong>, who offers a visualization exercise that invites readers to notice how awareness can open space for deeper connection and more meaningful engagement in health, healing, and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-Authors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Jay<\/em><\/strong> (she\/her), PhD, RPsych, is a cisgender nehiyaw (Cree) member of the M\u00e9tis 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandra Collins<\/em><\/strong> (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.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaltrina Kusari<\/em><\/strong> (she\/her), PhD, RSW, is a social work researcher and educator. She is from Kosova, and she has completed my higher education in North America, most recently receiving a PhD in social work from the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. Her research focuses on various aspects of migration, including the forced return of rejected asylum seekers in Kosova, refugee settlement in Canada, and the experiences of immigrants who are unhoused. She teaches as a sessional instructor for the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary and as an individualized study tutor at Athabasca University. She is also an independent consultant for various social service agencies in Canada and Kosova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jay, M., Collins, S., & Kusari, K. (2025). Pathway 8 Co-creating microlevel change. In S. Collins and M. Jay (Eds.), Decolonizing health, healing, and care: Embodying culturally responsive and socially just counselling<\/em> (Chapter 8.0). Counselling Concepts. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.71446\/vx75043278<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 8.0 Pathway 8 Co-Creating Microlevel Change By Melissa Jay, Sandra Collins, and Kaltrina Kusari Book: Decolonizing Health, Healing, and Care Published: June 1, 2025Publisher: Counselling ConceptsChapter DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.71446\/vx75043278Book ISBN: 978-0-9738085-6-8Format: ePub Distributor: Vital Source Purchase your copy at Abstract Melissa and Sandra begin Pathway 8 by revisiting the synergy between being and doing. Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Pathway 8 Co-Creating Microlevel Change","_seopress_titles_desc":"Therapist being and doing (presence and self-reflection alongside epistemological pluralism and Wise Practices) enhance cultural responsivity in co-creation of microlevel change.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-571","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"sandrac","author_link":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/author\/sandrac\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Chapter 8.0 Pathway 8 Co-Creating Microlevel Change By Melissa Jay, Sandra Collins, and Kaltrina Kusari Book: Decolonizing Health, Healing, and Care Published: June 1, 2025Publisher: Counselling ConceptsChapter DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.71446\/vx75043278Book ISBN: 978-0-9738085-6-8Format: ePub Distributor: Vital Source Purchase your copy at Abstract Melissa and Sandra begin Pathway 8 by revisiting the synergy between being and doing. Many…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599,"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/571\/revisions\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/counsellingconcepts.ca\/decolonizing-health-healing-care\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}