Two-Eyed Seeing: Towards a New Vision of Wellness Through Indigenous Wisdom

Two-Eyed Seeing is a way to make indigenous knowledge equally valid as mainstream knowledge.

In our two earlier series, which attracted an international audience, about half of whom are Indigenous or work in Indigenous communities, we explored the concept itself and how Indigenous people think about health and disease.

In this new eight-part series, we will explore how we get to wellness from the Indigenous perspective, and how Indigenous communities can find wellness through their own philosophies and approaches, independently from the mainstream that tries to tell us what to do. You will learn how indigenous conceptualizations of wellness and how to get there lead to very different approaches to reducing suffering and restoring harmony and balance.

This program is designed for practitioners who provide counseling in indigenous communities. It is also open to those providing counseling in other communities who want to see how indigenous practices could enrich their work, as well as to others who are just curious about Indigenous cultures and mental health.

Course Schedule:

Session 1: Barbara Mainguy and Lewis Mehl-Madrona will speak about the neuroscience of trauma and the importance of trauma-informed therapies for healing and finding wellness.

Session 2: Teresa Marsh will speak about her work to build wellness in indigenous communities in Ontario, Canada.

Session 3:  Allister Bush and Wiremu Nia Nia will speak about their collaborative approach to fostering emotional wellness in New Zealand, also among Maori people.

Session 4: Rennie Linklater from Rainy River First Nation in Ontario (and director of aboriginal programs for the Center for Addictions and Mental Health in Toronto) will speak about innovative efforts to build wellness in indigenous Ontario.

Session 5: Adrienne Giacon and Steve Hill from New Zealand will speak about Maori concepts of building wellness for people who hear voices.

Session 6: Matt Ball from Adelaide, Australia will speak about his concept of dissociachosis, which links psychosis to dissociation resulting from trauma and how to heal it.

Session 7: Catherine Chamberlain from Latrobe University in Australia will speak about her efforts to build wellness in indigenous Australian communities.

Session 8: Margie and her Aliitiq colleagues will describe the process of constructing wellness programs in their communities and will discuss how well those programs have been working.