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Canada's first counselling clinic focusing on the needs of urban Aboriginal people is actively seeking clients.
Launched last September, the University of British Columbia's Robson Square Counselling Clinic consists of a team of six graduate students from its counselling psychology program, including three Aboriginal students. They are supervised by Prof. Rod McCormick, likely the only Aboriginal counselling psychology professor in Canada.
"Half of Canada's Aboriginal population is now urban-based," said McCormick of the Mohawk Nation. "A great number of Aboriginal people have suffered trauma in their lives and have experienced an inordinate amount of loss. There's an urgent need for counselling services."
McCormick was director of the Native Indian Teacher Education Program for seven years and helped plan an Aboriginal counsellor degree program at Brandon University in Manitoba, which remains the only such program in Canada.
"The role of spirituality and nature is extremely relevant to the Aboriginal healing tradition," McCormick said. "So it's important for us to offer help by Aboriginal counsellors and non-Aboriginal therapists who are knowledgeable about Aboriginal culture and ways of healing."
"Traditional counselling theories, when used as the only method to help Aboriginal people, are insufficient," said student counsellor Linda Epps, a traditional healer from the N'lakapmx Nation in Merritt.
Epps incorporates a medicine wheel that lists the "seven grandfather teachings" -love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, truth and wisdom-to explain the various stages of life and the necessary tools to move through it.
"For example, as a child, you learn respect from your parents or caregiver, you observe it and it was role-modelled to you," Epps said. "If you were taken to residential school, that component may have been lost, and it gets carried through to your adulthood.
"Even as an adult, it takes a lot of bravery to deal with issues such as sexual and physical abuse from residential school," Epps said. "But we need to shed all that pain so we can become better role models to our children and grandchildren. It all comes back to inter-connectedness with your community and all living things."
Epps said there are fundamental differences between western counselling theories and the Aboriginal healing tradition.
"In our academic training we are taught not to touch our clients," Epps explained. "This goes against all that I believe, because I think we are spiritual beings and sometimes we just need some spiritual support.
"So many times I just want to reach out and touch [my clients] to offer my silent support," Epps said. "As long as I'm at UBC I will do what I am taught; after that, I'll do what my heart tells me to do."
Student counsellor Brenda Andrews from Southern Alberta's Blood Tribe uses her residential school experience to better understand her clients' pain.
"I believe people are more comfortable and trust is easier to build if they are talking to somebody who's had the same experiences and who's been through some of the same issues," said Andrews. She added that as an Aboriginal counsellor, she inevitably clashes with some of the western counselling ethics, such as not having contact with patients outside of the office.
"If you work in the community, you simply can't keep yourself apart from your people," she said. "Moreover, when I hear something that I can relate to, it allows me to be more empathetic and truly understand what is being said."
McCormick is exploring the possibility of establishing an Aboriginal counselling diploma program at UBC, and wants to eventually turn the clinic into a teaching facility for Aboriginal counsellors. "Meanwhile I just want people to make the clinic part of their healing process," said McCormick.
The clinic is open on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, call 604-822-9338 and leave a message.
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