Decolonizing Your Helping Practice

When we first started thinking about writing our next book, the idea of creating a resource on decolonizing helping practices emerged naturally among a small group of us at CTRI. Like many projects, it initially started with outlines, timelines, and carefully organized plans. Clipboards were nearby. Calendars were consulted. Everything looked productive and polished on paper.

But as we continued gathering together – connecting through conversation, ceremony, reflection, and time spent with Elder Louise – something shifted.

This work was asking something different of us.

The usual structures we were used to working within began to feel too narrow. Too rigid. Too disconnected from the spirit of what wanted to emerge. Instead of simply producing another professional resource, we found ourselves being called into something more relational. More human. More alive.

We were being called back to heart space.
Back to spirit.
Back to land.
Back to relationship.

During one of our virtual fireside conversations, Elder Louise gently asked us a question that stayed with all of us:

“Why are you all writing this book?”

At first, our answers wandered. We spoke in fragments and stories. We reflected. We listened. And slowly something deeper surfaced.

This project was never only about writing a book.

It was about supporting helpers.
It was about remembering.
It was about reclaiming ways of helping that have always existed.

Long before Western models of therapy, counselling, or social work arrived, Indigenous communities already had deeply rooted systems of care. Healing circles, ceremony, storytelling, sweat lodges, land-based teachings, kinship systems, and collective responsibility guided people through grief, trauma, conflict, and healing for generations.

These ways of helping were never separate from community, identity, spirit, or the land.

Colonization disrupted many of these practices, and in many cases attempted to silence or erase them entirely. But those teachings survived. Indigenous helpers, Knowledge Keepers, Elders, and communities have continued carrying them forward – often despite systems that dismissed or marginalized Indigenous knowledge.

Today, we are witnessing powerful acts of reclamation and resurgence across communities. Language revitalization, cultural camps, ceremony, land-based wellness, and Indigenous-led healing programs are growing and expanding. People are reconnecting with identity, culture, and ancestral teachings in ways that are profoundly transformative.

And yet many helping systems within health care, education, and social services continue to prioritize Eurocentric models of care. Indigenous helpers often still find themselves navigating systems that require them to advocate for Indigenous ways of knowing to be seen as valid, ethical, or effective.

But Indigenous helping practices are not “alternative” approaches.

For many people, they are the most meaningful pathways to healing.

They remind us that healing is wholistic.
That people cannot be separated from community, land, spirit, ancestry, or relationship.
That wellness is collective, not only individual.

Long before Western models of therapy, counselling, or social work arrived, Indigenous communities already had deeply rooted systems of care.

Reclamation as Healing

Reclamation is not linear.

It is not a checklist to complete or a destination to arrive at. It is a returning. A remembering. A coming home to parts of ourselves that colonial systems taught many of us to disconnect from.

Sometimes reclamation looks like ceremony.
Sometimes it looks like learning language.
Sometimes it looks like reconnecting with land, ancestors, community, or identity.
And sometimes it simply looks like allowing yourself to soften enough to remember who you were before the world told you who you had to become.

For many helpers – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – this work also involves unlearning. It asks us to reflect on the beliefs, systems, and assumptions we inherited about professionalism, expertise, healing, and power.

It invites us to become more relational in how we walk alongside others.

As Asha Frost writes in You Are the Medicine: “If you feel you don’t have access to your roots, ancestors, or spiritual connection and you look outside of yourself for answers, you are forgetting the medicine you need lives within you.”

That reminder feels deeply important right now.

Especially for helpers.

Because so many people in helping roles spend their lives carrying stories, supporting others, and holding space for pain – often while quietly carrying their own bundles too.

Whether you are Métis, First Nations, Inuit, settler, or come from another background entirely, this work asks all of us to reflect on how we show up in relationship with one another.

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A Few Reflections for Helpers

As you continue your own journey in helping work, here are a few questions to sit with:

• Who are you in relation to this land?
• Whose teachings and stories shaped your understanding of healing?
• What beliefs or assumptions might you need to unlearn?
• What does authentic, relational helping look like for you?
• How do you care for yourself while caring for others?

Decolonizing helping practices is not about perfection or having all the answers.

It is about relationship.

It is about listening deeply.
Learning slowly.
Being accountable.
Co-creating trust.
Remaining open to being changed by what you learn.

Whether you are Métis, First Nations, Inuit, settler, or come from another background entirely, this work asks all of us to reflect on how we show up in relationship with one another.

Because decolonization is not a destination.
It is an ongoing practice.

Looking Ahead

This ongoing book project was created with helpers in mind – the people walking alongside others every day through grief, trauma, joy, growth, and becoming. It is rooted in the understanding that healing is collective and relational. That none of us are meant to carry everything alone.

At the heart of this work is a simple but powerful truth our ancestors have always known:

Nobody heals alone.

We are incredibly excited to continue sharing stories, teachings, reflections, and practical activities through this upcoming project, and we look forward to bringing it into the world soon. Stay tuned.

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Still Curious?

If you want to learn more about this topic, check out some of our related resources and products..

Certificate Program

Trauma Healing Certificate Program: Building Resilience With a Mind-Body Approach

Blog

Two-Eyed Seeing: Decolonization and Reconciliation

Certificate Program

Giwiidabindimin Certificate Program: Responding to Trauma and Grief With Decolonized Practices

Counselling Insights Podcast

Listen to Episode 42: Decolonizing Our Minds and Roles as Helpers

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