Healing the Collective: Community-Healing Models and the Complex Relationship Between Individual Trauma and Historical Trauma in First Nations Survivors

Abstract

Community-healing models (CHMs) are effective approaches in addressing intergenerational, historical, and racial traumas within American Indian–Alaska Native (AI/AN) individuals, families, and communities. While medical models of healing and White evangelical scholarship have favored individual approaches to change, growing evidence in support of CHMs in outcome research and evangelical theology is presented. CHMs understand the importance of the context in which problems develop and are sustained and consequently are uniquely suited to address the systemic nature of historical trauma and how intergenerational and racial trauma impacts People of Color and Indigenous individuals (POCI). The application of sovereignty, spirituality, and communal grief for AI/AN trauma survivors is explored. The role of community in individual identity and healing is explored as a biblical theme by both prominent White evangelical theologians and POCI Christians. The efficacy of CHMs in treating trauma within AI/AN communities provides hope for restoration within other cultural groups.

Integrating Psychological and Theological Perspectives on Multiculturalism, Social Justice, and Peace

“…In Healing the Collective: Community Healing Models and the Complex Relationship Between Individual Trauma and Historical Trauma in First Nation Survivors , Smith and Bookman-Zandler (2024), advocate for the use of community healing models (CHMs) in addressing traumas within the American Indian—Alaska Native (AI/AN) population. The emphasis on the relational nature of trauma served as a foundational justification for the use of relationships in the recovery from trauma.…”