Indigenous Clinical Psychology in Australia: A Decolonising Social–Emotional Well-Being Approach

Brockman, Robert; Dudgeon, Patricia

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-33762-9_8

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…These cultures emphasize the importance of adjustment to the situation, i.e., employing gentleness and humility towards other people and conditions of life rather than trying to control and dominate people or things in one's environment (Joshanloo, 2013a(Joshanloo, , 2014. Accordingly, models and assessment tools of wellbeing originating from collectivistic cultures de-emphasize mastery and emphasize relationship harmony and adjustment (e.g., Brockman & Dudgeon, 2020;Hitokoto & Uchida, 2015;Kan, Karasawa, & Kitayama, 2009;Wang, Wong, & Yeh, 2016). In a study on lay conceptualizations of happiness, Lu and Gilmour (2006) found that Chinese participants were more likely to endorse socially oriented conceptions (e.g., emphasizing role obligations in one's family and other groups), whereas American participants were more likely to endorse individually oriented conceptions (emphasizing personal responsibility, striving for success, and engaging in instrumental behaviour).…”

Section: The Tension Between Autonomy and Harmonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Fundamental Distinctions in Conceptions of Wellbeing Across Cultures

Joshanloo

Vliert

Jose

2021

The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education

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One of the key roles of culture is to shape how human groups pursue personal and collective wellbeing, and thus each culture contains prescriptions and customs about how to achieve optimal functioning and wellbeing. This chapter identifies four fundamental differences in the conceptualizations of mental wellbeing across cultures. The identified differences are in the centrality of hedonic experience, self-enhancement, autonomy, and the relevance of contextual factors in determining wellbeing. These overlapping dynamics provide a framework for categorizing and making sense of existing cross-cultural findings on mental wellbeing. The chapter discusses the theoretical and empirical implications of the reviewed cross-cultural findings for international measurements of wellbeing. We argue that various measures of wellbeing may function differently in different global regions, with crucial implications for how countries are ranked based on wellbeing. Our review also highlights the relevance of cross-cultural variations in the concepts of wellbeing for designing interventions and policies and evaluating their effectiveness across cultures.

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Section: The Tension Between Autonomy and Harmonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Fundamental Distinctions in Conceptions of Wellbeing Across Cultures

Joshanloo

Vliert

Jose

2021

The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education

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“…Exclusion criteria were an active psychotic condition or current suicidal ideation. Whilst mental health was not formally assessed using a Western diagnostic framework due to concerns about cultural validity (Mullins and Khawaja, 2018;Brockman and Dudgeon, 2019), it was apparent that the social and emotional wellbeing of each of the clients was compromised: the experience of depression and/or anxiety appeared to be common to all.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the experiences of the Stolen Generation have led to mass disconnections across all areas of SEWB, particularly connection to family, country and culture (Australian Human Rights Commission, 1997). This transgenerational history of trauma, abuse and racism has led to huge disparities in present day socio-economic status, education and health compared with the non-Indigenous population of Australia (Dudgeon et al, 2017;Brockman and Dudgeon, 2019). Relatedly, on all measures of psychological wellbeing, mental health, and suicide, Australia's Indigenous peoples have far poorer outcomes, with three to six times the mental distress of non-Indigenous Australians, far higher suicide rates particularly amongst Indigenous youth, and destructive levels of self-blame and shame (Nasir et al, 2018;Brockman and Dudgeon, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples

et al. 2020

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The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy (CFT). Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indigenous Australians? If so, what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed? We report the findings from a pilot study of an arts-based compassion skills training (ABCST) group, in which usual CFT group processes were significantly adapted to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. At face value, CFT appeared to be a promising approach to enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, despite initial consultations with Indigenous health professionals, the first attempts to offer a more conventional group-based CFT to Indigenous clients were largely unsuccessful. Following a review and advice from two Indigenous clients, we combined elements of CFT with visual arts to develop a new approach, “arts-based compassion skills training” (ABCST). This paper reports an evaluation of this pilot ABCST group. The group had 6 × 4 h sessions of ABCST, facilitated by two psychologists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous) and two artists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous). There were 10 participants, who attended between 2 and 6 sessions: five were clients, five were health professionals. Between 1 and 3 months later, six of the participants (2 clients, 4 health professionals) were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified that two key processes—creating a positive group atmosphere and channeling compassion skills training through the medium of visual arts—led to four positive outcomes for participants: planting the seeds of new understandings, embodying the skills of compassion, strengthening relationships with others, and evolving a more self-compassionate relationship. We suggest that the preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further development of ABCST in Indigenous communities.

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“…Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' 1 health disparities stem from colonial invasion and the enduring inequitable circumstances that are a product of continuing colonisation (Brockman & Dudgeon 2020). Despite three decades of government attempts to confront and amend divergent health statuses, little has improved (Dudgeon, Bray, D'Costa & Walker 2017;Brockman & Dudgeon 2020). It is important to acknowledge, however, that some progress has been made.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decolonising mental illness: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ Social and Emotional Wellbeing and the persistence of colonial discourses in policy

Coe

2021

Aust J Social Issues

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Rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' suicide and the concerns over experiences of mental "ill" health are increasing. In recent years, this has caused contestation over approaches to "health" that seek to address this. Within this context, Social and Emotional Wellbeing, a holistic, decolonising approach to health, has ascended in Australian health policy. This paper applies a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis, using his theoretical framework of power, knowledge and discourse, to four Australian policy documents associated with addressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' Social and Emotional Wellbeing and "mental health". Findings reveal aspects of the Social and Emotional Wellbeing discourse having presence in the policy documents. Its understanding, however, is constrained by a cultural and institutional context that privileges and perpetuates a biomedical lens. Additionally, there is a failure to address systemic neocolonialism even while acknowledging that health disparities stem from colonialism. As such, this paper argues that, although integration of Social and Emotional Wellbeing has commenced in these policy documents, the hegemony of colonial discourses persists. This is along with a lack of policy reference in these documents for coordinated activity across social institutions and structures to address holistic demands.

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Indigenous Clinical Psychology in Australia: A Decolonising Social–Emotional Well-Being Approach

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Four Fundamental Distinctions in Conceptions of Wellbeing Across Cultures

Four Fundamental Distinctions in Conceptions of Wellbeing Across Cultures

Arts-Based Compassion Skills Training (ABCST): Channelling Compassion Focused Therapy Through Visual Arts for Australia’s Indigenous Peoples

Decolonising mental illness: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ Social and Emotional Wellbeing and the persistence of colonial discourses in policy

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