Description of the Community Centred Therapy Program

By Kevin Spice and Valdie Seymour (June 21, 2001)

Published in the Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Indigenous/Native Studies
Association (CINSA) 2001

The community centred Therapy Program is a two-year community-based training and mentorship
program recognized by Red River College. The courses of this program can be transferred as two-
years of a four year Bachelor of Aboriginal Counselling program offered by Brandon University. The
fact that this program is community-based and is responsive to community needs/goals is significant.
Most often, programs brought into communities are not responsive to community goals and are merely
programs that are transplanted and imposed on communities. Rather than identifying direction from
the community, these programs implement established direction from institutions outside the
community. The result is that the students of these programs learn to respond to the needs and the
goals of the institution not the needs and goals of the community. Very often, students of these types
of programs do not even have the tools to recognize, value and effectively use the resources of a
community. Another significant aspect of this program is that the training modules were designed and
developed by Valdie Seymour & Associates (owned by an Anishinabe man who has twenty years
community development experience in various communities across Canada). Valdie Seymour has
worked to develop a program that integrates traditional teachings and modern education.

The process is the key to organizing community social and economic development. Rather than
imposing standard programming created by organizations from outside the community, this program
works with community members to help them to recognize and accomplish their own personal and
career goals. The program also encourages the students to recognize and use the skills and resources
that are already in the community rather than viewing the community in terms of needs and
deficiencies. Each student's program is designed to fit the individual and the community.

The purpose of this training program is to give people the tools and experience to take control of their
own lives. The training works to accomplish this by providing support and supervision to students as
they learn how to take responsibility for their lives and work toward the goals that they set for
themselves. Every aspect of this program is rooted in two guiding philosophies:

 that the community has the answers for their own growth and development;
 that the root issues of colonization and assimilation must be addressed through therapy before
economic and community development can be fully realized.

The students participate in thirty hours of classroom instruction during a one-week period each month
for a total of 720 hours. During the time between classes, the students are required to participate in
work experience (720 hours), community development (250 hours), group facilitation (150 hours) and
weekly peer therapy sessions.

There are four main, overlapping processes used in the implementation of this program:
 Individual and group therapy.
 Build skills through support and supervision.
 Discourage dependency mentality.
 Encourage alternative opportunities for change.
Individual and Group Therapy
Each course offered has a similar structure. During each course, two sharing circles are held everyday
- one to open the morning and one to close in the afternoon. The program integrates both traditional
and contemporary methods for individual, family and community healing. The assignments and
questions used are created to encourage students to reflect on the individual, the family, and the
community. This cyclical format is used throughout each course and throughout each topic area on
each course. For example, in a course on addictions, typical questions will include: How do addictions
affect your life? How do addictions affect your family? How do addictions affect the community?
How do you view addictions? How does your family view addictions? How does the community view
addictions?

By using this process we encourage students to think of differing perceptions within the community as
well as encourage them to examine their own views and values. A natural progression is to compare
their own values with other people’s values. Since this pattern is applied continuously through every
course, the students begin to establish a pattern of reflecting on their own values, thoughts and
behaviours.

This process also encourages self-awareness or consciousness-raising by reflecting on the origin of the
student's beliefs and behaviours. By providing exercises that are completed in small groups, students
discuss their personal experiences and listen to others' personal experiences. Students are also expected
to complete daily journals in which they are instructed to answer two questions: what did you learn
today? and how will you apply what you learned? The instructors read the journals and provide
feedback for encouragement and guidance. Instructors also provide contextual information through
written material, personal experience, video and audiotape. In this way, the instructors provided a
detailed examination of various issues. Again, the philosophy of this process is guided by the
understanding that various social issues (such as addictions, dysfunctional relationships, and abuse) are
symptoms of larger fundamental issues that were created and imposed on aboriginal peoples (such as
dependency, assimilation, cultural genocide). So it is very important to discuss the symptoms and roots
of various social issues in detail.

The students are encouraged and expected to engage in honest, detailed discussion of issues such as
death and grieving, suicide, and addictions. This allows students an opportunity to examine and
address issues that may have never been raised and discussed but have had (and continue to have) a
deep impact on their lives. Students also learn and develop various skills that are used as tools to
address personal and community issues such as communication skills, time management, planning and
team building. These skills are explored, developed and practiced within a safe group setting. Once
these skills are learned, students are expected to bring this new knowledge and skill outside the
classroom setting and begin to use them in their daily life.

Building Skills Through Support and Supervision

Through course assignments, we continually encourage self-reliant thinking and behaviour. Again,
this refers to the consciousness raising subject matter and questions that are designed to encourage the
students to think about their life, their goals, the obstacles hindering the achievement of these goals,
and to help them understand that they always have options available. Through the use of sharing
circles and group presentations, students become comfortable with expressing information about
themselves to others in a clear and non-judgmental way, thereby gaining emotional confidence.
Essentially, we encourage and support the clear expression of emotions and ideas.
One important aspect of this process is the continual formation of groups. Students are continually
exposed to new groups and thus have the opportunity to learn about the formation of groups and the
development of group dynamics. Students will come together to form a large group in the morning and
in the afternoon for the opening and closing circles. Throughout the day, the students form smaller
groups or partners to work on various in-class assignments. Outside of class, students form weekly
therapy groups and a variety of project groups. These opportunities allow students to learn about
identity, learn about their own strengths that they may bring to a group and learn about the processes of
team building. A very practical and relevant skill since communicating and working with each other is
often a significant issue in many communities.

Another important aspect of this process is that we encourage and develop opportunities for students to
increase their self-esteem. The questions are designed to facilitate self-reflection so there are no
“wrong” answers. Consequently, the students are left to struggle through their assignments to provide
opportunities for creative expression. No one gives them the answer to the questions assigned; the
students are required to take responsibility for their own experiences and successes. This raises another
philosophy of the process; namely, we can learn from everything we experience even if it is a negative
experience.

Process Discourages Dependency Mentality

The process repeatedly emphasizes that students set their own goals, objectives, action plans and time
lines for completion of activities. Students also are given many opportunities to speak for themselves
rather than letting others speak for them. This discourages transferring responsibility for ones own
emotions to another person. This also discourages transference of issues, which often results in blame
or confusing various elements of a situation. The students have the opportunity to sort out and learn
what is in their control and what is outside their control.

The process also closely examines and challenges dysfunctional behaviour within the course content, in
classroom settings, and outside the classroom. Students set their own ground rules and code of conduct
for participation in the program. If these rules are broken, other students will “carefront” the behaviour
carefronting is a term used to describe a technique for addressing an issue. It is contrasted with
confrontation, which is often associated with negative and aggressive expression. Carefronting is an
assertive expression of one's emotions that arise from someone else's behaviour. For example, “this is
how I feel when you do that”. Furthermore, assertive behaviour is encouraged (rather than passive or
aggressive behaviour). Eventually, students learn to carefront and intervene assertively when they
encounter disruptive or dysfunctional behaviour inside or outside of classroom situations.

Encourages Alternative Opportunities for Change

The process continually reinforces that the answers to community direction are already within the
community. Students are encouraged to recognize, value and use their own skills and the skills of other
community members. Currently, our students in Hollow Water and Seymourville are in the process of
mapping the skills of community members and are developing a community needs
assessment/community plan. Throughout the process we encourage the students to assume leadership
roles and to become supportive role models to other community members. Students are expected to
adopt and apply a community/personal development process throughout their daily lives. This process
includes identification of the goals and the needs of individuals, family, and community, the
development of detailed action plans to address their own goals/needs, discussion and evaluation of the
application of action plans and changes that are necessary to achieve the stated goals.

Each student evaluates the process at the end of each course. Based on the comments, we incorporate
the goals of the students in the design and development of future course content - for example, if there
is an interest in eco-tourism we will organize and implement an eco-tourism workshop.

Some Effects of this Process

One of the main effects of this process is an increased involvement of students in community
professional or semi-professional activities. Specifically, we have seen the students involve themselves
in committees that examine the financial and organizational accountability of the Band office. As well,
students have worked to inform themselves and involve themselves in discussions on economic
development pressures from outside industries - industries such as Hydro-electric companies, pulp and
paper, and mining. Essentially, students are taking an increased active interest in decisions that are
made that affect the community.

In April, Hollow Water suffered a violent death of a youth. Some of the students of our group
immediately went into the school are provided emergency counseling and sharing circles to students for
two days. Two weeks later, our group helped organize and facilitate a two-day workshop that included
youth and community members to develop recommendations on youth and violence in the community.
Not only did the students provide much needed services and opportunities for community members to
benefit from counseling, the students benefited from the experience of putting their skills to use.

We are currently working with the students to develop and implement a community skills map and
community plan. The skills map will document the skills of each community member (who wishes to
participate in the project). By documenting the skills of each community member we are recognizing
and valuing the skills of all community members. If a project is initiated that needs employees or
volunteers we can draw from the list of community members rather than eliciting help from outside the
community. As well, a community plan will help the community determine its own goals and direction
for the coming years in contrast to the, often overwhelming, pressure from outside industry and
government.

One of the most rewarding experiences is hearing from the students that they are starting to address
their own family issues and relationships. Students recount experiences where they employ the
techniques that they have learned to their own situations - to some very positive results. However, this
process is not without its hardships and regressions. This process is a continual cycle of learning,
applying what is learned and then going on to a new stage of development.

June 2010 – parts of my dissertation work

Turtle Model
One aspect of Anishinaabeg social organization is referred to as the Turtle Model (Valdie Seymour.
The Turtle model is traditionally based on groupings of families into clans (Figure 1). Each clan in a
community discusses an issue within their family and clan to address various aspects of community
responsibility. Each clan sends a representative to an assembly of all clans (a community council) to
represent a clan's information and position on an issue (Figure 2). The community council discuss the
issues and the representative returns to the clan assembly to report on issues raised by other clans and
actions taken by the community council. Clan membership is patrilineally assigned at birth although it
is difficult to determine whether this assignment is accurate due to the influence of colonialism.
Hallowell indicates that the clan system was traced through the male line (1992:51). However, one
anthropologist indicated that clans were matrilineal (Skinner 1911: 149-150).
Figure 1: Families grouped into clans. In this case five families are grouped under the Marten clan.

Figure 2: Each clan sends a representative to the community council for discussion of issues affecting
the community.
In this way, everyone in the community is involved in raising community issues and has the
responsibility to make decisions and act in a way that secures the community's interest in survival.
Without this organization (or an adequate replacement) the community social organization would break
down into dysfunctional behaviour and would threaten community survival.

Anishinaabeg and Settler Combined Turtle Model

The Settler system of social organization in Hollow Water is composed of various local, provincial and
federal institutions. These institutions are the various community health programs, local town councils,
RCMP, Child and Family Services, Frontier School Division, various churches, and the Settler justice
system. Prior to the development of Community Holistic Circle Healing these institutions were
operating according to their own mandate and were not working to coordinate their efforts to address
community issues together. In cases where sexual abuse cases were known, sexual offender's
(victimizers) would often use this isolation aspect of institutions to their advantage. Victimizers would
tell one thing to one institutional worker and a different thing to other institutions. This often hindered
a coordination of services to the victimizers, their families, the victims, their families and the interests
of the community. By coordinating institutions like the clan system the community places the needs of
the victim, victimizer, their families and the community at the centre (Figure 3). The institutions can
then discuss and decide what they can offer the victim, victimizer, family or community through their
institution. This communication continually reinforces and supports community engagement in
community health.

Figure 3 Coordinated community resources to address community issues.

By taking a holistic stance the healing organizations believe that no single community issue can be
addressed in isolation. Issues such as the effects of Indian Residential School, suicide, domestic abuse,
sexual abuse, community justice or addictions, have to be addressed holistically by a coordinated effort
of dialogue between institutions and community resources. Moreover, these coordinated healing
organizations (CHCH and Biidaaban) believe that healing, learning, justice, trust and community
development can only occur in the context of the family and community involvement in healing plans,
support and action. Healing, learning and creating a just environment together provides opportunities
for building networks of support, challenges dysfunctional mental models and provides support
practice for new ways for determining community-based solutions.