448 Faith and Indigenous healing ceremonies offer spiritually oriented interventions that maintain client wellness or mitigate client existential, biopsychosocial, or spiritual distress. Mental health practitioners of all identities may ethically apply ceremony-assisted treatments with Native and non-Native populations. Three such interventions are described in this article, drawn from Indigenous traditions as practiced personally and professionally by the first and third authors. Directives for use, including populations appropriate for application, adaptations, ethical considerations, and culturally responsive competency considerations, are included. Keywords: Indigenous, healing ceremonies, ceremony-assisted treatments, Native, culturally responsive Across time and cultures, humans have engaged in rituals as a means for fostering healing, resilience, grounding, and connection to something larger than oneself, to ultimately create and sustain meaning and health in life (Dallas et al., 2020; Ingerman, 2018). A ritual or ceremony entails enacting a sequence of behaviors or ideas relating to symbols and meanings (La Fontaine, 1985). Healing ceremonies are spiritually oriented rituals that seek to return a person to wellness or to maintain one’s physical, spiritual, or emotional health, particularly in the face of perceived threats or losses (Crouch, 2016; Kumar et al., 2023). Such traditions often stem from religious, cultural, or ethnic roots and are commonly performed to signify celebrations or other important events (Kumar et al., 2023). These acts also offer spiritual coping as a means to address difficult existential, biopsychosocial, or spiritual situations (Crouch, 2016; Mathew, 2021); to elicit healing narratives or conversations regarding trauma; and to honor feelings of frustration, fear, anxiety, and guilt (Crouch, 2016). Indigenous healing and ceremonial practices are part of community wellness and healing traditions for Native tribes across the North American continent (Causadias et al., 2022; Saiz et al., 2021). Such practices are passed down by the generations, despite having been forced underground for a period when the U.S. government outlawed Native American cultural practices (Irwin, 1997). Indeed, colonizers have sought to suppress and erase the Indigenous knowledge and practices of colonized communities around the world throughout history. Scholars have recently recognized the efforts of Indigenous communities across North America to reclaim the many traditional practices to which they had been denied access because of the violence of colonization (McCormick, 2021). This healing movement is embodied in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2008), emphasizing the rights of Indigenous people to maintain their cultural, spiritual, and health traditions and practices (Kumar et al., 2023; McCormick, 2021). In turn, ceremony-assisted treatments can be used by and with persons The Professional Counselor™ Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 448–461 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2024 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi: 10.15241/jsy.13.4.448 Julie Smith-Yliniemi, Krista M. Malott, JoAnne Riegert, Susan F. Branco Utilizing Collective Wisdom: Ceremony-Assisted Treatment for Native and Non-Native Clients Julie Smith-Yliniemi, PhD, NCC, LPCC, is an assistant professor and Director of Community Engaged Research at the University of North Dakota. Krista M. Malott, PhD, LPC, is a full professor at Villanova University. JoAnne Riegert, PhD, LPCC, is a mental health professional from the White Earth Indian Reservation. Susan F. Branco, PhD, NCC, BC-TMH, LPC, LCPC, ACE, is an associate professor at Palo Alto University. Correspondence may be addressed to Julie Smith-Yliniemi, 1301 N Columbia Rd, Suite E-2, Grand Forks, ND 58202, julie.smithyliniemi@und.edu.
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