TPCJournal-Volume13-Issue4-FULL

The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 4 449 of all Indigenous roots to enact healing and sustain wellness and survivance (e.g., resistance and thriving in the face of oppression; Vizenor, 1993). Because of the efficacious nature of healing rituals, mental health practitioners of all identities have sought to apply traditional practices with Indigenous clientele and in addressing a variety of symptoms of client distress (McCormick, 2021). Non-Native American mental health practitioners have drawn upon Indigenous rituals such as smudging and drumming to address myriad forms of presenting distress across tribal groups (Blackett & Payne, 2005). Examples of issues addressed through such rituals include chronic pain (Greensky et al., 2014), distress from discrimination and colonization (Lu & Yuen, 2012; West-Olatunji et al., 2008), and substance use (Spillane et al., 2021). In light of the universal practice around making meaning through ritual, certain Indigenous interventions may also be considered for adaptation with non-Native clientele, albeit with caution and an ethical mindset (Rathod et al., 2019). Currently, however, there are limited guidelines around the ethical implementation of ceremony-assisted interventions for non-Native practitioners, particularly for work with non-Native clientele. Such guidelines are essential to mitigate harmful acts of appropriation born from colonization and the continued exploitation of Indigenous communities and their practices on the North American continent (Meade et al., 2022). Consequently, considering the importance and power of ritual and ceremony as a healing and wellness practice, we offer recommendations for non-Native and Native practitioners to ethically explore and incorporate ceremony-assisted interventions into practice with Native and non-Native clientele. We provide an overview of relevant provisions of the American Counseling Association’s ACA Code of Ethics (ACA; 2014) and, through examples, outline how practitioners can implement ceremony-assisted treatments while avoiding cultural appropriation. Next, we present three ceremony-assisted treatments, including smudging, drumming, and a letting-go ceremony. Such traditions stem from Indigenous origins and are applied by authors Smith-Yliniemi and Riegert in both professional and personal settings. Suggestions for use, including appropriate populations and areas of distress, are included. We address ethical considerations in promoting respectful and culturally sensitive use of each practice, to share traditions with broader populations while seeking to maintain the cultural integrity of said practices. Regarding language use in this article, we will interchangeably apply the terms Native, Native American, Indian, and Indigenous to refer to persons who are indigenous to Turtle Island (i.e., the lands recognized by the dominant normative population as North America). Reference will be made to Creator, to indicate a universal reference by Indigenous communities of a spiritual presence greater than oneself. In addition, drawing from the preferred naming conventions of tribal communities, the terms Ojibwe and Anishinaabe will be used interchangeably in referring to Smith-Yliniemi’s and Riegert's origins. However, we recognize that Indigenous people on Turtle Island are a diverse group of tribes or nations with their own languages, traditions, cultures, and naming conventions (National Museum of the American Indian, n.d.). Consequently, different tribes or Indigenous communities may choose different terminologies and for unique reasons, and many will likely take differing stances from those put forth in this article. Practitioner Positionality As the authors, we collectively identify as counselor educators. We each approach the directives in this article with multiple intersecting identities and critical lenses with which we seek to

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