Module 8 A Globally Aware Social Work Philosophy
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to integrate what you have learned from this course into your existing values, interests, and skills
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Course Objectives
· CO7: Synthesize global principles and methods of wellness and healing on all ecological levels into a holistic philosophy of social work practice.
Requirements
The Globally Aware Social Work Philosophy is worth
15
0 points and will be graded on your use of citations, use of Standard English grammar, sentence structure, and overall organization/effectiveness based on the required components as summarized in the directions and grading criteria/rubric.
1. Create your paper using Microsoft Word (a part of Microsoft Office), which is the required format for all Chamberlain College documents. You can tell that the document is saved as a MS Word document because it will end in “ x”
2. Follow the directions and grading criteria closely. Any questions about your assignment may be posted under the Q & A Forum.
3. The length of the paper is to be no less than 4 pages and no greater than 6 pages excluding title page and reference pages.
4. APA format is required with both a title page and reference page. Use the required components of the review as Level 1 headings (upper and lower case, centered, boldface): Note: Introduction – Write an introduction but do not use “Introduction” as a heading in accordance with the rules put forth in the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
Guidelines
Answer the following prompts. For each prompt, use at least one direct quotation from course readings to indicate how your answer is informed by them.
1) What is your definition of individual well-being and development? Include human diversity in your definition. Be holistic by systemically relating different aspects of well-being and development.
2) What is your definition of communal well-being and development? Include human diversity in your definition. Be holistic by systemically relating different aspects of well-being and development.
3) What principles and methods do you plan to use from this course to support individual and communal well-being? Include at least three ecosystem levels: individual, family, group, community, and organizational. How do these methods work together?
4) How should the relationship change between organizations that hold political and economic power and communities that do not? What role do you plan to take as a social worker in supporting that change?
5) How do you intend to care for your own well-being and development as a social worker engaging with colonized or oppressed communities?
6) Summarize your globally aware social work philosophy in five sentences or less. This prompt should integrate all previous elements.
Grading Criteria
Your paper will be graded based on following criteria:
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Criteria |
Points |
Description |
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Definition of individual well-being and development |
15 |
Definition is holistic and integrates at least three concepts from the course as well as human diversity. |
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Definition of communal well-being and development |
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Principles and methods of intervention |
45 |
· Methods flow logically from principles. · Both principles and methods relate collectively to at least three concepts from the course. · At least three ecosystem levels are included and interventions across levels are logically related. |
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Role in addressing power relationships |
· Needed change in oppressive relationship is articulated thoughtfully. · Social work role in mediating change is consistent with overall philosophy. |
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Personal well-being and development plan |
· Plan is consistent with definition of individual well-being and development. · Plan addresses potential challenges of working with oppressed or colonized communities. |
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Summation of philosophy |
10 |
· Summation has theoretical unity. · Summation integrates all previous elements. |
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Clarity of Writing |
Presents information using clear and concise language in an organized manner (NO errors in English grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation). |
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APA/page length |
All sources are credited using APA formatting Paper is between 4 to 6 pages excluding title and reference pages. |
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Evidence |
Provides at least one quotation supporting each prompt. |
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Total |
150 |
A quality assignment will meet or exceed all of the above requirements. |
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Rubric
M8 Rubric
| M8 Rubric | ||||||
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Ratings |
Pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Definition of individual well-being and development |
15 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Definition of communal well-being and development |
15 pts Highest Level of performance 13 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 11 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Principles and methods of intervention |
45 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Role in addressing power relationships |
15 pts Highest Level of performance 13 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 11 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Personal well-being and development plan |
15 pts Highest Level of performance 13 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 11 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Summation of philosophy |
10 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Clarity of Writing |
10 pts Highest Level of performance 9 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 8 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome
APA Style/Page length |
10 pts Highest Level of performance 9 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 8 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Evidence |
15 pts Highest Level of performance 13 pts Very Good or High Level of Performance 11 pts Acceptable Level of Performance 0 pts Failing Level of Performance |
Module 8: Mindful Macro Social Work and Pathways to Being a Globally Aware Social Worker
Mindfulness and Community Work
How can a mindful attitude support our efforts in community development and community organizing? First, as discussed in Chapter 9 of Boone (2014), mindfulness practice helps to break down the false dichotomy between self and other. This radical experience transforms us into living examples of non-division, non-exclusion, non-tribalist. By example, through speech and action, we show that it is possible to live unafraid of the “other” because the “other” does not exist. Second, mindfulness allows us to be open-minded: to see more clearly what is before us and catch assumptions as they arise. This is important whether the community we work within is our own, and seems familiar, or is culturally quite alien to us. Meditating allows us to work with our mental filters and how they crop up when we feel threatened. Third, being mindful keeps us open-hearted: we can let in the suffering of others knowing it is no different in its essence from our own suffering. We can stay the course rather than becoming overwhelmed and seeking refuge in more comfortable roles. Fourth, practicing mindfulness helps us reconnect with our bodies and our environments. If we become too conceptual, we begin to devalue the body and nature. We can’t be strong advocates for social justice if we don’t see and feel what is happening to our planet and to the bodies that live on it.
How do these attitudinal shifts manifest in daily life as we work with communities? Let’s take the formation of a task group to take on the lack of effective community re-entry programs for former prisoners. As we hold our first meeting with the formerly incarcerated and their families, neighbors, non-profits, church deacons, and representatives from local government together, we are aware of tensions. Each stakeholder views the others as potential threats to their well-being, but there are also bonds of mutual care. We bring equanimity to the meeting and speak from a position of empathy for everyone concerned. We acknowledge the pain that is deeply rooted in a community ravaged by federal policies that have instituted mass incarceration of black and brown people, what Michelle Alexander (2010) calls “the new Jim Crow.” We ask that everyone at the table take a moment of silence to abide with this suffering and generate good will toward the young men, their families, and the whole community. We elicit both the fears and the hopes of each person present while the others are encouraged to listen with their hearts. Only then do we begin the work of exploring potential solutions, weighing their risks and benefits, and asking that those most closely affected testify to whether these solutions are ecologically valid. We watch as hope, frustration, fear, and love contend with each other for space, and we create mindful pauses in the discussion by reflecting how these arise. If a framework of blame is present, we notice this out loud and ask, “How can we move beyond blame and toward mutual responsibility? What is each of us willing to do?” Roles are defined for the task group going forward, ways of maintaining communication, ways of measuring our progress – all in a spirit of seeing the boundaries between us/them, you/me as illusory. We acknowledge how steep the mountain is that we must climb, and we support everyone present to take the long view.
What about community organizing? Is community development enough when the reasons for the community’s problems are embedded in institutionalized racism at a national level? Using the same example, in a shift from community development to community organizing, we ask the stakeholders to name the policies that must change and the resources that must be freed up and brought into the community. We identify the members of Congress, the state government bureaus, the staff in the mayor’s office, and the business owners and managers who need to be contacted. We discuss strategy: how can we carry this cooperative sense of interconnectedness that is developing within the task group and use it to speak truth to power? How can we appeal to the better natures of people who may be blinded by old paradigms or the desire to maintain power? How can we calmly but powerfully show the people in power that they have choices to make, and these choices lead either to unity with their own civic values or division within themselves? As people who are working being whole, on not allowing the pressures of divisiveness to defeat them, community members can carry the dignity of their larger vision of the human community into their interactions with people who have power but have lost connectedness, who have become caught up in narratives of factionalism.
The argument of engaged Buddhism or mindful macro practice is that it is
only when we work from the inside out, when we see our own internal dividedness, when we see all life as interconnected including victims and perpetrators, that we can heal the divisions that threaten to destroy us. If we play our parts in the script and succumb to hatred and fear, we have already lost no matter how passionate we are. Gandhian ahimsa, non-violent protest, is powerful precisely because it exposes oppressors and the oppressed to their own and each other’s humanity. One may argue that to be mindful is to be non-violent, because we can’t harm someone else when we recognize our common nature as embodied consciousness itself.
In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. supported a radical move advocated by Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizer James Bevel: for black children to lead a non-violent march (Carson et al., 1991). Hundreds of children were trained in non-violent protest methods and principles. They continued for several days despite mass arrests. Images on national television of children set upon by police dogs, batons, and fire hoses galvanized the national conscience enough to force President Kennedy to intervene, ultimately leading to the Birmingham Truce Agreement, which desegregated lunch counters and public facilities and created a jobs program for African Americans. There was great controversy at the time within the community over this tactic of putting children at risk. How do you feel? Do children have the right to put themselves in danger for social justice? At what age? This example challenges us to think about how we engage as social workers here and abroad. If we are grounded in transcendent spirituality, whether mindfulness-based or faith-based, then we may be willing to risk ourselves. But in collective action, we also have to ask what cost we are asking others to make, and who gets to decide.
Mindfulness and Organizational Work
At the level of organizations, social workers can play multiple roles. They can empower coalitions to push for policy changes from outside of organizations, or they can work from within – as policy writers and implementers, as leaders and middle managers of non-profits, as creators of new organizations, and as researchers bringing evidence to policy. A mindful approach fosters effective engagement in any of these roles. Organizational cultures are microcosms of society and are vulnerable to the same hierarchies, subgroupings, and personality clashes that families experience. Being a mindful social worker in these settings creates opportunities for gradual, subtle culture change. When we embody equanimity and loving kindness, we set an example and show another way of dealing with conflict.
At the same time, when we are less attached to “self” as a separate being that must be defended, we become more fluid. Skillful means is an important construct in Buddhism that links enlightened attitudes with action. Sometimes to be skillful means to be fierce. A mental health provider worked on a health care team and noticed that opinions about a certain patient were hardening. Team members saw him as unwilling to follow recommendations and disrespectful. Some team members recommended discharging him from the program, even though his behavior was not that different from that of some other patients who were accepted. He seemed to be triggering personal reactions. Staff interactions with him were becoming increasingly directive and argumentative as he resisted cooperation, only fanning the flames.
The mental health provider saw his behavior as rooted in distrust that stemmed from a history of child abuse. During group discussions, his nurse continuously cut off the mental health provider before he could fully express my views and potential solutions. He was mindful of his growing anger at neither he nor the patient being heard, and made a conscious decision to intervene sharply, as his calm, friendly approach was not working. He stopped the nurse in mid-sentence, yelling, “Let me speak!” A tense silence ensued as he tried to calm himself and organize his thoughts. At last, he was able to share his view that the patient was acting from fear, and that he deserved a different approach. The team came together and determined that his nurse could not be objective and should withdraw; another nurse with mental health experience was brought in. The team developed a behavioral contract that specified both the patient’s and the team’s responsibilities and this was delivered to the patient by the mental health provider, who helped him be mindful of how his reactions were based partly in the past.
Weeks later, the nurse who kept interrupting the mental health provider confided that her husband had a serious illness and was unable to work, so she was picking up extra shifts and felt overwhelmed. They never talked about the conflict between them, but she knew from his lack of rancor that he would be supportive. Although his role on the team was not macro practice, he could have an influence on institutional culture by consistently conveying the message: we are all human, we all struggle, and we have a right to be heard.
What does mindful leadership look like? As the previous example suggests, we do not have to have formal positions of leadership to be leaders. Our sphere of influence is as big as our ability to be mindfully present. But when we do hold authority, we can use mindfulness practice to stay humble and open to others’ ideas (Sethi, 2009). We can question our own assumptions about the right ways of doing things and foster an environment in which all people are valued, and conflicts and failures are perceived as learning opportunities. We can also carve out space and time for actual mindfulness practice during the workday and encourage staff to participate. Spontaneous comments afterward often reveal the benefits of stopping the world for a short time: higher productivity, reduced work stress, new insights into work and home challenges, and inner peace.
How do we become responsible stewards of the environment in macro social work? Boone (2014) eloquently describes the fundamental ethical shift that occurs when we see ourselves as not only in the environment, but inseparable from it. But how can this manifest in practice?
1. We are mindful of how we use resources in our daily lives. We treat the water we drink and clean with, the earth into which we cast our refuse, the air we breathe, the climate that surrounds us, as ourselves. We know we are temporary forms created from and returning to the Earth, and that we interchange with our environment constantly, to the point that the line between “I” and “the world” is permeable.
2. We look for opportunities to make our organizations more environmentally responsible. We wonder about how few people commute together or take public transportation or ride their bikes to work and explore collective solutions. We question how our pension funds and 401Ks are allocated, and support divesting from fossil fuel companies. We volunteer to sit on committees for sustainable energy sourcing. Just as important as our actions are our motivations. If we take action out of fear, this fear sews seeds of resistance and conflict. But if we view the Earth as our mother (which is not a metaphor, but a fact) then we naturally wish to protect her. If we stay mindful of the connections among the organization, society, and the natural world, then we can’t help but be good stewards.
3. We commit to environmental justice as a critical lens through which we view psychosocial problems, and as an arena in which we act. By including the natural and built environments in our assessments, we rare practicing being mindful of the whole picture – not dividing it up. AS Boone points out in this week’s readings, the Person-In-Environment perspective that is so central to social work theory and practice has overwhelmingly emphasized the social environment over the physical environment. We are experts in exploring the cause-and-effect relationships among social entities such as families, schools, and child welfare agencies. But what about streets, parks, landfills, airports, coastal wetlands, and pig farms? We need to learn the vocabulary and have enough understanding of environmental science and economics to ask the right questions of the right people. By being mindfully aware of the interdependence of all things, you can avoid wearing environmental blinders.
Diversity and Mindfulness in Macro Social Work
The Buddhist origins of mindfulness practice speak to the universality of human suffering and liberation from suffering. How then do we include cultural awareness, humility, and competence in our mindful approach to macro-level issues? Through mindfulness meditation we become more capable of noticing thoughts as they arise and treating these thoughts with a grain of salt. This includes judgments we make about ourselves and others. By letting go of judgments and returning to present experience, we can become more curious about how communities and organizations function in real life. When visiting a collectivist society, we may miss the signs of extended family networks acting as buffers against poverty. We may feel sorry for multigenerational families living in crowded conditions and not see the many mutual transactions that allow children to be cared for, the sick to pay for treatment, the elderly to live at home. By knowing how little we know we can be open to discovering how things work and where and whether we can fit into that ecosystem helpfully. The field of charity work is littered with failures from well-intentioned programs, like stoves that emit less smoke but require twice as much work. In other words, we need that beginner mind.
In 2019, the Kayenta coal mine closed as the lower price of natural gas made it unsustainable. Ironically, the mine that was a source of greenhouse gases also served the Hopi tribe with revenues from coal sales, jobs, and as a heating source in the winter. Today the Hopi tribe faces a crisis (
https://www.knau.org/post/coal-mine-s-closure-leaves-hopi-navajo-homes-without-heat-winter (Links to an external site.)
). Families are choosing between heating and food, and nonprofits are trying to step in to fill the gap with firewood deliveries after temperatures have already dropped. Some blame the Hopi tribal government for being ill-prepared, but the mining company itself also failed to anticipate these consequences. As usual, disenfranchised people were ignored in the global economy.
Principles of Macro Social Work
Community development, Capacity building, Social Inclusion Env. Sustainability, Grassroots Organizing, Cultural Competence….
As a macro social worker, how would you incorporate organizing and cultural competence into Red Feather’s work if you were on the staff? What questions would you have to ask first before you could act? What reactions come up for you as you read about this failure of policy? How would you practice mindfulness of your thoughts and feelings if you were lobbying the entities responsible for the lack of transitional planning? Imagine standing on the land in northern Arizona. How might your experience of being connected to the environment inform your approach?
Revisiting Global Social Work
If we are to engage in macro social work on the global stage, whether in oppressed communities within our borders or beyond them, then we need guiding principles specific to a transnational focus. Leahy (2001) unpacks six key concepts. See if you can match the quotations with their components.
A holistic comprehension of macro global social work must account for the radically dislocating effects of globalization, both the benefits – shared knowledge, technology, coordination of international programs, and cultural contact – and the dangers: global economic forces that do not support the transitions of displaced people who are already socially excluded; global terror and the spread of hate-based ideologies; and the threats to natural environments posed by overpopulation and climate change. As we come to better appreciate the importance of social capital and social well-being, our definitions of human rights, security and sustainability must be updated. Cultural diversity and civil society themselves are threatened, as norms are eroded by authoritarianism, nationalism, and global capital. What can we do? Our part. We can start by becoming informed global citizens.
Who Will You Become?
Think back to the many applications of generalist social work practice we have adapted to new populations. We have seen how interpersonal therapy for depression and trauma-informed therapy can be used by paraprofessionals in refugee settings. We have described the challenges and possibilities of collaboration between Western mental health and aboriginal healers. We have studied the use of Medicine Wheels with Native American children in foster care, and mindfulness-based art programs with children at risk. We have explored how Hawaiian conflict resolution practices can be used with groups and families in substance abuse treatment, how African spirituality can infuse individual psychotherapy, and how depressed East Asian women can be empowered through attention to body, mind and spirit without sacrificing their need to maintain relationships. We have seen how loving kindness meditation can improve PTSD symptoms on a group level, and how it can help family members cope with each other’s suffering. We have seen the power of mindfulness and acceptance when integrated into group work. Throughout this exploration, we have also placed you as an evolving person and professional at the center. Unless you are mindful of how you are responding internally to the challenges of your profession, and unless you place your own growth as a high priority and lifelong endeavor, you will not fulfill your potential and you may cause unintended harm. Put another way, caring about yourself and caring about the people you serve go hand in hand.
You probably knew before you entered this program that being a social worker is more than a career – it’s a calling. Many needs clamor for our attention, and we hope this course has sensitized you to the global scope of that need, as well the global breadth of culturally diverse ways of meeting those needs. Now, we invite you to reflect on what aspects of the course have called you the most powerfully. Is it the idea of working internationally rather than helplessly watching news of traumatic experiences unfold in places where people already struggle to survive? Is it bringing ancient spiritual traditions to bear on modern problems of mental health and social adjustment? Is it integrating mindfulness into your daily life and social work practice? It is going beyond micro-level practice to shape policy and progress on a broader level? No matter the answer, what all of these directions have in common is that they are guaranteed to lead you out of your comfort zone. To meet others where they are is to be confronted with where we are. As Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön (1991, pg. 32) says,
“Life’s work is to wake us up, to let the things that enter into the circle wake you up rather than put you to sleep. The only way to do this is to open, be curious, and develop some sense of sympathy for everything that comes along, to get to know its nature and let it teach you what it will. It’s going to stick around until you learn your lesson, at any rate. You can leave your marriage, you can quit your job, you can only go where people are going to praise you, you can manipulate your world until you’re blue I the face to try to make it always smooth, but the same old demons will always come up until finally you have learned your lesson, the lesson they came to teach you. Then those same demons will appear as friendly, warmhearted companions on the path.”
Summary
In our 8th week we have returned to the macro level of communities and organizations to see how mindfulness and global sensibilities can help us be effective agents of change. We have examined the ramifications of dissolving the distinction between self and other: greater empathy and commitment, deeper cultural humility, more ability to live as examples of mindfulness when we help to develop and organize at the community level and when we lead from within organizations. We have connected mindfulness with Gandhian non-violence and with environmental justice. We have analyzed the ways that a global approach to social work transforms concepts of human civil rights, security, and sustainability. And lastly, we have brought together the strands of the course and discovered that they make a beautiful fabric on which we can sit together, and a strong rope for climbing to new heights.
References
Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
Carson, C., Garrow, D. J., Gill, G., Harding, V. & Clark Hine, D. (Eds.) (1991). The eyes on the prize civil rights reader: Documents, speeches, and firsthand accounts from the black freedom struggle. Penguin Books.
Chödrön, P. (1991). The wisdom of no escape and the path of loving-kindness. Shambhala.
Sethi, Deepak. (2009). Mindful leadership. Leader to Leader, 51, 7-11.
Module 5: Indigenous Methods of Healing Psychosocial Problems: Individuals and Families
Understanding an Indigenous Worldview
A core idea for this week is that Western culture has not only harmed indigenous cultures through colonial subjugation, but that Western culture is in itself pathological, diseased. By understanding the ways that modernism, consumerism, and individualism are damaging to the body, mind and spirit, we can begin to shift toward a more holistic version of ourselves as social workers and human beings.
We are not rejecting modernity itself. After all, we live in an age of advanced technology that has led to improvements in many facets of human quality of life. What we are bringing into question is the failure of modernity to embrace and incorporate the wisdom of indigenous life. By considering first peoples primitive or uncivilized, we have disconnected ourselves from a vibrant, balanced life in connection with nature and community.
We have chosen the word “philosophy” over others, such as “theory” or “treatment model” because the latter terms lack the comprehensive nature that a philosophy has. We consider a philosophy to have five interrelated aspects:
1. A definition of happiness and the good life
2. An understanding of reality, of creation and its purpose
3. An understanding of the place of community and the individual in that reality
4. An understanding of the proper place of the individual in the community
5. A set of practices for restoring happiness when it has been disturbed
None of these elements can be comprehended separately. Happiness and the good life can only be understood in the context of the nature of reality the purpose of creation, our roles within the community, and the place of the community within the cosmos. Practices to restore happiness only make sense if we know how happiness and the good life relate back to the context of our lives.
Perhaps most fundamental to indigenous philosophies is the very idea, pointing to our lived experience, that we do live within communities and within a cosmos. It would have never occurred to people growing up in a preindustrial culture to see themselves as separate from these larger circles. Much of the anxiety and depression we feel today can be traced to existential conditions that in Western society seem inevitable, fundamental: mortality, isolation, meaninglessness, and freedom (Yalom, 1980). Yet there is a countering narrative for each of these “givens” in indigenous cultures. Mortality is moderated by identification with a spiritual essence that constitutes all of the cosmos. Isolation, which in existentialism means the inability to ever truly know another person or become one with them, is belied by the possibilities of deep knowing that come with communion with others and the secure attachments that characterize a collective society. Meaninglessness, which in existentialism signifies the lack of any absolute, determined meaning to life, would be complete nonsense to an indigenous person. Meaning is found, instead, in every aspect of life, and is to be discovered through ancestral wisdom and listening to the messages of the cosmos that come through dreams and other means. Freedom, which in existentialism is understood as the terrible burden of choice in an uncertain world, also holds no special terror in indigenous cultures, because choices arise naturally from confluence of one’s inner connection with spiritual reality and one’s cultural sensibilities.
This description may seem idealistic, but that is because all or almost all indigenous societies today have made contact with Western civilization and have been infected with existential angst on both individual and communal levels. Today, individuals from colonized societies do live and die outside of the cosmology that made sense of everything. Thus they do suffer from isolation, meaninglessness, and the burden of choice. With many choices taken away by the restrictions imposed by the larger society, freedom is distorted into self-destruction. And so mortality no longer means the natural transition from life to the world beyond. It often happens as the result of the inability to live a good life.
Our task, then, is to rediscover the practices for restoring happiness that were originally used to deal with the traumas that come with life itself: internal disharmony, premature death, illness, and conflict. Yet we can’t appropriate these methods wholesale. First, we must root them in their original cosmology, rather than ripping them from their context and just following the technical steps. Marshall (2011) shows how this can yield mixed results when colonized people who themselves have not restored their relationship with spirit try to help others. Next, we must integrate the principles and methods into Western models to some degree. Why? Because we neither wish to be inauthentic in ourselves or force the people we work with to adopt practices that may feel alien to them, depending on their degree of acculturation to Western society. The exception that proves the rule is when we are working with communities that remain highly traditional – in this case we would partner with healers who are already culturally aligned.
Use of Self with Colonized People
One implication of the importance of grounding indigenous methods in indigenous philosophies is that we have responsibility to work on our own spirituality. We define this imperative broadly, not as a demand that all social workers partake in a faith tradition, but as a recognition that the state of our own being affects our ability to help others. Knowledge, skills, values, ethics, self-awareness, self-regulation – these are actually not enough to be truly effective as social workers working with colonized populations. We also need something we might call spiritual presence.
What is spiritual presence and how can we cultivate it? One precept common to indigenous philosophies is that when we are in a natural state, we are already spiritually present. Unnatural states would be the result of disturbance of the balance in our lives or contamination from a toxic environment, relationship, or event. We return to a natural state through purification and rebalancing.
Spiritual presence is of course a relative term. It is not all or nothing – of it were, we would all give up before we started. Our lives, as Western humans subject to existential angst, are ideally journeys toward spiritual presence. This does not need to be approached through an indigenous philosophy. It is the underlying value in interconnectedness that unites all paths toward spiritual presence.
What distinguishes this journey from those that are focused on individual happiness is the importance of being present to the beings in our lives. For example, going to yoga and meditating, if undertaken with the limited goal of reducing stress, getting “me” time, or being healthier, may not carry us any closer to the source – to a relationship with the energies of life itself. On the other hand, aspiring to “being a spiritual person” by trying to act on higher morals without engaging in the hard work of purification and rebalancing will result in a divided state between one’s actions and one’s internal state. We can sense people who act good but feel bad.
By acknowledging that we are in mid-journey toward spiritual presence, we can genuinely embody the humility needed to gain trust over time within colonized communities. By laughing at our own Western hang-ups we can acknowledge the fact that we are outsiders who have some critical distance from our own modern malaise. And we can go deeper when the moment comes by sharing our deeper intention to be a force for decolonization despite our unworthiness.
Child and Family Work with Oppressed People
The first question we must answer when considering social work with families, especially beyond the White middle-class model of the nuclear family, is how we are defining family: who belongs in it, and what roles each member has. We must also acknowledge that colonized communities, including those within our own borders such as African Americans and Native Americans (including those immigrated from Central America), have families that have been broken in many ways. From one point of view, the foster care system is, at least in its stated mission, a way to protect child welfare and reunite families when possible. However, from another point of view foster care is the symptom of White oppression of families of color, because so many of the problems that result in out-of-home placement can be traced back to intergenerational trauma.
Efforts to align foster care programs and children at risk with indigenous values do exist. Gilgun (2002) uses the Medicine Wheel to draw from the wisdom of the four directions and integrates this wisdom with Western theories of child development. By drawing from child socialization practices common across Native American tribes, Gilgun demonstrates a model for building resilience in the form of four traditional values: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity. Adults are primarily responsible for ensuring that children at risk of any background learn how to embody these values. For example, Mastery is encouraged through the following adult behaviors: give youth time and attention to show youth how to do new things; do at least one thing well themselves; give young person recognition when youth does something well; counsel young person about the value of appropriate expression of emotions; demonstrate appropriate expression of emotions; and recognize when young person demonstrates appropriate expression of emotion” (pg. 78).
Let’s compare the above approach, which offers values and practices to be adopted by people working in the existing child welfare system, with a program designed from the ground up based on indigenous principles. The Progressive Life Center’s Therapeutic Foster Care program (Gregory & Phillips, 1997) was founded in 1083 on NTU psychotherapy values and methods. The target population was children and youth with severe mental health and/or behavior problems who were placed in foster care. Its outcomes speak to its innovative yet deeply traditional Afrocentric model: a high success rate in placements that do not end prematurely, large reductions in the use of psychiatric medications, and improvements in emotional well-being, academic performance, and school stability.
The authors attribute the program’s success to its NTU philosophy. This is manifested in training for the foster parents in the spiritual principles of NTU, particularly the Nguzo Saba, which helps the parents to support foster children in practicing these values. Rituals of transition and healing for children and families create pride in culture, connection to ancestors, and body-mind revitalization. Another factor that may important to successful outcomes is the comprehensive nature of services, with respite, crisis intervention, individual and family therapy, parent training, and multifamily retreats.
A third model of Western-indigenous integration is the application of the Hawaiian family conflict resolution practice of Ho’oponopono to situations that arise in school (Nishihara, 1978). Although this adaptation is practiced with groups of students, and might better fit in the previous module, it is so clearly grounded in the dynamics of extended families that we decided to include it here, as a more widely applicable concept that could be used in family social work. Nishihara thoughtfully explores the potential issues in translating the practice to a modern context. One potential challenge is to build trust with the participants as an outsider, since an elder within the extended family was the leader in traditional Ho’oponopono. By translating the stages of the practice into their modern equivalents, Nishihara bolsters the integrity of the process, which itself promotes trust, openness, and resolution.
Two concepts from Ho’oponopono bear some unpacking here: hala and hihia. As Nishihara describes, hala is the original wrong committed, and acts as a bind connecting transgressor and victim. Hihia is the entanglement that results from the hala as reactions accumulate within the family system. Only when the need for family harmony exceeds the discomfort of confrontation, and only when the members are willing to be honest, can Ho’oponopono succeed.
An example may be helpful. Let’s say that a mother neglects a daughter due to being depressed, and the child gets injured as a result. The father is scared and angry and lashes out at the mother, who then takes the child and goes to live with her parents. The father, feeling punished and helpless, drinks and gets fired from work. The mother is even more depressed because she feels guilty for starting the chain of events. She still neglects her daughter, who is parented by her grandparents but begins to act out in school because she wants her father back.
Prior to colonization by Europeans, the Hawaiian family could trace the harm back to the mother’s depression, everyone could acknowledge their part in the web of cause and effect, and a solution could be determined – perhaps the mother could agree to pay more attention to her daughter and reunite with the father, the father could agree to handle his anger more responsibly, the daughter could return to her previous good behavior, and the grandparents could be more supportive of the mother to help her with her depression. Today, it seems important to place the family’s problems in a larger context. Perhaps the mother is depressed in part because she has poorly controlled diabetes from a Western diet and a need to overeat to suppress her frustration over her husband’s temper, which in turn is fueled by the racist treatment of his boss.
How can we reach a real resolution with these uncontrollable sociopolitical factors? This is where a marriage of the micro level intervention within the family and the mezzo level of its interaction with larger systems may be necessary. The social worker may explore how effective human resources or a worker union may be in advocating for the father, or helping the mother or even the extended family to connect with nonprofits supporting nutrition based on traditional foods.
Anti-Oppressive Practice with the Individual-in-Family
Given the central place of the family in colonized communities, it doesn’t make much sense to think of the individual in isolation, even when we are focusing on individual interventions. Family work can also be done while focusing on the individual, and without a spiritual system, when we are working outside the context of a program. In the last module, we discussed Freire’s (1968) model of liberating dialogue. For example, let’s say that a Guatemalan Mayan woman has fled her country with her children and has sought asylum. She can’t understand why she is being treated like a criminal by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. You, the social worker for a refugee resettlement non-profit, are assigned to find out if the mother has relatives with whom her children can stay while she awaits a hearing. Steeped in the pedagogy of the oppressed, you begin a conversation with the mother about the conditions she has fled and ask how she made the difficult decision to cross Mexico and enter the United States.
You learn that she has bought into the mythologized version of the United States as a land of opportunity and safety, and use your observations of her lived experience so far with the asylum process, as well as your own knowledge of how policy is being implemented, to help her have a realistic vision of what to expect, and of the pervasive nature of oppression. However, you also describe paths forward and the importance of re-establishing a sense of community, perhaps through the strong Guatemalan community in Los Angeles. You ask about her culture and its strengths, suggesting that through her grounding in her syncretism of Mayan belief and Catholicism, she may hold onto a sense of cultural identity that will help her stay strong for herself and her children.
All the while, as you embody being both student and teacher and as you help this mother gain critical distance, you treat her as the subject of her story that she is, rather than an object. How can she use her past experiences, her values, and her individual strengths to go forward? You also treat her children as subjects, learning their names and ages and asking them about how they have been helpful on the journey, what they hope to learn in school, and what strengths they will use to face an uncertain future.
Finally, we turn to NTU Psychotherapy as an example of a deeply thought out expression of indigenous philosophy in the modern context of the therapeutic relationship. Whether we ascribe specifically to an Afrocentric value system or not, what can we learn from this approach? The case example from Phillips (1990) could be recast as a good example of an effective combination of humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, and systemic therapy. One could rename the principles and stages of the therapy process with more Eurocentric terminology. But in this reductive process, something central would be lost: the ineffable, intangible quality of communion, of energetic alignment. It’s not that communion between client and social worker, client and the spiritual, and social worker and the spiritual are exclusively products of African worldviews. It’s that NTU psychotherapy makes central and explicit the role of this communion/alignment as ground, path and fruition of the work. There is the sense that the waters run deep and wide and, if the social worker lets them, they will carry both themselves and the client to a new place where more authentic being is possible.
Summary
It can be challenging to evaluate integrated programs to determine what makes them successful, given that any dismantling to identify the active ingredients would violate the whole. One commonality among the Ho’oponopono, NTU and Circle of Courage approaches is that rely on a comprehensive, culturally rooted vision of what it means to live a good, whole life. Perhaps one of the broader lessons from our exploration of indigenous healing traditions is that they are prescriptive: they offer guidance and wisdom. Western psychotherapeutic theories and social work theories may be strengths-based, but they either shy away from specific value systems or couch them in generic humanistic principles. By offering specific language and relating concepts of the good life into a clearly organized framework, indigenous healing creates an effective set of catalyzers: a philosophical system to guide decisions; a set of practices that connect one to the spiritual realm and to human relationships; and a communal identity that defeats isolation and oppression.
References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press.
Gregory, S. D., & Phillips, F. B. (1997). “Of Mind, Body, and Spirit”: Therapeutic foster care—An innovative approach to healing from an NTU perspective. Child Welfare 76(1), 127-142.
Yalom, I. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Basic Books.
1
Part1: Mindfulness Intervention Research
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Introduction
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is used to enhance the emotional stability of trauma victims. It is also used to mitigate stress among employees working in stressful conditions, such as nurses. Through MBSR, clients learn to take charge of their emotions, physical sensations, and actions and refrain from self-criticism. Some practices involved in mindfulness training are breathing practices, yoga, and meditation. The mind is trained to focus on things that promote the self. The technique is pivotal in addressing traumatic stress because it allows clients to deal with difficult situations. It enhances individual awareness, self-compassion, and self-regulation.
The research paper focuses on the published articles on Mindfulness intervention in mitigating traumatizing conditions. The selected population is sexual abuse survivors. Sexual abuse survivors experience trauma after the incident and criticize themselves for what happened. They develop low self-esteem and perceive themselves as unable to take control of their environment. The literature review will establish how different MBSR approaches have addressed trauma among the population. The goal is to identify the gaps in the studies and address them.
Research Question
Is mind-body practice intervention effective in reducing PTSD symptoms among sexual abuse survivors?
Literature Review
The literature review analyzes various MBSR interventions addressing trauma among sexual abuse survivors. The studies have assessed the effectiveness of different mindfulness interventions such as meditation, mind bond practices, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Also, the analyzed studies use different research methods, data collection approaches, and research participants. The review aims to understand the various mindfulness interventions’ effectiveness in treating PTSD symptoms. The particular focus is on mind-body practice intervention.
Scholars have published various articles on the mindfulness-based stress reduction approach. (Kimbrough et al., 2009) assessed the effectiveness of mindfulness intervention on child abuse survivors. The study consisted of 27 adult survivors who had been victims of sexual abuse during their childhood. The type of mindfulness intervention used was meditation-based Stress Reduction (MBSR). The meditation training program was undertaken in 8 weeks. The participants also undertook three refresher follow-up classes at 24 weeks (Kimbrough et al., 2009). The participants were assessed for depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and mindfulness at four weeks, 8, and 24 weeks (Kimbrough et al., 2009). The results showed that the depressive symptoms had declined by 65% at eight weeks, and statistical significance was observed in all outcomes.
The study is crucial for the research paper in many ways. First, the authors studied mindfulness intervention for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (Kimbrough et al., 2009). Secondly, the authors used the meditation mindfulness approach. Meditation is one of the various forms of mindfulness intervention. The data analysis results show that meditation training helps in improving the emotional stability of sexual abuse survivors (Kimbrough et al., 2009). The study’s weakness is using a small sample size whose results could be invalid. The article reveals how different mindfulness training approaches reduce trauma for the research.
A different study was done by (Burrows 2013). The author focused on the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) form of mindfulness intervention. The study involved one adult participant who was a victim of sexual abuse. The study aimed to determine the efficacy of ACT with trauma survivors suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The study results showed that ACT was highly impactful in mitigating experiential avoidance and thought suppression (Burrows, 2013). It also increased the feeling of personal worth and enhanced self-awareness. The study is vital in expanding the knowledge of various mindfulness interventions in reducing stress. Its focus was on the ACT, one of the various forms of mindfulness intervention. However, the author uses one participant, which could invalidate the findings.
The researchers analyzed the effectiveness of their approaches in reducing PTSD symptoms among survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The study differs from the one conducted by (Kimbrough et al., 2009). While the author evaluated the efficacy of ACT in reducing PTSD symptoms, (Kimbrough et al., 2009) analyzed the effectiveness of meditation stress reduction on PTSD. Secondly, the study by (Kimbrough et al., 2009) had 27 adult participants, while (Burrows, 2013) used one participant. However, both studies had the same population and findings. Both forms of mindfulness interventions (ACT and meditation training) proved to effectively mitigate the impacts of stress.
Another form of mindfulness intervention is yoga. Many studies have explored the effectiveness of yoga sessions in reducing PTSD symptoms among different populations. In particular, (Crews et al., 2016) researched the use of yoga to build self-compassion as a healing method for survivors of sexual violence. The study was qualitative and involved eight female survivors of sexual violence. The participants were aged between 13 and60 years old that were selected through convenience sampling. Participation was voluntary, and participants were allowed to withdraw at any point. In the yoga sessions, the participants posed their bodies that appealed to them and were allowed to rest anytime. Data from participants were collected using interviews and analyzed using the self-compassion model. The findings revealed that yoga sessions effectively reduce PSTD symptoms and bolster emotional stability. The authors found that through yoga, the women who had dissociated their body from mind changed their attitude and rediscovered their worth. The study’s only limitation is convenience sampling that resulted in the use of participants from one agency. Future studies should incorporate diversity in the study. In terms of relevance, the study’s findings are crucial in advocating for yoga practices.
The study compares differently with other reviewed articles. (Crews et al., 2016) analyzed the effectiveness of yoga sessions in reducing PTSD while (Burrows, 2013) focused on the ACT approach. On the other hand, (Kimbrough et al., 2009) use the meditation approach. The nature of participants also differs. The study by (Crew et al., 2016) used both children and adults, while (Burrows, 2013; Kimbrough et al., 2009) used adult participants only.
Nevertheless, the studies show that mindfulness interventions effectively reduce trauma among the victims. Participants subjected to ACT, meditation and yoga indicated increased mental stability and emotional awareness. The findings prove the robustness of mindfulness interventions suppressing the impacts of PTSD.
More studies on yoga practices and their usefulness in treating PTSD have been published. (Van der Kolk et al., 2014) researched the efficacy of yoga in treating PTSD using a randomized control trial study methodology. The participants were women who had survived other interpersonal violence such as sexual abuse. The study involved 60 participants assigned randomly to either trauma-informed yoga or supportive women’s health education (Van der Kolk et al., 2014). They attended either session once per week for ten weeks, and each session took one hour. The outcomes for both groups were measured using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. After the intervention period, 52%) in the yoga group no longer met the criteria for PTSD compared to 6 of 29 (21%) in the control group (Van der Kolk et al., 2014). However, there was a significant decrease in PTSD disorders. The findings show that yoga practice significantly decreases PTSD symptoms among survivors of sexual abuse. The findings align with other studies showing reduced PTSD symptoms after mindfulness interventions are implemented (Crews et al., 2016; Kimbrough et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2013).
Mindfulness interventions are also used to help women who succumb to sexual abuse due to the nature of their abuse. In particular, women who serve in the military are exposed to sexual abuse. (Braun et al., 2021) researched the effectiveness of trauma-informed yoga in helping veteran women survivors of sexual abuse. The study comprised of women survivors of sexual abuse in the military. The study was conducted at the New England Vet Center in the United States. The authors used the Mindful Yoga Therapy intervention to deal with PTSD symptoms after sexual abuse. The results showed that women participants embraced Mindful Yoga Therapy (MYT) in dealing with traumatic experiences. They reported improved self-compassion and awareness after the MYT. The MYT sessions are therefore essential in improving survivors’ self-awareness and compassion. The study’s findings are relevant for the research paper as they contribute to the general knowledge on the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in reducing PTSD symptoms.
The study findings are similar to those of other scholars. All the authors accept that mindfulness interventions such as yoga and meditation can reduce PTSD symptoms, promoting self-awareness and compassion among sexual abuse survivors. However, like other studies, (Braun et al., 2021) used a smaller sample size to conduct the study. Also, there is a lack of diversity in participants. They are all women from the military. Further research studies should consider the effectiveness of the yoga practice in reducing stress among participants of diverse work settings.
Mind-body practice interventions also help to mitigate the impacts of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. These practices focus on activities that engage the mind to impact physical functioning and improve health. (Kim et al., 2013) conducted a systematic review of various studies on mind-body practice to determine the efficacy of the intervention in dealing with PTSD. The articles included in their study were retrieved from PubMed, PsycINFO, and Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress academic databases (Kim et al., 2013). Some of the authors analyzed mind-body practices are yoga, tai chi, qigong, mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation, and deep breathing, as interventions for PTSD (Kim et al., 2013). A total of 16 studies were eligible for the research. They found that most of the published articles showed that mind-body practices effectively reduce PTSD symptoms such as anxiety and aggression. The study helps understand the different practices that can be implemented to deal with PTSD among sexual abuse survivors (Kim et al., 2013). The systematic review findings agree with other studies on the role of mind-body practice in helping sexual abuse survivors.
Summary of the Literature Review and Main Gaps
There are various mindfulness interventions. They include mind-body practices, ACT, and meditation, among others. The studies show that mindfulness interventions significantly decrease PTSD symptoms among sexual abuse survivors. Therefore, social workers and organizations can implement mindfulness interventions to deal with PTSD symptoms. One of the gaps identified from the review of various articles is smaller sample sizes. There is a need for studies that can use more participants to make their findings more robust. Also, studies using different research methodologies besides randomized control trials are needed to support further the usefulness of mindfulness interventions in reducing PTSD symptoms.
References
Braun, T. D., Uebelacker, L. A., Ward, M., Holzhauer, C. G., McCallister, K., & Abrantes, A. (2021). “we really need this”: Trauma-informed yoga for veteran women with a history of military sexual trauma. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 59, 102729.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2021.102729
Burrows, C. J. (2013). Acceptance and commitment therapy with survivors of adult sexual assault. Clinical Case Studies, 12(3), 246–259.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1534650113479652
Crews, D. A., Stolz-Newton, M., & Grant, N. S. (2016). The use of yoga to build self-compassion as a healing method for survivors of sexual violence. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 35(3), 139–156.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2015.1067583
Kim, S. H., Schneider, S. M., Kravitz, L., Mermier, C., & Burge, M. R. (2013). Mind-body practices for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Investigative Medicine, 61(5), 827–834.
https://doi.org/10.2310/jim.0b013e3182906862
Kimbrough, E., Magyari, T., Langenberg, P., Chesney, M., & Berman, B. (2009). Mindfulness intervention for child abuse survivors. Journal of Clinical Psychology.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20624
Van der Kolk, B. A., Stone, L., West, J., Rhodes, A., Emerson, D., Suvak, M., & Spinazzola, J. (2014). Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 75(06).
https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.13m08561
1
TheMedicine Wheel: Written Assignment
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The Medicine Wheel
The Medicine Wheel gives alternative guidance and support for continuing healing and change. It draws attention away from the Western healing techniques to Native approaches. The medicine wheel provides means through which Indigenous people can attain the good life (Absolon, 2010). The paper illustrates the application of the Medicine Wheel concept using the case of Andrew Robert. The paper uses the four quadrants of East, South, West, and North to show the interconnectedness of different issues. Through the Medicine Wheel, I analyze how Robert has been oppressed and can come out of the oppression.
Case Overview
Robert is an immigrant from Mexico. He moved to the United States in 2001 and resided in Arizona before moving to New Mexico, where he has lived since 2013. He is forty-three years old. While in Arizona, he got married to a Native American girlfriend in 2003, who was aged seventeen years. They both had three children, two sons and a daughter. However, their marriage did not last long after Robert’s wife discovered that he was using illicit drugs (cocaine). That was after Robert continuously showed a lack of concern to his wife since marriage and often threatened to kill her and the children.
Robert admits to using the drugs. After the divorce, her wife moved on and remarried another man. She took the children to foster care, and the eldest son was transferred to his father in 2019. After the breakup, Robert became more addicted to cocaine use and has yet to recover from the mess. During our first meeting, he reported having difficulties trying to stop cocaine use, which forces him to use the drug. On the other hand, he reports having not enrolled in any social security program. He works as a shop attendant, from where he gets income to sustain his basic needs only.
1st Quadrant: East
The quadrant is characterized by visioning. People transition from the spiritual world to the physical earth. It marks the beginning of life, rebirth, or rejuvenation. Notably, according to Absolon (2010), visioning requires one to see the past, the present, and envision the future. To understand the client’s situation, it is essential to reflect on Mexicans’ discrimination and segregation in the United States since 1846. Regarding segregation, most immigrants from Mexico lived in segregated places. Whites migrated from neighborhoods where the number of Mexican immigrants increased (Pérez-Soria, 2017). They were confined to petty jobs that had little to no pay. Most of them worked for Native American farmers on large plantations for lower wages.
From that period of the Mexican-American war, immigrants were restricted to precarious conditions that raised debates within the United States. Most immigrant discrimination in the host country is presently based on the language, legal statuses, and documentation (Pérez-Soria, 2017). Mexican immigrants also face discrimination at the workplace, public spaces, and schools. With treatment, various research studies show that immigrants less embrace alcohol and drug treatment approaches in the United States. Some of the reasons leading to the trend are that the strategies deployed do not consider the gendered- and sociocultural factors that govern treatment-seeking and engagement behaviors (Valdez et al., 2018).
The question that can help understand Robert’s current situation is; what are the impacts of immigrant discrimination on their ability to start a new life and envision the future? Immigrant discrimination has immense implications on immigrants. It creates a sense of hopelessness in their lives. Their past makes them believe that their future is pre-determined and that, however, their efforts will not change their situation. In this context, as a Mexican immigrant, Robert may have difficulties stopping drug use because of the desperateness caused by his immigrant status. Consequently, practitioners can treat immigrants by restoring their hopes and sense of control over their future. They need reassurance that they can control their environment.
2nd Quadrant: South
The south is accompanied by a feeling of renewal in one’s life and incorporates relational and emotional aspects. Absolon (2010) notes that “relationships can extend to humans, the natural and spiritual world” and recognizes “kinship systems and their relationship connections” in the southern doorway. Besides the relatives, the immediate community is a critical factor in the healing and recovery process through the principles of collaboration and empowerment (Absolon, 2010).
The southern doorway is critical in understanding the current state of Robert’s persistent challenge of drug abuse. The question that can help reflect on his situation is; what has the family and community done to help him get out of the drug abuse habit? In terms of family, Robert is an immigrant who moved to America and left all his relatives in Mexico. Before the divorce, he had her wife and children who could help in his recovery process. However, the breakup made him lose his wife, who later remarried, and his children, who were taken to foster care. Robert also finds difficulties relating with community members due to existing stereotypes about using illicit drugs. In many instances, the public associates drug addicts with violence.
Consequently, Robert could be facing rejection from his community. The dismissal from the community could make him depressed, stressed, and anxious. These conditions force him to use more drugs. Also, as an immigrant, he could be facing discrimination in accessing healthcare services . Therefore, the social workers must understand Robert’s relationship with the family and community to offer the best healing and recovery solution.
3rd Quadrant: West
According to Absolon (2010), the Western doorway encompasses teachings of the ancestors, the mind, and respect. It is concerned with knowledge and knowledge of creation (Absolon, 2010). Furthermore, the Western doorway directs attention towards the political arena to understand the politics of colonization and its impact on Indigeniety, governance, livelihood, subsistence, freedom, land bases, and living an Indigenous way of life (Absolon, 2010).
The Western doorway can help practitioners in determining the current Robert’s status. The two critical aspects in evaluating his situation are politics and policies. The question that can enhance understanding of Robert’s condition is; how do the current American politics and policies contribute to immigrants’ mental and physical wellness? From a historical standpoint, immigrants form one of the most marginalized minority groups in the United States. The vast disparities in academic attainment, poverty levels, and health wellness indicate the pervasive discrimination against immigrants (Pérez-Soria, 2017). Also, the politicization of the immigration issue in America has created more problems for immigrants. During the Trump administration, the politics were more pronounced when he promised to build a wall across the American and Mexican border. Discriminated individuals are at the receiving end within communities and succumb to social vices such as drug addiction as a way to retaliate against their oppressors.
4th Quadrant: North
The Northern doorway brings forth healing, doing, and movement teachings. The quadrant promotes understanding of repercussions of unsolved challenges both to the victim, immediate community, and society (Absolon, 2010). For Roberts, the pivotal question is, what are the impacts of drug addiction among immigrants?
Drug addiction among immigrants has immense outcomes. First, it sustains the existing stereotype that assumes most illicit drug users are immigrants. Consequently, they become the target of the criminal justice system. Also, drug abuse among immigrants makes them vulnerable to crimes such as robbery and exposes them to health risks such as cancer. The social workers can develop different treatment options to help Robert. First, Robert can be taken to rehabilitation centers to receive more help. Other options include connecting him to professional counselors and helping him find the right friends.
Center
The center is where all the doorways intersect. It creates balance and harmony among all four quadrants. Each doorway affects victims separately despite their interconnectedness. The relationship, emotional and spiritual aspects also have far-reaching consequences (Absolon, 2010). The center assists social workers in analyzing all the issues relating to a client and developing solutions. In Robert’s case, it is essential to explore how his immigration status affected his family life and his drug addiction challenge. Also, the politicization of immigration issues can explain the existing immigrant discrimination in public and private spaces.
Process Commentary and Application
The analysis of health-related issues using the Medicine Wheel is a helpful process that enables social workers to understand clients’ problems holistically. From the case overview on Robert, the leading health concern for the client is drug addiction. However, through the Medicine Wheel approach, I found many factors that might be contributing to his problem. They include his immigrant status, discrimination, current politics and policies, and community perceptions.
I will apply the Medicine Wheel in many ways. It consists of four quadrants with a center signifying that individuals are surrounded by different factors that contribute to a whole. In that context, I will use the Medicine Wheel to identify the various elements around clients that contribute to their problems. During the healing process, I will address all the threats to clients’ health as established in the Medicine Wheel. Some issues around an individual that may cause a health problem include lower or no incomes, lower academic attainment, unemployment, and discrimination. Diseases such as PTSD results from feelings of isolation associated with biasness in the immediate community. Only through a holistic approach can clients receive the best treatment.
References
Absolon, K. (2010). Indigenous wholistic theory: A knowledge set for practice. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 5(2), 74-87.
Pérez-Soria, J. (2017). Mexican immigrants in the United States: A review of the literature on integration, segregation and discrimination. ESTUDIOS FRONTERIZOS, 18(37), 1–17.
https://doi.org/10.21670/ref.2017.37.a01
Valdez, L. A., Garcia, D. O., Ruiz, J., Oren, E., & Carvajal, S. (2018). Exploring structural, sociocultural, and individual barriers to alcohol abuse treatment among Hispanic men. American Journal of Men’s Health, 12(6), 1948–1957.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988318790882
