AT-A-GLANCE
Members of the Yale First Nation.
Community Counselling Fund
What This Grantee Is Doing for Community Counselling
The Yale First Nation (YFN) is a self-governing community with the responsibility to steward their traditional lands, and promote, preserve and protect their languages and cultures. YFN is dedicated to improving the health, safety and well-being of our members by creating the conditions for greater health and prosperity at the individual, family and community levels.
CAI's Community Counselling Fund supports the addition of a Traditional Healer and counsellor who runs group sessions and events, and meets with clients via phone, video and in-person. Culture is interwoven into YFN's counselling approach, including land-based activities and traditional somatic work.
Quote
"Due to a loss of culture and traditional practices because of colonialism and attempted assimilation, many of our Nation's people are thirsty for connection but aren't sure where to begin. There's been a strong response from our community to access the Healers. Many do not know what to expect from their first session. Our Healers approach counselling using traditional healing mixed with contemporary counselling approaches - body work, talking, and teaching traditional ways of healing our emotions. While we've done a lot of work in the past to connect with the most obviously vulnerable (those on disability or income assistance, or those accessing medical assistance), we've done a disservice to our people that may appear to be less "at risk,"such as those holding jobs or participating in active social lives. The serendipitous result has been people from all walks-of-life having an interest in traditional healing. Or, for some people, they've told us they always wanted counselling but couldn't afford it so they gave this a try. Anyone who has accessed it has returned for further sessions. We've also never offered family services and we now have a few family groups that access our Healers on a regular basis."