Healing the Soul Wound : Trauma-Informed Counseling for Indigenous Communities

“The approaches discussed in this work are truly liberating and healing as they encompass the wisdom and respect for the diverse cultures of the world and their religions and spiritual traditions.”

—Spiritual Psychology and Counseling

In this groundbreaking book, Eduardo Duran—a psychologist working in Indian country—draws on his own clinical experience to provide guidance to counselors working with Native Peoples and other vulnerable populations.

This second edition includes an important new chapter devoted to working with veterans, examining what it means to go to war and what is required for veterans to heal. Duran also updates his thinking on research, including suggestions on how to invent a new liberation research methodology through applied story science. Translating theory into day-to-day practice, the text presents case materials that illustrate effective intervention strategies for prevalent problems, including substance abuse, intergenerational trauma, and internalized oppression.

This unique resource explores theoretical Indigenous understanding of cosmology and how understanding natural law can lead us to new ways of understanding and healing the psyche.

Book Features:

• Offers a culture-specific approach that has profound implications for all counseling, therapy, and trauma-informed care.
• Provides invaluable concepts and strategies that can be applied directly to practice.
• Outlines very different ways of serving American Indian clients, translating Western metaphor into Indigenous ideas that make sense to Native People.
• Presents a model in which patients have a relationship with the problems they are having, whether these are physical, mental, or spiritual. This model can be used with any population dealing with the legacy of trauma and with all individuals who present symptoms and complications resulting from trauma.
• Includes a section in each chapter to help non–American Indian counselors generalize the concepts presented to use in their own practice in culturally sensitive ways.