Does Emotion Focused Therapy have a place in healing Intergenerational Trauma for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia?

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Can the genocide of a people and the destruction of cultural systems torn apart by colonisation be repaired?  Can the trauma of generations of disrupted parental attachment be healed? Can the deep sorrow, fear, rage and grief be heard and harnessed and give meaning to years of coping behaviors? 

First Nations Peoples of the World have held a strong balanced relationship with the country they lived on and cared for since the beginning stories of our Dreaming. These relationships were harmonious and respectful of many complex environmental, social, emotional and spiritual knowledge systems. Colonisation interrupted these systems, ruptured attachments and silenced the emotional expression for many Aboriginal people. A therapy that holds attachment and systems theory and making sense of emotional expression may help heal our deep wounds.

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Kelleigh Ryan, a psychologist, is a descendant of the Kabi Kabi people of South-East Queensland and the Australian South Sea Islanders with connections to the people of the Loyalty Islands on her mother’s side. She provides psychological consultancy around Trauma Response and Healing for communities and individuals across Australia for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous clients. .