Settler may benefit from therapy: Lorien S. Jordan, ‘Unsettling colonial mentalities in family therapy: Entering negotiated spaces’, Family Therapy, 2021 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler may benefit from therapy: Lorien S. Jordan, ‘Unsettling colonial mentalities in family therapy: Entering negotiated spaces’, Family Therapy, 2021

03Dec21

Abstract: This article discusses the settler colonial roots of family therapy, positing that much of what is considered the standard or ideal family form comes from colonialism. Utilising settler colonial theory as a guide, I identify how the colonial nations, built through the violent exclusion of Indigenous and exogenous peoples, utilised the family to further their goals. Rather than suggest settler colonialism was an historic event, I consider how it continues today, privileging white families of European descent. To move the conversation forward on how white therapists from majoritised cultures can engage with racialised clients, I describe the negotiated spaces as a meeting ground where therapists and clients navigate differing worldviews. In these negotiations, our clients trust us, and to be accountable to this trust, we can unsettle the influence of settler colonialism. To conclude this paper, I discuss four possible pathways to begin the complicated process of unsettling.

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