Women and Gender Studies (WGST) 305

Overview

WGST 305: Decolonizing Mental Health critically examines the decolonization of mental health through Indigenous theories, knowledges, and clinical practices. Students will begin by grounding themselves in their own social location, and throughout the course, they will analyze the impact of identity on mental health and on access to culturally safe care. By identifying the continued influence of settler colonization on mental health and its institutions, the course aims to deconstruct taken-for-granted Western notions of psychological wellness. Students will further consider the relationship of gender and sexuality to colonization and mental health, with an emphasis on women’s and Two-Spirit people’s lived experiences. Diverse Indigenous therapeutic approaches, storytelling, and art practice are explored to provide contemporary examples of holistic Indigenous healing, resistance, and resurgence. While WGST 305 focuses on culturally competent counselling and trauma work with Indigenous people, it also analyzes the effect of white settler benevolence in several helping professions, including social work, health care, criminal justice, and education. Students will leave this course with the ability to effectively apply principles of decolonizing mental health to their own lives, relationships, communities, and careers.

Outline

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• identify the historical, intergenerational, and contemporary impact of colonization and colonial pathologization on Indigenous people’s mental health,
• apply critical and self-reflexive understandings of identity and positionality as they relate to decolonizing mental health,
• describe a wide diversity of applied Indigenous healing approaches to counselling, therapy, and trauma work,
• appraise the value, critiques, and efficacy of decolonizing mental health through decolonial and postcolonial theories,
• recognize how gender and sexuality are affected by colonization while centring Indigenous women’s and Two-Spirit people’s resistance,
• identify theories of Indigenous resurgence through contemporary Indigenous artists, storytelling, and applied art practice, and
• examine and challenge white benevolence in helping professions, such as social work, education, health care, and criminal justice.

Evaluation

To receive credit for WGST 305: Decolonizing Mental Health, you must complete and submit all of the course assignments and meet participation expectations. You must achieve an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) for the course. The weightings for each activity are as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

Physical course materials

The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:

Gebhard, A., McLean, S., & St. Denis, V. (Eds.). (2022). White benevolence: Racism and colonial violence in the helping professions. Fernwood Publishing.

Linklater, R. (2014). Decolonizing trauma work: Indigenous stories and strategies. Fernwood Publishing.

Mailhot, T. M. (2018). Heart berries: A memoir. Anchor Canada.

Nahanee, T. M. L. (2020). Decolonize first: A liberating guide & workbook for peeling back the layers of neocolonialism. Nahanee Creative.

Whitehead, J. (2018). Jonny Appleseed: A novel. Arsenal Pulp Press.

Other Material

All other materials for this course can be found online.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

To receive credit for the WGST 305 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) or greater on three written assignments. You must pass Part A: Social Location Reflection to coninue to Part B: Photovoice Project. Then you must pass Part B to continue to Part C: Two Major Research Essays. Credit is awarded on a pass/fail basis only.

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