Since our founding in 2006, the NNCTC has been part of many system-level, community-level, and national conversations about the role that historical trauma plays in the perpetuation of other traumas and in the overall mental health of Indigenous individuals, families, and communities. We are proud to have helped shine a light on this basic framework for understanding the experiences of many Indigenous communities and families, but we are also aware that little guidance exists in the psychological literature for engaging with clients on the subject of historical trauma. Clinicians may harm clients by dismissing or minimizing historical trauma as a factor in their wellbeing or the wellbeing of their families and communities. At the same time, practitioners may be unsure of how to inquire about the subject, especially if they do not share a cultural affiliation with their clients.
NNCTC’s Director, Dr. Maegan Rides At The Door, recently coauthored a chapter addressing this subject in the 7th Edition of Drs. John and Rita Sommers-Flanagan’s Clinical Interviewing, a leading textbook for psychology and clinical mental health graduate students. We encourage you to review the whole book, especially if you are an instructor who teaches the subject. Chapter 11, “Diagnosis and Treatment Planning,” features Dr. Rides At The Door’s contribution in a section on clinical interviewing about historical trauma. Her guidance includes adaptation of an interview guide offering lines of inquiry that may be appropriate for eliciting important information about a client’s individual, family, and community experiences connected with historical trauma.
The book is available for sale through the website of the publisher, John Wiley and Sons.
If you are aware of other resources that provide guidance for clinicians on historical trauma, or if you would like to talk further about this subject, please don’t hesitate to email Dr. Rides At The Door.