Fractured connections: migration and holistic models of counselling

Abstract

In this article we aim to explore those points at which migrant identity and landscape intersect. We also consider implications for holistic models of counselling with migrant groups. The New Zealand migration literature was the starting point to consider how and why the experience of migration has been studied. We asked how collective biography might work as a way to research questions about our relationship with this new land and its indigenous people. Following feminist and post-structural influences, we shared a sequence of memories of geographical transitions in a structured sequence. We used poetic representation and photographs, in addition to prose, to express what was often experience beyond words. Subsequently we have reflected on how memory work in collective biography and indigenous, holistic models of wellness might add to ways of working therapeutically with migrants.

Keywords:

• migration
• collective biography
• landscape
• holistic therapies
• Aotearoa New Zealand
• therapy