Integrating Curanderismo into counselling and psychotherapy

Abstract

The use of ceremonies, characteristic of many Indigenous healing systems, is an area from which Western psychotherapy still has much to gain. The purpose of this paper is to support the potential for integrating the Indigenous practice of Curanderismo, Mexican traditional healing, into Western psychotherapy by examining three areas of similarity. Throughout each area of similarity, the psychotherapeutic qualities of ceremonial intervention will be explained using research from both Western psychotherapy and Curanderismo. Finally, four processes from Mexican traditional healing and Western psychotherapy will be compared across these areas of similarity to further illustrate the potential for integration.

Keywords:

• Curanderismo
• ceremony
• transference
• countertransference
• traditional healing

Acknowledgments

Portions of this paper were presented separately at the 5th Annual Critical Multicultural Counselling and Psychotherapy Conference at the University of Toronto. Acknowledgement is given to both Dr Roy Moodley for his help in organizing this research collaboration and the Graduate Student Association's Individual Research and Conference Grants committee at Boston College for their support of this research.

Declaration of interest : The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.