Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Processes: Culturally-Syntonic Practice for "PEaCE" with Diverse Clients

Communal, Contemplative,
and Empowerment Processes:
Culturally-Syntonic Practice for
“PEaCE” with Diverse Clients
Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.
California Psychological Association
Annual Convention
Irvine, CA
April 16, 2016

How do we meaningfully integrate
culture and context into
psychotherapy conceptualization
and intervention?
A Longstanding Challenge for Mental
Health Practitioners…
Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
Ph.D. All Rights Reserved
2

Culture and Professional Practice
APA Ethical Principles for Psychologists
APA Evidence-based Practice for
Psychologists
APA Multicultural Guidelines
3

Multicultural Psychology 101
1. Terminology (Race, Ethnicity, and Culture)
2. The “Culture” of Psychology
3. Research Methodology and Culture
4. Dynamics of Difference
5. Racial and Ethnic Identity
6. Racial, Ethnic, Cultural Socialization
7. Sociopolitical and Sociohistorical Context
8. Immigration, Refugee, Colonization, Genocide, and Slavery Experiences
9. Acculturation, Assimilation, Biculturation, Alienation
10. Collectivism, Communalism, and the Interdependent Self
11. Worldview and Culture
12. Indigenous Psychologies
13. Intersectionality and Ecological Niche
14. Implicit bias
15. Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination and Oppression
16. Stereotype Threat research
17. Racism-related Stress: episodic life events, chronic, microaggressions, vicarious, transgenerational
18. The Physical and Mental Health Effects of Racism
19. Internalized Racism and Colorism
20. White Privilege
21. Intergroup Relations and the Dynamics of Difference
22. Liberation Psychology and the role of Social Justice in Psychotherapeutic Interventions
23. Critical Consciousness
24. Language and Psychotherapy
25. EBPP and Cultural Diversity
26. Culture and Theoretical Orientation
27. Culturally-Adapted and Culturally-Centered Interventions
Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D. All
Rights Reserved
4

We know culture is important but
what should we actually DO with it in
our work?
How has your awareness and
knowledge of culture specifically
impacted how you practice?
5

INTENTION
Provide opportunities to feel and experience
the dynamics of cultural diversity
Provide ways of thinking about the meaningful
integration of culture into our work
 Culturally-Syntonic Practice
Provide conceptual and intervention tools for
the meaningful integration of culture in our
work
 PEaCE Theory
 Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment
Processes
Provide illustrative examples for us to apply the
tools in our work
6

Three Culturally-Informed Change Processes
Asking questions about three central processes can help us
organize the integration of culture into psychological practice:
Communal Processes (Allies/Alliances)
-How are we strengthening connectedness to others, community, nature,
Spirit, values, culture, a cause, etc. (something bigger than self)?
Contemplative Processes (Awareness)
-How are we enhancing experiential awareness and critical consciousness
of “what is” about self, others, our circumstances, and the world?
Empowerment Processes (Action)
-How are we facilitating creative, committed, liberatory, and/or
transformative action (personally, relationally, and collectively)?
7

How did I arrive at these three
processes?
This talk is an invitation into my
professional journey that landed
me in these three culturally-
informed change processes and
guiding questions
8

A Starting Place
We are all
AT THE SAME TIME
Like ALL others
Like SOME others
Like NO others
(paraphrased and extended from Murray & Kluckhohn)
9

ALL OTHERS Our Common Humanity
SOME OTHERS Our Groups
NO OTHERS Our Unique Individuality
10

“Some” Others
Group Level of Analysis
Where culture lives
Where power and privilege dynamics are
manifested
“Some” others includes:
Like MANY others Majority Group
Like FEW others Minority Group
11

The “Some Others” Challenge
It is a human challenge that shows up in our
therapy rooms with each client we see
It is the challenge of holding similarity and
difference in our hearts and minds
simultaneously
It is about the ongoing and moment-to-moment
dance of connection and disconnection
It is the ultimate challenge to humanity to live in
the world with each other and the greatest
failings of humanity has been our inability to do
this.
 These macro-level failings in the form of genocide,
slavery, colonialism, and oppression live in our
historical and recent collective memory and are
triggered in our micro-level relationships. 12

Why is the “Some Others” part so
difficult?
Why will students openly share many human
vulnerabilities in the service of their professional
development but bristle and lash out when this area
of the human condition is touched?
Why do professors who teach this material get so
much push back and demeaning, accusing, insulting
treatment from some students?
 We have to be willing to be disliked and get poor
evaluations simply by virtue of the material we teach
Why do we collude with our clients’ avoidance of
exploring race and culture while more readily
recognizing the need to help our clients confront
other areas avoidance in their lives?
13

All human encounter is an opportunity to
participate in healing the collective damage of how
difference has been managed in our human history
and the damage that it continues to do
Each encounter confronts us simultaneously with
the human challenge of difference, otherness, and
disconnection and the human need for similarity
and affirmation, visibility, and connection
Part of the challenge is to recognize that all human
encounters include not only opportunities for
healing but the inevitable ways that we participate
in the triggering of the pain and shame of our
human history
What do we do with the “some others” challenge
in our interactions our clients, our students, our
colleagues?Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
14

A Brief Introduction
Teaching and training therapists and students
about culture, ethnicity, and race for over 25 years
 Consultant for Museum of Tolerance
 CSPP- Former Director of the Multicultural-Community
emphasis on the LA campus and co-developed the
pioneering Intercultural Laboratory class over 20 years
ago
 Professor at Pepperdine where I have taught Cross-
Cultural Counseling and Multicultural Psychotherapy
Research: racism-related stress, culture and well-
being
15

The Three Processes and Questions Again
-How are we strengthening connectedness to others, community, nature,
Spirit, values, culture, a cause, etc. (something bigger than self)?
-How are we enhancing experiential awareness and critical consciousness
of “what is” about self, others , our circumstances, and the world?
16

Continuing the Journey
How can I best train therapists to
integrate culture meaningfully in their
professional practice?
Central premise: The person is
inseparable from culture and context
The dilemma: We don’t have many
theories of human behavior that
EXPLICITLY include culture in a central
role in psychological processes
17

Terminology for Incorporating Culture
Culturally-Sensitive
Culturally-Appropriate
Culturally-Relevant
Culturally-Intentional
Culturally-Adaptive
Culturally-Alert
Culturally-Responsive
Culturally-Congruent
Culturally-Competent
Culturally-Centered
Culturally-Infused
Cultural Humility
Cultural Attunement (Falicov)
Cultural Resonance (Trimble)
Culturally-Syntonic Practice (Harrell, 2008)
18

Why Culturally “Syntonic”?
 Syn – with or together
 From the Greek “suntonos”-- in harmony with – Collins English Dictionary
 Emotionally in harmony with one’s environment -Collins English
Dictionary
 Normally responsive and adaptive to the social or
interpersonal environment -Merriam Webster’s Medical Dictionary
 In emotional equilibrium and responsive to the environment
–YourDictionary.com
 Describes somebody who is normally attuned to the
environment; used to describe behavior that does not
conflict with somebody’s basic attitudes and beliefs –Microsoft Encarta
College Dictionary
 Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness
to the environment; Of or relating to two oscillating circuits
having the same resonant frequency -American Heritage Dictionary
19

Culturally-Syntonic Practice
(Harrell, 2008/2011)
Psychological practice characterized by relational,
behavioral, and experiential processes
that reflect attunement, harmony, and
resonance
with relevant dimensions of collective cultural
contexts (sociocultural processes) and their
individual expressions (psychocultural
processes)
such that engagement with, and the
effectiveness of, interventions is enhanced and
optimized.
20

Common but Non-Culturally
Syntonic Approaches to
Considering Culture
Cultural Categorization (The Cookbook)
Asian client = significance of shame
If I can label you then I can treat you
Cultural Difference
“You’re Black and I’m White”
Who is this for, the therapist or the client?
21

Culturally-Syntonic Practice Strategies
Three approaches:
Culturally-Adapted - Start with presumably
universal constructs, strategies and methods
and then make cultural adaptations
Culturally-Specific – Start with the specific
ecological culture and design strategies that
emerge from constructs relevant to the target
group (e.g., NTU Psychotherapy)
Culturally-Centered - Start with constructs,
strategies and methods that emerge from
multicultural considerations (e.g., cultural
identity) and then integrate culturally-syntonic
processes as appropriate
22
Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved

Helpful Frameworks for
Culturally-Syntonic Practice
Diversity Principles and Orienting stances
(Harrell and Bond, 2006)
Contextualized Understanding
Informed Compassion
Empowered Humility
Dynamics of difference (5 Ds)
23

5 Ds of Difference (Harrell, 1995)
Ways we attempt to resolve the anxiety
and cognitive dissonance that difference
creates
Distancing
Denial
Defensiveness
Devaluaing
Discovery
24

So…
What is CULTURE anyway?
25

Culture is…
 The multiple organizing systems of meaning and living in the
world that
 consist of patterns of being, believing, bonding, belonging,
behaving, and becoming which provide the foundational
frames for developing worldviews, interpreting reality, and
acting in the world
 for a group of people who share common ancestry, social
location, group identity, or defining experiential contexts; but
for whom, as individuals or intersectional subgroups,
elements of a particular cultural system may be embraced,
internalized, and expressed differentially.
 emerge and transform through cumulative and adaptation-
oriented person-environment transactions over time
 are maintained and transmitted through collective memory,
narrative, and socialization processes
26

Culture is…
The patterns, rhythms, and ways of:
Being (identity, self, and experiential processes)
Believing (values, meanings, and worldview)
Bonding (attachment and relational processes)
Belonging (community and group processes)
Behaving (actions, agency, daily living)
Becoming (transformation and healing)
27

Culture is…
Manifested in:
 language, communication styles, emotional
expression, interpersonal behaviors, social
roles, ideas of health and illness, health and
healing practices, institutional structures,
organizational policies and practices,
ideologies, aesthetics, customs and normative
behaviors, rituals, symbols, and physical
artifacts.
28

Culture is…
embedded in social and institutional contexts,
internalized as patterns of meaning and identity,
expressed through actions and relationships in
the context of power dynamics at multiple LOA,
and
interactive with co-existing cultural systems that
reflect the multiple dimensions of human diversity
that carry culture.
29

Culture is…
“What everybody knows that everybody else knows”
Culture is LIVED and not always easily
articulated by members of the culture-carrying
group
Cultural socialization is about transmitting
“norms” so it is not something that is distinct
from daily life
“Tell me about your culture” may not always
yield complete or sufficient data.
Often only recognized in contrast which is why
“minority” groups may be more aware of culture.
Rights Reserved
30

 We are exposed to and internalize multiple
cultural influences which intersect in particular
ways and are woven into
 Identity
 Narratives
 Memory
 Behaviors
 Preferences
31
The Integrative and Foundational
Role of Culture
Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.
All Rights Reserved

Culture, Power, & Privilege
Some ways of being, believing, bonding,
belonging, behaving, and becoming are
more valued than others
We need to be aware of the
internalization of dominant cultural
narratives of what is acceptable,
desirable, healthy, “normal”
Impact on the non-dominant group
Impact on the dominant group
Implications for therapy
32

CORE IDEA: Cultural-Infusion
Culture is infused all elements of the
multiple systems involved in human
functioning:
-BIO: Genetic, physiological, neurological,
biochemical
-PSYCHO: Mental, emotional, behavioral,
identity, meaning-making processes
-RELATIONAL: Close interpersonal relationships
-SOCIO: Group and community social contexts
-ECOLOGICAL: Institutions, organizations,
environments, settings, macrosystem contextsCopyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
33

Need a Theory!
The influence of culture in all of these
aspect of human functioning has
tremendous empirical support
However, there is no general psychological
theory that EXPLICITLY names culture as a
central feature of psychological
functioning
This makes it easy to marginalize it or
consider it an “add-on”
34

Where is Culture in Psychological
Theory?
On the margins
Consideration of culture as an “add-on”
inevitably privileges the dominant status
quo and existing structures of power
and inequality that maintain
asymmetries in health and wellness
Collusion with the dynamics of
oppression in contemporary
psychological theory and practice occurs
primarily through omission
35

Person-Environment-and-Culture-
Emergence (PEaCE) Theory
Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence
Theory is offered as a response to the
challenge of more fully incorporating the
contextualized and culturally-embedded
nature of human experience in theory,
research, and practice.
36

PEaCE: A Meta-Theoretical
Framework
Person
Environment
and
Culture
Emergence
37

PEaCE Theory (Harrell, 2015)
An meta-theoretical framework that
understands human experience as emerging
from the ongoing and complex transactions
within and between three interconnected
complex systems:
biopsychorelational (person),
socioecological (environment),
and multicultural (culture).
38

The overarching objective of PEaCE
Theory is to contribute to an ever-
increasing holistic and complex
understanding of the interconnected
elements of interacting systems that can
provide direction toward creating a
world that optimizes individual,
relational, and collective wellness
This requires a culture- and context-
conscious psychology.
40

Foundations of PEaCE Theory
 PEaCE Theory extends the person-environment
interaction foundations of field theory (Lewin),
bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner), and
biopsychosocial theory (Engel) to EXPLICITLY include
culture.
 PEaCE theory is based on the proposition that all of
human experience occurs at the intersection of
persons, environments, and culture, and that culture
is infused into all subsystems of both persons and
environments.
 A goal of developing the theory is to fully capture the
dynamic process of the person as a living multi-
system that is embedded in and interdependent with
multiple cultural and ecological systems. 41

Rights Reserved
42

Overview of the PEaCE Transactional
Wellness Framework
Individual and Collective Wellness Outcomes emerge from
the dynamic and ongoing transactions in the Person-
Environment-and-Culture-Emergence (PEaCE)
Transactional Field where multidimensional Person
Processes, multilevel Environmental Processes, and the
intersectional dynamics of Cultural Process are
continuously interacting. PEaCE transactions can be
neutral, pathogenic, or wellness promoting with respect to
their contribution to the emergence of positive and
negative outcomes for persons, relationships, groups,
communities, and institutions.
43

PEaCE Theory Basics
Multidimensional/Multilevel Complex
Systems: Person, Environment, & Culture
Interconnectedness within and between
Systems- Persons, Environments, and
Culture are inseparable
Dynamic Transactional Processes
Cultural Infusion
44

Two Cultural Infusion Processes
 Psychocultural Processes
o Reflect the transactions between culture and the multiple and
interconnected biopsychorelational systems of the person
o The unique ways that cultural systems are internalized and expressed
by the individual person
o The intentional choices that individuals makes regarding adopting and
participating in particular cultural values, customs, behaviors, etc.
o The meaning of culture to the individual
 Sociocultural Processes
o Reflect the transactions between culture and the multiple ecological
contexts within which we develop, live, and change
o The shared core elements of the cultural worldview, beliefs, customs,
etc.
o General and commonly expressed cultural characteristics: Material
culture, Social culture, Symbolic Culture, and Ideological Culture
o Manifestations of culture that emerge from a group’s cultural context
o The essential elements of a culture’s way of life passed down from
generation to generation
45

Rights Reserved
46

Culture is carried by collective entities that
reflect multiple dimensions of human
diversity
These dimensions of diversity can be
demographically-based (e.g., ethnicity,
religion) or experientially-based (e.g.,
occupation, defining life experience) and are
frequently intersectional (e.g., African
American race and ethnicity)
47
Multiple Dimensions of Cultural
Systems and Processes

 Primary Macrocultural Collective Entities
 Deeply embedded in the functioning of persons and
contexts
 Transmitted within family and community socialization
processes
 Cultural elements of privileged macrocultural entities
are woven into the dominant cultural narratives of
society (e.g., generational trends, heteronormativity,
ideology of white supremacy)
 EXAMPLES: Nationality, Ethnicity, Religion, “Race”
 Microcultural Collective Entities
 Function within particular sociocultural communities
 Exposure typically occurs after childhood and outside
of the family socialization context
 Immersion in these entities may be voluntary
 EXAMPLES: Military culture, Alcoholics Anonymous,
Gay male cultureCopyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
48

INTERSECTIONALITY
Individuals are exposed to and
internalize multiple cultural
influences which intersect in
particular ways to create
identity, meanings, and
behavior
Culture is always expressed
intersectionally
49

The PEaCE Transactional Field
 A way of thinking about the constant and ongoing
transactions between the interconnected Person,
Environment, and Cultural systems
 It is in this dynamic “field” where lived experience is
co-created and human agency is activated, and where
person, environment, and culture can be understood as
mutually constituting the other.
 Transactional processes in the field determine the
emergence of individual, relational and collective
wellness outcomes. Outcomes are NEVER the product
of one system independent of the others
50

Rights Reserved
51

Person-Environment-and-Culture Fit
Refers to the qualities of the interaction and degree of
compatibility of co-occuring elements of
 Biopsychorelational processes and characteristics of the
PERSON
 Salient aspects of CULTURE
 The historically-influenced and currently manifested demands
and resources of the social and physical ENVIRONMENT at
multiple ecological levels of contextualization
It is reflected in the degree to which person-
environment-and-culture transactions “bring out the
best” in individuals, relationships, and settings. When
there is optimal Person-Environment-Culture Fit, the
functioning and well-being of persons, contexts, and
cultural communities are enhanced.
The nature and quality of Person-Environment-Culture
Fit shifts as change occurs within persons and contexts.52

Person-Environment-Culture Fit as
Congruence, Complementarity,
and Optimal Challenge
Person-Environment-Culture Fit is conceptualized as
the degree of congruence, complementarity, or
optimal challenge experienced between salient, co-
occuring aspects of persons, environments, and
cultural dynamics
 CONGRUENCE refers to experiencing co-occuring elements of Persons-
in-Culture-in-Context transactions as being consistent with each other
through shared core characteristics
 COMPLEMENTARITY refers to experiencing different elements of
Persons-in-Culture-in-Context Transactions as in balance or as
supplementing each other such that they co-exist in ways that are
mutually enhancing
 Optimal CHALLENGE refers to growth-promoting tensions between
different elements of such that their co-occurrence motivates optimal
development and functioning 53

All PEaCE-Informed Interventions
(e.g., psychotherapeutic,
preventive, psychoeducational,
etc.) are concerned with
optimizing Person-Environment-
Culture Fit.

Activity in the PEaCE Transactional Field:
Person-in-Culture-in-Context Transactions
Neutral Transactions
 Everyday transactions that neither significantly increase nor
decrease the likelihood of positive or negative wellness
outcomes
Pathogenic Transactions
 Decrease the likelihood that the positive wellness outcomes
of resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and optimal functioning will
emerge
 Increase the likelihood that the negative wellness outcomes
of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and disease will emerge
Wellness-Promoting Transactions
 Increase the likelihood that the positive wellness outcomes of
resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and optimal functioning will
emerge
 Decrease the likelihood that the negative wellness outcomes
of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and disease will emergeCopyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
55

So now that we have a theory what
do we do with it?
Apply it and Test it!!!!
Measuring Pathogenic Transactions
 Oppression and Racism-Related Stress
Measuring Positive Well-Being Outcomes
 Multidimensional Well-Being Assessment
 Collective, Transcendent, Transformational
R & R Project
 “Resilience and Reconnection” Stress Management
Group Intervention
56

Wellness and Oppression
➢ Oppression refers to systemic processes that result in
asymmetries such that a dominant group has greater
accesses to values societal resources such as health, safety,
education, employment, esteem, status, political
representation, etc.
➢ Wellness is threatened by multiple oppressions (racism,
sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc.) and all forms of
violence (structural, cultural, interpersonal), each of which
are intolerant of human diversity, perpetuate social
asymmetries, and compromise the freedom of persons to
live with dignity and self-determination.
➢ Dysfunctional and oppressive contexts can
➢ impede functioning and well-being,
➢ compromise or confuse personal and collective identity,
➢ and suppress or misdirect health-promoting behaviors.
57

Racism as a form of Oppression
(Harrell, 2000)
A system of dominance , power, and privilege
based on racial group designations rooted in the
historical oppression of a group defined or
perceived by dominant-group members as inferior,
deviant, or undesirable
Occurs in circumstances where members of the
dominant group create or accept societal privilege
by maintaining structures, ideology, values, and
behaviors that have the intent or effect of leaving
nondominant group members relatively excluded
from power, esteem, status, safety, and/or equal
access to societal resources.
58

Racism-Related Stress (Harrell, 2000)
Particular type of Pathogenic Person-in-
Culture-in-Context Transaction
Six dimensions of racism-related stress
(measured by the RaLES; Harrell, 1997)
 Racism-related life events
 Vicarious racism experiences
 Daily racism microstressors (e.g.,
microaggressions)
 Chronic racism-related stress
 Collective racism experiences
 Transgenerational transmission of racism trauma
59

Internalized Oppression
When a member of an oppressed group
believes and/or acts out the stereotypes
created about their group (internalized
racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.).
Colorism is an example
Critical consideration when working with
historically oppressed and marginalized
groups
60

Oppression and Context
Oppressive Contexts:
 affects conditions of living and access to
societal resources
 determines exposure to particular
societal, sociocultural, and community
narratives that define self, acceptable
roles, as well as appropriate thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors
 impacts options for support and coping
 influences opportunities for affirmation
and validation of self and community
61

PEaCE and Culturally-Syntonic Practice
PEaCE Theory provides a foundation for
developing and implementing interventions
grounded in an understanding of health and
well-being as manifestations of the ongoing
transactions within and between
interconnected biopsychorelational (PERSON),
socioecological (ENVIRONMENT), and
multicultural (CULTURE) processes.
Personal, relational, and collective
transformation are maximized when ALL of
these processes are part of the
conceptualization and intervention planning.
62

Interventions informed by PEaCE
Theory focus on creating,
facilitating, and nurturing
Wellness-Promoting
Person-In-Culture-In-Context
Transactions
63

PEaCE-informed Intervention:
The Therapeutic Relationship
The interplay of interpersonal processes and
sociopolitical dynamics are expressed in the
therapeutic relationship
Exploring how macro-level constructs are
played out in the therapeutic relationship
Barriers include
 Benevolence from a position of privilege that
directly or indirectly communicates one’s
acceptance of their superiority
 Dynamics of silencing and invisibility
64

What Promotes Wellness?
Psychology is rooted in Ancient Greek and
Western European philosophical ideas about
health and the good life.
What about the rest of the world????
From a PEaCE perspective, culture (patterns,
rhythms, and ways of being, believing, bonding,
belonging, behaving, and becoming) is an
essential in the emergence of wellness
We need to look beyond a single cultural frame
of reference if we are to understand how to
participate in wellness, healing, and
transformation of culturally diverse peoples
65

Influences from Diverse Cultural Worldviews
➢ African Influences
➢ Ubuntu (spiritually-infused interconnectedness and interdependence)
➢ African Centered Psychology, Communalism
➢ Extended Self (Nobles), Community of Self (Akbar), Optimal Psychology (Myers)
➢ Native American Influences
➢ The Medicine Wheel, The Four Directions, The Talking Circle
➢ Native American Psychology- Cultural Soul Wounds (Duran), Boarding School Syndrome
➢ Latin American Influences
➢ Cultural borderlands (Anzaldua)
➢ Latino Psychology: Personalismo, Espiritismo, Dignidad
➢ Post-Colonial Syndrome (Comas-Diaz)
➢ Liberation Psychology (Martin-Baro, Freire)
➢ Asian Influences
➢ Asian Psychology: Interdependent Self, Collectivism, Morita Therapy, jeong, etc.
➢ Indian Psychology:Oneness and non-duality, Consciousness and Self (Paranjpe and Rao)
➢ Buddhist Psychology (Kornfield; Hanh; Brach): Lovingkindness, Compassion, Enlightenment,
Mindfulness
➢ Middle Eastern Influences:
➢ Sufi Psychology: Transformation of the Heart; Centrality of and closeness with the
Divine; Expression of strong emotion through poetry
➢ Honor-based social self, emphasis on interpersonal relationships
66

Common Themes Emerging From Culturally-
Diverse Healing & Transformation Practices
CONNECTEDNESS of persons, nature, and spirit
 Mind-Body-Spirit interconnectedness
 Interconnectedness of persons, nature, and spirit
 Centrality of community
COMMITMENT to a centering belief system
 Values-centered, awareness of “what matters most”
 Practices are connected to beliefs and values
CONSCIOUSNESS enhancing technologies
 Methods of intensifying the connection of individuals and communities
to deeply held values and beliefs
 Methods of deepening or expanding experiential awareness of our
internal and/or lived experience, as well as our interconnectedness
 Strengthening connection to spiritual phenomena
67

PII Wellness-Promoting Transactions
Culturally-Syntonic
-Communal Processes
-Contemplative Processes
-Empowering Processes
COMMON THEMES ACROSS DIVERSE CULTURES:
“Connectedness”, “Consciousness”, “Commitment”
Indigenous Psychologies, Culture, and Context
Health and Healing in Diverse Cultures
68

Communal, Contemplative, and
Empowerment Processes
Communal
 Strengthening Connection and Relationship
Contemplative
 Enhancing experiential awareness and critical
consciousness
Empowerment
 Transforming awareness and insight into action in the
context of power dynamics within interpersonal and
sociopolitical relationships
69

PII Change Model
Rights Reserved
70

Communal Processes
 The most basic and necessary conditions
for optimal health and well-being lie in the
harmoniousness of our relationships with
others, with community, with nature, and
with the transcendent.
 Healthy communal and relational
functioning is viewed as necessary for the
optimal functioning of individuals and
society.
 An appreciation of the interdependent
nature of all living systems must inform
how wellness is defined and promoted.
71

Oppression and Connection
Oppression and exploitation in
any system signifies severe
relational dysfunction and
disconnectedness
Oppression threatens the
wellness of all human, ecological,
and institutional systems.
72

Ubuntu Ethic of Interconnectedness
South African spiritual and ethical principle
“I am because we are, and therefore,
because we are I am.”
Ubuntu reflects the relational nature of our humanness.
From an Ubuntu (African-centered) perspective, the
essence of human existence is “in relationship” (to
others, to community, to place, to nature, to
transcendent experience).
Spiritually-infused harmony and interconnectedness as
the essence of our humanity
The essence of being human as a spiritually-infused
interconnectedness and interdependence such that the
foundation for living optimally and manifesting our
highest humanity comes from the nature of our
relationships with others in the context of being in
community.Copyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
73

Some Communal Processes
Affirmative Humanization
Promoting Healing and Growth
Alliances (HGAs)
Macrocultural Belonging
Microcultural Belonging
Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness
74

Affirmative Humanization (“AH”)
 Affirmative Humanization involves attunement through
the nonverbal connecting and verbal expressions that:
 Affirm the humanity and dignity of the client;
 Convey acceptance of the imperfections of being human;
 Demonstrate care and empathy in the identification and
validation of dehumanization and invisibility experiences
and processes;
 Establish a safe environment for taking off the protective
and defensive “masks” we wear;
 Encourage the client to allow themselves to be “seen”;
 Provide strong reinforcement for emotional,
interpersonal, and sociopolitical risks taken, and
 Communicate that therapist sees the humanity and value
of the client
75

Giving Testimony & Bearing Witness
The helping professional is a facilitator of the
client’s process of giving the testimony of their
lived experience, telling their story, and expressing
their experiential truths both within and outside of
the helping relationship and intervention process
The helping professional bears witness to the
client’s Person-in-Culture-in-Context experiences by
the willingness to be emotionally and relationally
present (listening with heart, mind, eyes, ears &
spirit) during the client’s sharing. The process of
bearing witness is a “connected” witnessing rather
than a dispassionate observing. 76

Some PEaCE-Informed Areas for
Assessment
History and current contact with
members of salient cultural
identity groups
Opportunities for affirmation and
validation of sociocultural
experience
77

Case Vignette #1: Communal Processes
Maribel is a 52 year-old Latina of Mexican
descent presenting with depression, guilt, and
self-loathing. During the past year she has
begun the process of ending a 31-year
marriage with her white American,
conservative Christian husband and has fallen
in love with a Mexican American woman who
has been comfortably out as a lesbian for her
entire adult life. Maribel is the mother of two
adult children, one of whom is a Pastor.
78

The PII Approach to
Contemplative Processes
Contemplative Processes can be thought of as
encompassing a culturally-diverse group of
meditative and consciousness strategies for
deepening and expanding experiential and
critical awareness by bearing witness to one’s
own experience, both internally and in the
world.
79

Contemplative Practice in PII
 Contemplative Practice Involves Culture, Context, and Liberation
 “Culture” because there are diverse contemplative practices in
many cultural and religious traditions and the resonance and
effectiveness of any meditative or contemplative approach is a
function of its congruence with language, rhythms, values, beliefs,
and cultural worldview
 “Context” because contemplative practices such as meditation,
like all human behavior, occurs in multiple ecological contexts and
these must be understood to maximize the potential effectiveness
of any particular meditative or contemplative practice
 “Liberation” because the meaningful core of all contemplative
practices is freedom in the context of the challenges and
boundaries of the human condition such that the effectiveness of
the practice is enhanced when it remains connected to this
ultimate purpose of liberation
80

“Meditation for Liberation”
Meditation is a type of Contemplative Practice that
occurs within the context of larger values-centered,
transformative and liberatory purposes with the
intention of being manifestated in how we live
individually, relationally, and collectively.
(Harrell, 2013/14)
81

Thich Nhat Hanh on Meditation
“Meditation is not to escape from society,
but to come back to ourselves and see what
is going on. Once there is seeing, there must
be acting.”
82

“FOCUS and FLOW”
= Seeing + Acting
Focus = Connected and Conscious “Seeing”
CONSCIOUS and integrated awareness
through the intentional regulation of attention,
emotion, and physiological processes
(Engaged Consciousness)
Flow = Connected and Congruent “Acting”
Active, committed, and relational ENGAGEMENT
with life motivated and informed by the process and
content of focusing (Conscious Engagement) 83

“Where your focus goes,
your energy flows.”
FOCUS = Connected and Conscious Awareness
 Increase inner, other, and outer awareness
 Increase connectedness to purpose, values, identities,
strengths
 Identify culturally-syntonic and values-congruent
commitments, activities, and relationships
 Develop strategies for expression of purpose, values, identity,
strengths
FLOW = Connected and Congruent Action
 Release what gets in the way and create space for full
experiencing and immersion in valued life contexts
 Engage in activities that promote physical, psychological,
relational, collective, and transcendent wellness
 Full expression of strengths and passions
84

from contemplativemind.org
 Contemplative practices are practical, radical, and transformative,
developing capacities for deep concentration and quieting the
mind in the midst of the action and distraction that fills everyday
life.
 This state of calm centeredness is an aid to exploration of
meaning, purpose and values.
 Contemplative Practices cultivate a critical, first-person focus,
sometimes with direct experience as the object, while at other
times concentrating on complex ideas or situations.
 Incorporated into daily life, they act as a reminder to connect to
what we find most meaningful.
 Contemplative practices can help develop greater empathy and
communication skills, improve focus and attention, reduce stress
and enhance creativity, supporting a loving and compassionate
approach to life.
 Center from Contemplative Mind in SocietyCopyright 2016. Shelly P. Harrell,
85

Rights Reserved
87
Stillness Practices
Meditation
Quieting the Mind
Silence
Centering
Creative Practices
Contemplative Arts
Improvisation
Music and Singing
Journaling
Generative Practices
Meditation
Lectio Divina
Visualization
Beholding
Loving-Kindness
Relational Practices
Council Circle
Dialogue
Deep Listening
Storytelling
Ritual/Cyclical Practices
-Ceremonies and Rituals
based in Spiritual or
Cultural Traditions
-Establishing a
Sacred/Personal Space
-Retreats

“The struggle has always been inner,
and is played out in outer terrains.
Awareness of our situation must
come before inner changes, which in
turn comes before changes in
society.”
-Gloria Anzaldua
88
The Interplay Between
Inner and Outer Experience

What does it mean
to be aware
of “your situation”?
-Understanding self-in-culture-in-context
-Consciousness of oneself as a culturally and
socio-politically embedded being
-Ongoing interaction between internal and
external processes
89

Case Vignette #2
Bobby is a 32 year-old college-educated African
American heterosexual man presenting with racing
thoughts, difficulty concentrating, psychomotor
agitation, and general anxiety about job
performance in his position as a criminal defense
attorney. As part of your work with him, you
attempt to teach him mindfulness. He becomes
frustrated with the process and rejects your
attempts.
What are you thinking?
How might you handle this?
90

 Empowering Practices are the “action” implications of Communal
and Contemplative Practices
 Expression of contemplative and communal processes through action in the world
 Recommended after or concurrent with Communal and
Contemplative because of risk of distortions in messages of power
out of the context of connection
 What does it mean to be empowered?
 “Empowered” means to have the inspiration, commitment, and
resources (internal and external) to turn cognitions, motivations,
and values into action through conscious and connected
engagement with self, others, and society.
 Being empowered is activation of individual and collective agency;
the capacity to mobilize and actualize vital energy and resources
to move toward a desired result.
 Being empowered can be expressed individually, relationally, or
collectively.
 An empowered person will:
91

About Power
 What is Power?
 Ability/capacity to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing
something; exercise of one’s authority; energy and power are often
cited as synonyms
 The ability to define someone else’s reality and get them to accept it
as if it were their own (Akbar; Karenga)
 Expressions and Manifestations of Power
 From Riger (1993)
 Power Over – act ON others, control and dominate
 Power To – act TOWARD something, pursue goals and
opportunities
 Power From – act AWAY FROM something, resistance
 Power Of - act GUIDED BY deeply held principles that are actively and
openly expressed and are often accompanied by social justice actions
 Satyagraha – Power of Truth (Gandhi); mobilization of inner
resources to pursue higher truths
 Power With- act WITH others, capacity to build groups, bring people
together , create community
92

Peace-Informed Assessment of
Voice and Visibility at Multiple Levels of Analysis
 Intrapersonal
 Interpersonal/Relational
 Intragroup
 Intergroup
 Political
Exploration of collective memory and trauma (e.g.,
racial trauma)
Exploration of internalized oppression and
adoption of dominant cultural narratives
93

An “R&R” Group Activity
– One word to describe a strength that you bring to
your personal and professional endeavors.
– One word to describe something in the natural
world with which you feel strongly connected or
identified (e.g., color, flower, tree, animal, part of nature,
a place etc.)
– Choose One of the following words:
Illuminating Affirming Manifesting Mobilizing
Expressing Igniting Revealing Amplifying
Creating Radiating Liberating Engaging
– One word to describe a central value in your life
that guides your decisions and ways of living or a
word that represents a vision that you have for
our world.

Your “R&R” Name
FIRST NAME:
_________ (a strength/positive characteristic)
MIDDLE NAME:
_________ (your identification/connection)
HYPHENATED LAST NAME:
___________(action word) - _________(value/vision)

Some Ways to Use the
“What’s In A Name” Activity
• List three things you can do today to live your R&R
name
• Share (write about) a time in your life when you felt
or lived your R&R name
• Something you did yesterday that was an expression
of your R&R name
• A goal that you will work toward that emerges from
your R&R name
• Draw a crest or mandala to symbolize your name

Rise and Introduce Yourself
“I AM” …
FIRST NAME:
_________ (your strength)
MIDDLE NAME:
_________ (your identification/connection)
HYPHENATED LAST NAME:
___________(action word) - _______(value/vision)

Case Vignette #3
Ella is 19 years old and was born in Ethiopia. She has
been living in the United States since she was 12 years
old. During your fourth session she discloses her
experience of female genital mutilation (female
circumcision). She shares her memory of it being a
common community ritual that her mother wanted for
her. She wants to have a “normal” relationship but fears
no man will want her. She presents with social anxiety.
What issues and questions come up for you?
What are your ideas about important elements of this
case?
How might exploring empowerment processes aid in
working with this client?
98

The Three Processes…
-How are we strengthening connectedness to others, community,
nature, Spirit, values, culture, a cause, etc. (something bigger than
self)?
-How are we enhancing experiential awareness and critical
consciousness of “what is” about self, others, and the world?
99

Applying the Questions
Can ask these questions within any
theoretical orientation or psychotherapeutic
approach
The questions provide an organizing
framework to assess elements that are
important to understanding cultural
dimensions of human experience
The questions help to guide choice and
implementation of interventions
10
0

The Four Things
Cultural Socialization and Identity
 Dimensions of Exposure
 Patterns of Being, Believing, Bonding, Belonging,
Behaving, Becoming
 Sociocultural and Intersectional Identities
Macrocultural and Microcultural Belonging
 Composition of settings
 Opportunities for affirmation and validation
Dynamics of Difference (in the client’s life, in the
therapeutic relationship, in the therapist’s life)
Sociopolitical/Sociohistorical Considerations
 Oppression / Psychology of liberation
 Social location, power, and privilege
 Collective/Historical trauma and memory
101

What have we covered?
Person as inseparable from culture and
context
Approaches to integrating culture
Culturally-Syntonic Practice
Need for theories and frameworks that
explicitly name culture
PEaCE Meta-Theoretical Framework
Culture, Health, and Healing in Cultural
Context
Three Culturally-Informed Change Processes
Applications
10
2

10
3

Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Processes: Culturally-Syntonic Practice for "PEaCE" with Diverse Clients

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Similar to Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Processes: Culturally-Syntonic Practice for "PEaCE" with Diverse Clients

Similar to Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Processes: Culturally-Syntonic Practice for "PEaCE" with Diverse Clients (20)

More from Shelly Harrell

More from Shelly Harrell (11)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Processes: Culturally-Syntonic Practice for "PEaCE" with Diverse Clients