First Nations, Métis and Inuit Support

At 4 Bears Counselling, we recognize wellness as more than the absence of mental illness. Wellness can encompass emotional, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, as well as relationships with family, community, culture, identity, land and the generations who came before and will come after us.

There is no single Indigenous experience, and there is no single way to heal. Some people come to counselling deeply connected to family, Nation, community, culture, language or ceremony. Others are searching for connections that were interrupted generations ago. Many live somewhere in between.

Wherever you are in that journey, you do not have to prove your Indigeneity or cultural knowledge in the counselling room.

Sometimes we are carrying more than our own story. For generations, colonial governments, legislation and institutions interfered with Indigenous families, communities, cultures and systems of governance. For many families, these experiences did not end with the generation that directly experienced them.

These histories do not affect everyone in the same way. Understanding them can provide important context for experiences that have sometimes been treated only as individual mental-health problems, but are collective traumas that require collective relationship rebuilding for repair.

Disconnection is not the same as an absence of identity. Some Indigenous people were raised surrounded by community, culture, language, family and traditional knowledge. Others were separated from these connections through residential schools, day schools, child welfare, adoption, relocation, enfranchisement, family disruption or other colonial processes.

Some grew up knowing who they were but without access to their culture. Others are only beginning to discover their family histories. And some people have remained culturally and geographically connected to their communities while still experiencing the continuing effects of colonialism.

There is no single measure of what it means to be Indigenous. Counselling can provide space to explore questions of belonging, family history, culture and reconnection without someone else deciding what your Indigenous identity is supposed to look like.

Colonial systems attempted to determine who Indigenous peoples were, where they could live, how communities could govern themselves, which relationships were legally recognized, how children would be educated and which forms of knowledge, spirituality and culture were considered legitimate. Those imposed definitions continue to have consequences.

Healing can involve understanding those histories. It can also involve reclaiming what colonialism attempted to interrupt: land, language, family, community, ceremony, stories, traditional knowledge, creativity, spirituality, kinship and identity.

Reconnection does not have to mean recreating an untouched version of the past. It can mean carrying ancestors forward while finding your own voice and determining what Indigenous identity, culture and wellness mean in your life today.

At 4 Bears Counselling, Indigenous identity does not need to be separated from mental-health care. Therapy can include evidence-informed Western clinical approaches while making space for Indigenous ways of knowing, cultural practices, relationships and understandings of wellness that are meaningful to you.

You will not be expected to participate in cultural or spiritual practices simply because you are Indigenous. Likewise, you will not be expected to leave your culture outside the counselling room.

There is no test of Indigeneity at the door. Some clients practice ceremony; some do not. Some speak their language; others were never given the opportunity to learn it. These differences are not deficiencies. Your experiences, relationships and cultural identity can be part of therapy when they are meaningful to you.

The federal Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Program, administered by Indigenous Services Canada, provides eligible First Nations and Inuit clients with coverage for certain health benefits that are not otherwise available through other health plans or programs. Mental-health counselling is one of the benefits available to eligible clients.

If you are registered under the Indian Act and eligible for NIHB, you may have access to mental-health counselling benefits through Indigenous Services Canada. A Certificate of Indian Status, commonly called a status card, can be used to demonstrate registration. Eligibility is determined according to the federal program's current criteria.

Eligible recognized Inuit clients may also receive NIHB benefits and do not need to be registered under the Indian Act.