Indigenous Wisdoms for Psychology: Shifting towards Survivance-Based Practices

Speaker Bio

Dr. Karlee Fellner is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta, founder and CEO of maskihkiy wellness (www.maskihkiy.com) and is an Associate Professor in Counselling Psychology-Indigenous Education at the University of Calgary. Dr. Fellner is a prominent scholar activist who has been part of critical initiatives in the field of psychology and beyond, including CPA and PFC’s national task force and Alberta’s (CAP and PAA’s) provincial working group on addressing the TRC in psychology; ASPPB’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (EDI) Task Force; the EDI review panel for the Canada Research Chair program; and was on the coordinating team for the 2019 and 2022 National Multicultural Conference & Summit. Dr. Fellner’s areas of interest include Indigenous approaches to therapy and trauma work; Indigenous research, curriculum and pedagogy; culturally appropriate counselling; complex trauma; and holistic and traditional approaches to wellness. Dr. Fellner upholds Indigenous community priorities in all aspects of her work, engaging in transformative research and community development. She strives to nurture diversity in her work in hopes that students will feel empowered and supported bringing their diverse ways of knowing, being, and doing into their scholarship and practice.

Learning Objectives

Following the workshop, participants should be able to:

• Articulate what decolonizing means in the context of psychological practice
• Understand Indigenous counter-narratives and concepts that challenge; conventional approaches to psychopathology and disease, and how these contribute to personal and collective wellness among Indigenous people;
• Implement basic land-based tools that support (re)connecting with, (re)opening to, and (re)engaging one’s personal and collective wisdom and medicine for healing;
• Move toward decolonizing and Indigenizing their practice in a good way.