Culturally attuned care: New therapy space supporting Indigenous healing practices

Manitoba Blue Cross has unveiled our new Healing Space, situated in our Employee Assistance Centre. This specialized counselling room offers a culturally attuned environment for our Indigenous clients to engage in healing through traditional medicine and ceremony. The Healing Space represents Manitoba Blue Cross's commitment to healthcare inclusivity and cultural sensitivity, ensuring all Manitobans can access healing that aligns with their cultural and spiritual values. It aims to be a place of reconciliation and healing.  

"Reconciliation is a verb,” says Jodie Voth, manager of Employee Assistance Services. “We created this space to take meaningful action toward repairing the harms done to the Indigenous community. We want to affirm the value of traditional healing practices for our Indigenous clients, and ensure they feel respected and cared for."  

The Healing Space will be used under the guidance of therapists trained in both modern and traditional Indigenous healing practices.

“Having culturally appropriate counselling is part of the reconciliation process,” says Janel Fiddler, Employee Assistance Program provider at Manitoba Blue Cross. “It’s important to slowly decolonize these institutional spaces and make them more inviting and comfortable for our diverse population."  

Fiddler also noted the therapeutic benefits of traditional practices.

"It’s part of our medicine. It’s a way to get rid of some of the things that are harder to let go of; that’s where spirituality, prayer and smudging come into play.”  

The unveiling of the Healing Space featured an introduction and tobacco offering by Voth and Cyndi Kindret, provider engagement specialist at Employee Assistance Services, to Elder Linda Chisholm. The Elder also cleansed the room with a smudging ceremony, followed by prayers, blessings, drumming and song.

Darlene Daniels, senior director of culture, education and training services at New Directions, an organization that is a client of Manitoba Blue Cross, also highlighted the significance of this initiative.

"It’s really exciting. It’s a different time in the world with reconciliation, so I am glad this is moving forward and this space is helping to fill a need."

Voth hopes the space will attract more Indigenous mental health professionals and traditional practitioners to the Manitoba Blue Cross network, broadening the options available to our Indigenous clients.

While this space prioritizes First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals and their families, it is accessible to all seeking care at the EA Centre.