Rockey Robbins

American Indian gay, bisexual and two-spirit men: a rapid assessment of HIV/AIDS risk factors, barriers to prevention and culturally-sensitive intervention

Epidemiological data indicate that HIV and AIDS are disproportionately affecting American Indians. Specific to American Indian men identifying as gay, bisexual, two-spirit or who have same-sex experiences, this study assessed HIV-risk behaviours and barriers to testing, prevention and treatment efforts. A rapid assessment model was utilised as an indigenous-supporting research design. Rigour and thoroughness were achieved via multiple validation procedures. Central themes surrounding barriers to HIV prevention included social discrimination, low self-esteem and substance use. Findings suggest the underutilisation of condoms due to ineffective placement and limited availability in popular locations among gay, bisexual and two-spirit individuals. Participants indicated that HIV testing is occurring less frequently and that testing was not available after hours or weekends. Barriers to treatment included a mistrust of the current healthcare system, a perceived lack of support from the Indian Health Service for AIDS care and a lack of transportation to healthcare appointments. Lastly, participants discussed and supported culturally-sensitive treatment services. This study calls attention to the value of an American Indian-specific HIV/AIDS service organisation, the presence of indigenous service providers in the community and culturally-sensitive healthcare providers.

Decolonizing personality assessment and honoring indigenous voices: a critical examination of the MMPI-2.

Utilizing a mixed methods approach located between constructivist-interpretivist and critical-ideological research paradigms (Ponterotto, 2005), the current study builds upon previous research (Pace et al., 2006) that investigated the cultural validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 in its use with American Indians. Thirty items from MMPI-2 scales F, 1, 6, 8, and 9 were identified via item analysis as reflecting significant differences in endorsement rates between an American Indian sample and the MMPI-2 normative group. Semistructured interviews focused on these 30 items were conducted with 13 American Indian participants from an Eastern Woodlands Nation in Oklahoma. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and then coded for themes using a qualitative coding analysis. Nine themes emerged: core belief system, experiences of racism and discrimination, conflicting epistemologies, living in two worlds, community connectedness, responsibility and accountability to the community, traditional knowledge, stories as traditional knowledge, and language and historic loss. Results of the current study demonstrate how the MMPI-2 may pathologize Indigenous worldviews, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors rather than accurately assess psychopathology. Implications for practice and future research are addressed.

A cultural-contextual perspective on the validity of the MMPI-2 with American Indians.

This study investigated the normative validity of the MMPI-2 with two distinct American Indian tribes. Differences occurred on 8 of the 13 basic validity and clinical scales (F, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) between the MMPI-2 norms and both tribal samples. Elevated MMPI-2 scores of American Indians may not only reflect the possibility of psychological distress spurred by historical oppression and present adversity, but also an expression of a divergent worldview. Considering the context of the historical and social production of knowledge about American Indians, it is argued that researchers and practitioners, when interpreting MMPI-2 results for American Indians, should seriously consider their interpretive points of reference, which may be impacted by dominant cultural belief systems.

Psychologists’ Authenticity Implications for Work in Professional and Therapeutic Settings

Psychologists engage in a multitude of social roles of varying degrees of emotionality, subjectivity, and objectivity because of the nature of their profession as well as their unique backgrounds that have drawn them to that profession. This study sought to understand how psychologists recognize and experience the concept of authenticity in the context of their professional lives. A purposeful sample of 17 clinical psychologists from metropolitan areas in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest were interviewed. Using a phenomenological, qualitative research design, 262 significant statements were extracted and grouped together, resulting in 11 emergent themes specifically relating to a therapeutic, health care context. Rigor and thoroughness were achieved via multiple validation procedures. Psychologists defined authenticity as the matching of one’s inner thoughts, beliefs, and feelings with one’s outer presentation and behaviors. They believed that authenticity involves sensory and emotional qualities rather than purely cognitive or verbal qualities. Concepts of self-disclosure and mindful awareness were discussed as related to authenticity. It is of note that both humanistic and nonhumanistically inclined psychologists equally valued authenticity in the professional and therapeutic setting. Participants also discussed how authenticity and inauthenticity are experienced and modified in the therapeutic relationship, as well as the negative effects of inauthenticity in professional contexts.

Conflicting Epistemologies A Case Study of a Traditional American Indian in Therapy

>> This case study contributes to the development of a flexible and coherent theory of American Indian psychology. It focuses on mental health psychology in the context of therapy with a 63-year-old traditional Southeastern Woodland woman (Selu). Theoretical constructs of American Indian therapeutic perspectives and needs are postulated, based on the client’s and psychologist’s interactions over the course of about one hundred counseling sessions over a 2-year period. One of the strengths of this model is that it emerges from a clinical perspective. Different therapeutic techniques are experimented with, used, abandoned, and merged. Hopefully, the following reflections will help therapists to critically consider psychological perspectives and approaches they may use with traditional American Indians or other nonmajority clients.This case study contributes to the development of a flexible and coherent theory of American Indian psychology. It focuses on mental health psychology in the context of therapy with a 63-year-old traditional Southeastern Woodland woman (Selu). Theoretical constructs of American Indian therapeutic perspectives and needs are postulated, based on the clients and psychologists interactions over the course of about one hundred counseling sessions over a 2-year period. One of the strengths of this model is that it emerges from a clinical perspective. Different therapeutic techniques are experimented with, used, abandoned, and merged. Hopefully, the following reflections will help therapists to critically consider psychological perspectives and approaches they may use with traditional American Indians or other nonmajority clients.

Are You Analyzing Me? A Qualitative Exploration of Psychologists’ Individual and Interpersonal Experiences with Authenticity

Within multiple social roles, such as careers and personal relationships, psychologists are encouraged to maintain their authenticity. Although the concept of authenticity has a lengthy history in the philosophy and literary fields, only in the last decade have researchers begun empirically studying this unique, yet vague, concept. This study sought to explore and understand what experiences, issues, and concerns psychologists encounter in their efforts to live authentically. A purposeful sample consisted of 17 psychologists, who were individually interviewed. Utilizing a qualitative research design, 328 significant statements were extracted and grouped together, resulting in five emergent themes specifically related to personal and social, nontherapeutic contexts. Participants described how their psychological-mindedness adds to complexity of separating the person from the therapist during encounters with others. They believed that self-exploration, self-awareness, and self-acceptance were important in a...

Native American Family Resilience

To write about Native American family resilience entails exploring critical aspects of European and Euro-American endeavors at subjugation from a neo-colonial perspective. Early in the history of this country, the social relations Native Americans had created were dismissed as uncivilized and inadequate. Consequently, colonizers felt justified to work toward disconnecting Native Americans from their histories and ways of interacting with each other and nature. The U.S. government legislated who lived on what reservations and how they were to serve the interests of the dominant society. In his Tribal Critical Race Theory, Braveboy (2006) contends that colonization is endemic to American society, that US governmental policies have been and continue to be rooted in imperialism and White supremacy, and that these policies are intimately linked around the problematic goal of assimilation. Duran and Duran (1995) argue that tribal people suffer from “a soul wound” as a consequence of wars, reservation subjugation, boarding schools, relocation, and termination. After Native Americans had been hunted and killed like vermin or rounded up and put on regulated spaces, they were then clothed with Western ideologies and moralities.

Honoring the Ways of American Indian Women: A Group Therapy Intervention

A culturally grounded group intervention for a typically underserved population of urban American Indian women is described. The intervention is designed to increase interpersonal connection, improve inter-tribal acceptance and trust, and enhance psychological well being of marginalized urban American Indian women. Topics used to structure the intervention were generated collaboratively with tribal community members and included self-exploration and education, aging, body image, work, friendship, love commitment, and nurturance/motherhood. For illustrative purposes, the authors elaborate on two of these group therapy topics and provide member and leader reflections.

A Conversation in Sacred Space

This chapter concludes the book, Meeting in Sacred Space: Engaging with Spirituality in Family Therapy, an edited volume whose chapters are written from the authors’ diverse perspectives informed by Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Native American spiritual practice, Sikhism, Southern and Eastern African spiritual traditions, and Taoism. The reader is invited to imagine joining the conversation among the authors over the course of three years writing the book. The conversation embodies our experience of generating “sacred space,” a collective experience of spiritual vitality that emerges when people immersed in diverse particular spiritual/religious traditions engage respectfully in dialogue. We have challenged ourselves to generate ideas about a global culture that respects human spirituality, as an alternative to the current dominant global discourse of materialist individualism. The conversation includes our shared experience of sacred space that emerges from our polyphonic reflections on the work of contemporary prophetic theologian Neale Donald Walsch. We explore the limitations and possibilities of language in spiritual experience. We develop the idea of sacred space, drawing on the stimulation of our spirituality that comes from sharing our diverse spiritual/religious perspectives, and from Bakhtinian perspectives on generative dialogue. We consider the many ways that family therapy can contribute to a global spiritual culture that respects human differences. We acknowledge the complex relationships between religion, pain and suffering.

Vision Quest: The Intersection of Native American Spirituality and Family Therapy

In the following narrative, family therapists are offered an insider’s view of a Native American vision quest. It is contextualized in a way that connects the experience with spiritual perspectives of non-Native religious and psychological thinkers who see the psychological value of the “varieties of religious experience.” Though there is much descriptive detail of the vision quest, the focus is on the psychological emergency that it addresses in a ritualistic way. It challenges the stereotype of transpersonal experiences as the product of individual quests, as it demonstrates the critical roles of family and community members before, during, and after the vision quest. Practitioners are given suggestions on how they might better understand and support families with members having transpersonal experiences. The writer calls on the reader to exercise cultural sensitivity grounded in appreciation of the complex historical relationship between indigenous peoples and currently dominant cultural discourses.