Group therapy of aboriginal offenders in a Canadian forensic psychiatric facility.

Abstract

In recent years, the use of group therapy approaches with Aboriginal or Native Canadians/American Indians has become widely accepted. However, many advocates of this approach rarely consider the implications of group therapy for culturally heterogeneous groups, such as when non-Aboriginal peoples are involved or when there are Aboriginal peoples from different cultures and/or with different degrees of orientation to Euro-Canadian culture. This article documents the use of one form of group therapy for Aboriginal offenders in a forensic psychiatric facility, where this degree of cultural heterogeneity exists. The article concludes that, at least within a forensic psychiatric setting, group therapies that mirror the social, cultural, racial, and class structures of Euro-Canadian society are problematic in the treatment of traditional Aboriginal offenders but much less so for acculturated Aboriginal offenders.