Our Approach to Healing

Our heart symbolizes our feelings, love, care, connections to self, family, community and other living beings.

We use our mind to reason, learn, and
understand. The ability to purposefully steer life’s journey through the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors.

Our body carries us through life and serves as a link to the land and our ancestors’ movements and way of life, which involves maintaining good physical health.

Our Suli, spirit, is what unites us to something bigger than ourselves and embraces our values and beliefs.

Courage is acting from the heart in the face of danger, difficulty, fear, or a desire to step out of integrity. It may be standing up for fairness and truth even when it’s challenging; staying in the teachings despite obstacles and temptations; not cutting corners and facing difficult truths about ourselves, in which we may feel vulnerable or scared. It's about having a strong spirit to handle whatever comes our way with intention and a willingness to risk.

Focusing our interest and desire to gather information and develop insights about ourselves, others, and the world, curiosity invites us to hold our thoughts with humility so we can see new perspectives. It encourages creativity in problem solving and leads to enhanced knowledge and understanding.

Truth/Integrity is our guide, it shows us the path to walk. It can be found in Spirit, wise teachings from our parents, grandparents and ancestors, cultural values, and the wise voice within ourselves. When we speak from truth/integrity, our voice comes from our heart. Truth/Integrity gives us power, even though it may be difficult to face.

Love is the holding of another in one’s heart in a good way. It is the relationship we have with all of our relations: human, animal, plant, the land and water, and Spirit - we are all interconnected and the connection is love. Nurture is the expression of love that assists others to reach their potential. Culturally, it is the task of a family and community to nurture a child so that they thrive to their potential.

Wisdom offers a vision of ourselves, the universe, and how we are meant to live in it. It is the embodied integration of meaning coming from our life experience and teachings of the land and culture – including language, ceremony, stories – and others whom we encounter in person or through media, informed by integrity and good judgment. Living in a good way is living wisely.

We are humble when we remember that we are ultimately all one, so we are to treat all of creation with respect and kindnes - as cherished family. Humility is a way of living that emphasizes serving others without seeking recognition or praise and approaching life with a sense of gratitude and respect. Pride tells us that we are worthy, and our voice is worth hearing and humility reminds us that we are part of a community where all voices matter.

Respect honours the value of all creation - all our relations and their role in our interconnected world. It is also the 'high regard' we hold for Indigenous knowledge and ways of being. Respecting others means we believe that they are valuable even if they are different from ourselves. Self-respect means honoring ourselves and our capacity to respond to the demands of our lives - on a personal and social level.

Balance allows us to honor all of who we are - our heart, mind, body and spirit - within ourselves and in our relationships with our social and non-human relations. When we neglect an aspect of ourselves, we can lose balance in our lives, likewise if our relationships are not balanced between giving and receiving. However, we can never reach a state of permanent balance, we are always finding balance within every moment in our lives.

Responsibility means that we can respond to our lives and that we do it in a way that benefits ourselves and others. When we take responsibility for ourselves we are doing what we are meant to do, and accepting the positive or negative outcomes of our actions; When we act responsibly, we choose to act wisely, recognizing the obligations we have to ourselves and our community. Living responsibly means that we take only what we need and we give what we can.

Based upon the realization that we are all interconnected in a shared system and that we are all worthy of love, generosity is the intentional sharing of each of our unique gifts to benefit others as they travel their life journey. The contribution of our unique gifts reminds us that we are a necessary part of the whole and that we have purpose.

Connection grows from a deep relationship with oneself, marked by self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-compassion. It involves understanding our own emotions, values, needs, and goals. Establishing a strong connection to self will strengthen our spirit, mind, body, and heart, allowing ourselves to heal, grow, and thrive. From here, we can be in relationship with others, where we give and receive, recognizing the interconnectedness with each other, the land, water, animals, and our Ancestral spirit.