Cultural Humility in Indigenous Mental Health: Implementation, Limitations, Ethical Considerations, and Future Opportunities
Cultural Humility in Indigenous Mental Health: Implementation, Limitations, Ethical Considerations, and Future Opportunities
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Issue Date
2025-10-30
Authors
Erickson, Frans
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Abstract
This capstone examines how Cultural Humility (CH) is implemented across policy, training, and clinical practice within Indigenous mental health, identifying conditions that enable or constrain it. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Elder Albert Marshall’s Two-Eyed Seeing, the project synthesizes peer-reviewed and Indigenous-led grey literature with a Canadian focus. The grey literature represents Indigenous-authored reports, community-based evaluations, and government documents that inform real-world CH but are often excluded from academic forums. Three barrier themes recur: (1) epistemic and colonial dominance that marginalizes Indigenous knowledge; (2) structural gatekeeping that constrains Indigenous-defined healing; and (3) practitioner limitations that reduce CH to tokenistic reflection without Indigenous mentorship or organizational support. An ethical analysis shows how shallow implementation becomes an ethical failure, especially in contexts marked by ongoing harm (e.g., persistent health inequalities). The literature also demonstrates examples of CH in decolonizing training programs, Indigenous community initiatives, and collaborations integrating Indigenous mentorship. These examples show humility through relational accountability and shared decision-making. Four research gaps persist: limited practical guidance, underrepresentation of Indigenous leadership and knowledge, conceptual ambiguity, and methodological limitations that overlook Indigenous-defined criteria. Chapter Four translates these insights into action, outlining applications at the practitioner and systemic levels. The capstone concludes with recommendations for practice, research, and policy that move CH from aspiration to accountable, relational action.
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Keywords
cultural humility , Indigenous mental health , decolonizing mental health , Two-Eyed Seeing , relational accountability
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess