Truth and Reconciliation Reflection Requirements 

Recognizing the gravity of Canada’s actions with First Nations/Indigenous cultures, families, and children, both past and present, all RMFT applicants, including AAMFT Clinical Fellows and LMFTs requesting grandparenting into RMFT membership, are expected to have an awareness of this history and the current issues as well as the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Applicants are required to submit a 6 – 8 page, double spaced Reflection Paper, (i.e. personal rather than academic in focus) in which they outline and reflect on 

• the impact of the historical and current issues and findings of the TRC on their own history and beliefs; 
  
• the impact of the same on their own professional identity; 
  
• how the historical and current issues and findings of the TRC can be understood through a systemic lens
  
• the impact of the same on their systemic practice and how it can be acknowledged and addressed in therapy.
  
• Applicants may want to reference the TRC findings, The Indian Act, current Indigenous authors and their works, and cultural experiences and teachings.
  

If you identify as Indigenous, we ask that you complete a reflection paper regarding how your own experience and learning informs your therapeutic practice and professional identity, particularly with a systemic lens. 

Resources: 

Please click here for the TRC Rubric Reflection 

Call to Action (English) 

Call to Action (French)

Please click here for more resources which may assist you in writing your reflection paper and in your clinical practice. 

Reflection Questions

1. Share your experience in learning of Indigenous people's history in Canada with the disclosure of the deaths and terrorization of children in the residential schools. What was your emotional response to what you read or heard? Is this the first time you became aware of these things?
   
2. Reflect on your awareness of your biases, which can be conscious or unconscious. Can you identify where your biases are and how they have developed? How do those biases impact you personally? How could those biases impact your therapy work?
   
3. From this learning experience and understanding of your biases, describe how you would proceed in serving Indigenous families in your clinical practice. How will the Calls to Action and readings affect your work moving forward, especially from a systemic lens? How do you conceptualize intergenerational trauma in the context of Indigenous experiences and how may that influence your work with Indigenous clients?
   
4. Share what you know of Indigenous traditional cultures and how this knowledge may have changed over the years.
   
5. When learning that Indigenous cultures are family based, how would you proceed in working with an Indigenous person in therapy?
   
6. What informative workshops, books, gatherings, teachings, videos/movies have you participated in regarding the experience of Indigenous Peoples, and how have they assisted you in your personal and/or clinical approaches with Indigenous clients?