Research project
Bringing Indigenous knowledge to family healing: A cross-cultural, single session service
Funded by the Jeff Lipp Innovation Award 2025
The Bouverie Centre
Who is this research most relevant to?
- Family Therapy and Systemic Practice Clinicians
- Policymakers
- Program Developers
- Organisations (Particularly those working with First Nations therapists and families)
- Families
Contact for further information
Overview
This innovative project builds on The Bouverie Centre’s ongoing work in Single Session Thinking (SST) and the Walk-in Together (WIT) family therapy model to co-develop a First Nations–led WIT clinic. The initiative brings together First Nations Elders, family therapists, and researchers to create the WIT Workin’ with the Mob framework; a clinical approach that weaves First Nations cultural wisdoms such as, deep listening, the circle that holds us all, and Aunty Judy’s Six Stages of Healing, into contemporary systemic models, including SST and No Bullshit Therapy.
The project aims to better understand both the family’s experience of having a First Nations therapist present and the therapist’s experience of embedding First Nations practices into family therapy. Ultimately, it seeks to reduce barriers to timely support for families and to provide services that are more responsive, inclusive, and culturally grounded. This is the first known initiative in Australia (and potentially globally) to integrate First Nations healing frameworks into mainstream family therapy for all families. By centring Indigenous knowledge, the project fosters cross-cultural learning, systemic wellbeing, and collective healing.
Key research highlights
Early findings highlight that families experience the integration of First Nations cultural wisdom into family therapy as deeply validating, culturally enriching, and powerfully unifying, fostering understanding both within families and across cultural lines.
Emerging findings from families:
| Theme | Subtheme | Description |
|---|---|---|
| A. Relational Impact | Deep validation Appreciation of First Nations relational approach | Feeling accurately seen and understood Valuing the grounded, kinship-informed, relational style |
| B. Culturally Informed Therapeutic Insight | Truth-telling of trauma Gentle simplification of complexity | Naming unresolved trauma shaping family conflict Using values-based, digestible language to simplify complexity |
| C. Reconciliation | Shared humanity across cultural lines Expertise through lived experience | Finding unexpected cross-cultural connection and shared humanity Therapeutic authority grounded in cultural wisdom and lived trauma experience |
Research publications and shared knowledge
Manuscript in preparation