We are on stolen land.
Cascade Therapy Group believes in liberation through mental health.
One part of moving toward good mental health is realistically acknowledging our history and the way it influences our present. Another part is choosing how we wish to shape our future.
It is essential, therefore, that we acknowledge that we live and work on the traditional home and lands of the Wahpekute Dakȟóta People and the Anishinabe People.
This land was forcibly taken by settlers.
Treaties were manipulated and broken; families and communities suffered massive losses of life and connection - genocide, forced separation, and continuous erasure of cultural tradition and wisdom by colonists.
We recognize the suffering that was inflicted, including a history of enslavement, human rights abuses, and intentional marginalization. We see the the suffering still inflicted today, and the generational trauma that endures as a result, as well as the disproportionate gains for colonizers and their descendants.
Systemic injustices continue to impact the lives of Indigenous people.
It is our responsibility and privilege as clinicians to bear witness to each individual’s unique losses and grief.
It is our duty to recognize how our mental health system has played/plays its own role in that injustice.
It is essential to notice that harms to any of us harm all of us - not in the same or equivalent ways - but that we all lead more constrained lives when any people are constrained.
So much of what we know about healing comes from Indigenous traditions and wisdom from these lands and from around the world.
We recognize the cultural and spiritual impact that Indigenous peoples have had on the mental health system- an impact that has often been appropriated without honor for or acknowledgement of its origins.
These are our commitments:
To acknowledge the harms happening today and historically, to honor the endurance, strength, and steadfastness of those impacted, and to work towards shaping a future focused on the liberation for all, we commit to:
Continuously listening to, learning about, and honoring the experiences of Indigenous people who seek our services, as well as the stories and experiences of Indigenous communities more generally. Toward this end, we commit to continued training in cultural fluency, humility, and curiosity towards our biases and blindspots.
Actively engaging in care for the land as we use it, including caring for the physical space. Toward this end, we commit to acts of care for the land, including picking up trash and neighborhood beautification.
Contributing to the reappropriation and return of lands to Indigenous people, as well as to housing those who currently lack homes. Toward this end, we contribute monthly to the Land Back movement through the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Organization.
Liberation through
acknowledging our history -
We recognize
the suffering
Inflicted
And the trauma
that endures
But
Traditions and wisdom
From
these lands
and
Indigenous peoples
Today
And historically
Work towards
Shaping a future
Focused on
Liberation
For
All.