Haitian Vodou

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Haiti

What it is

Haitian Vodou is a living religion, not a psychotherapy. Its practitioners serve the lwa, described in the WHO/PAHO review as spirits, ancestors or saints who can protect devotees and can also cause harm if not satisfied. The review states that Vodou "constitutes a health care system" covering…

Format

• Phase 0. Preparation (before and between sessions). Goal: examine your own beliefs about illness and about Haitian culture, as the WHO/PAHO review asks of helpers (p. 22). Learn the Kreyòl idioms of distress and the historical context, including stigma against Vodou. Arrange a Kreyòl interpreter or…
• Phase 1. Engagement and cultural assessment (sessions 1 to 3, often with family). Goal: understand the problem in the client's terms. Use the core CFI (16 questions in four domains), the Informant Version with a family member when the client agrees, and the relevant supplementary modules. APA's…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Who holds authority. Within Vodou, the oungan (priest) and manbo (priestess) "possess the knowledge of the tradition" and are respected in their communities (WHO/PAHO 2010, p. 7). The same review distinguishes the bòkò, described as someone who can send curses or spells, from the oungan and manbo. Before 2008, Haiti's oungans were reported to be "largely independent". The Associated Press reported that Max Beauvoir…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Phase 4. Treatment and integration (number of sessions set by the presenting problem). Goal: deliver your usual evidence-based therapy, adapted in language and content, and help the client integrate spiritual and clinical understandings without forcing an "either/or" choice (WHO/PAHO 2010, p. 22).…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• your own or the interpreter's religious bias; clients who hide practice entirely. It is working when the client can talk about their faith without apology.
• stopping medication on a family's or helper's advice; side effects interpreted as a spiritual attack. It is working when the client discusses remedies openly with the prescriber.
• tradition used to excuse abuse, and the opposite error of treating religious practice itself as abuse. It is working when risks are named early and plans protect everyone involved.
• spiritual explanations used to avoid painful material; your own pull to credit or discredit the spiritual care. It is working when the client describes one coherent story of recovery.
• silence or non-directive reflection being read as indifference; early drop-out after a session without a plan. It is working when the client returns and reports using something from the session.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.