Umbanda and Quimbanda

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Zélio Fernandino de Moraes · 1908 · Brazil

What it is

Umbanda is a Brazilian religion that took organised form in the early twentieth century, and scholars agree on that dating. It has no single founder or doctrinal authority. Many Umbandistas tell a founding narrative: in 1908 the medium Zélio Fernandino de Moraes received the spirit Caboclo das Sete…

Format

• This is a framework for the psychotherapist's work alongside a living religion. It is not a manualised therapy. The phases below are organised around the CFI. No source sets a session count for culturally responsive work with Umbandistas or Quimbandeiros.
• Phase 0: Preparation (before and between clients). Goal: examine your own religious position and any prejudice. Learn the legal and ethical frame, which in Brazil is CFP Resolução 7/2023 and the law on religious racism. Know local terreiro-health networks. Move on when you can name your own…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Phase 4: Ongoing treatment and integration. Goal: deliver the evidence-based treatment the formulation calls for, such as CBT, trauma-focused therapy or family work, while helping the client integrate advice from consultations and terreiro experiences. Watch for discrimination and safety issues.…

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

• abrupt stopping of medication and hidden use of substances.
• records that would expose the client to discrimination if read by others.
• coercion, threats of expulsion, or forced religious practices. Go to 4.16.
• interpreter discomfort or moralising, and confidentiality in small diaspora communities.
• your own bias in either direction: assuming abuse because a practice is unfamiliar, or missing abuse out of deference.

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.