Garifuna dügü

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Belize and Honduras

What it is

The dügü is a Garifuna ancestral ceremony. It is not a psychotherapy, and a psychotherapist does not perform, lead or imitate it. The Garinagu are a people of mixed Indigenous Caribbean and African origin. In the 18th century they were forced out of Saint Vincent and settled along the Atlantic…

Format

• B. The psychotherapist's work alongside (phases are; no source sets session counts).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• 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

• elders speaking for the client; the client losing their voice; coercion. It is working when decisions are shared and the client agrees with them.
• guilt about unmet memorial duties; grief combined with migration losses. It is working when the bond comforts the client more than it burdens them.
• your own curiosity; workshops or retreats that market Garifuna ceremony to outsiders. It is working when the client feels respected rather than studied.
• concealment because of past ridicule by clinicians; conflicting instructions. It is working when the client tells you about other help without hesitating.
• fear of betraying the family; outsiders mislabelling ordinary practice as abuse. It is working when the person is safe and their cultural ties are kept wherever possible.

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.