Torres Strait healing

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Torres Strait, Australia

What it is

"Torres Strait healing" is not a single therapy or a manual. It refers to the ways Torres Strait Islander families and communities look after health and wellbeing under Ailan Kastom, which the TSRA's development plan, citing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005, defines as "the body…

Format

• No Islander body publishes a phased clinical protocol for psychotherapists. The phases below are the therapist's own culturally responsive process, built from the CFI, the SEWB model and Islander governance principles. Session counts are suggestions, not source figures.
• Phase 0. Preparation (before first contact). Goal: know the place, the protocols and the people who can advise. Learn which island group, language and community the client belongs to; identify the service's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health or mental health workers and cultural advisers;…

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?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• 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

• the client stopping medicine quietly; it is working when the prescriber and client discuss changes together.
• fatigue; questions that edge into sacred matters; it is working when the module gives you something the plan uses.
• the client protecting you from criticism; it is working when the client raises a concern about the service and stays.
• shame about risk; family under strain; it is working when the client uses the plan and the right people are reachable.
• imposing Western ideas of adoption loss; it is working when the client feels their family is understood on their terms.

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.