Adopting an Indigenous rights-based approach to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: Repositioning school psychology to address Competency 8
This paper examines the emerging professional expectation that school psychologists will be able to demonstrate competency in delivering services to Indigenous students. We argue that achieving this competency requires an underpinning Indigenous rights-based perspective embedded in professional education and practice. We discuss the historical context of psychology in Australia, the competencies needed for psychologists and […]
Systemic Racism and Oppression in Psychology: Voices from Psychologists, Academic Staff, and Students
Psychology must reassess its training approach, as the current monocultural paradigm not only causes harm, but also fails to equip psychologists with the knowledge needed to provide culturally appropriate care for Māori, Pacific, Asian, and other minoritised groups. Findings from this report contribute to the growing evidence of the urgent need to address barriers preventing […]
Māori-focused Course Content in Undergraduate Psychology Programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand
Despite consistent critiques of the psychology discipline for over 40 years there has been insufficient inclusion of Māori worldviews in tertiary learning environments, and we still do not have a comprehensive curriculum that can prepare psychology graduates to work with Māori. Out of 141 courses offered in 2022 that we assessed, only two (1.4%) were […]
Marginalisation, Migration, and Movement: Responding to the Underrepresentation of Māori in the Clinical Psychology Workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand
Within Aotearoa, the shift towards an Indigenously grounded psychology continues with great excitement and caution. An over-reliance on epistemologies, research, and practice based on Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies remains a barrier to achieving this. To understand the growth of the clinical psychology workforce and the Māori workforce, Manatū Hauora, Ministry of […]
A Framework to Enact Competency 8 Through an Indigenous Rights-based Approach in School Psychology
This paper presents a framework implementing the Psychology Board of Australia’s Competency 8 through an Indigenous Rights-Based Approach (IRBA), recognising that effective cultural competency requires Indigenous expert leadership rather than models developed without Indigenous guidance. Centring Indigenous Sovereignty, self-determination, and reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous experts, the framework emphasises sustained relationships rather than episodic training. The […]
Hearing Australian Aboriginal stories to develop recommendations towards improving the psychology discipline: an Indigenous yarning methodological perspective.
The dominant western scientific methodology and standards are being challenged by a global academic push by Indigenous peoples to preference the use of culturally informed and appropriate Indigenous methodologies to produce collective benefits for communities. This article describes a methodology grounded by an Indigenous research paradigm, embodied through an Indigenous standpoint lens, and underpinned by […]
Decolonizing psychology education in Australia through the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project
There is a critical need for Indigenous knowledges in psychology as a matter of epistemic justice and achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In Australia, Indigenous psychologists are at the forefront of the decolonizing psychology movement by challenging the Western hegemony and privileging Indigenous knowledges in psychology. Situated within this movement, […]
AIPEP Learning Resource: Working Together and the Psychology Board of Australia Professional Competencies for Psychology – Competency 8 Resource Map
The AIPEP Learning Resources aims to support Ahpra registered psychologists build their capacity to meet Psychology Board of Australia’s Professional Competency 8: Demonstrates a health equity and human rights approach when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This online resource maps chapters from the Working Together (2014) textbook against the Psychology Board of […]
AIPEP Learning Resource: Psychology Board of Australia Professional Competencies for Psychology – Competency 8 Resource Map
The AIPEP Learning Resources aims to support Ahpra registered psychologists build their capacity to meet Psychology Board of Australia’s Professional Competency 8: Demonstrates a health equity and human rights approach when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This online resource maps a wide range of Indigenous-led publications against Competency 8 sub competencies. Readers will […]
Use of the Westerman Aboriginal Symptoms Checklist – Youth (WASC-Y) to screen for mental health problems in Indigenous youth in custody
The primary aim of this study was to screen for mental health problems in Australian Indigenous young people in a youth detention centre using the Westerman Aboriginal Symptoms Checklist – Youth (WASC-Y). Over the study period, all Indigenous young people admitted into custody were referred for screening with the WASC-Y, a culturally validated fivescaled instrument […]
The need for culturally valid psychological assessment tools in Indigenous mental health
A clear understanding of the nature and extent of suicidal behaviour and other mental health issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations has been limited by the national failure to develop clinically and culturally valid assessments and to ensure the cultural competence of practitioners. The default position for Australian mental health researchers is to […]
The Westerman Aboriginal Symptom Checklist – Youth Version: national data from a clinical sample of Aboriginal youth
To produce national clinical norms for WASC-Y, examine the internal consistency of the WASC-Y scales, compare scores from a clinical sample with previously published community sample data, and test the degree to which other scales predict the Suicide Scale. We analysed WASC-Y data from 1226 Aboriginal youth who had presented to mental health services between […]
Strategies for coping and dealing with lateral violence among Aboriginal people living in south-east Australia
Objective Lateral violence, a group of behaviours directed towards people of the same group, is considered endemic among Aboriginal people. Behaviours include bullying, gossiping, isolation or exclusion of certain group members, and challenges to one’s Aboriginal identity. Lateral violence impacts all aspects of one’s life. Due to its pervasiveness, this qualitative study investigated strategies employed […]
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Complex Trauma and Strengths Questionnaire: psychometric evaluation
Objective Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex trauma) describes a cluster of symptoms frequently associated with prolonged exposure to inescapable threats or abuse. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia impacted by complex trauma, there may be compounding factors, such as experiences of historical trauma, loss and socio-economic deprivation stemming from colonisation. However, there […]
The interactive effects of Indigenous identity and lateral violence on youth adjustment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
Lateral violence is the potential for members of a group to engage in practices that are harmful to other members of their own group. Evidence indicates that lateral violence can affect Aboriginal children?s social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB); however, little is known about the potential for ethnic-racial identity (ERI) to protect against harmful effects of […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors.
The Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors is designed to support supervisors in being culturally safe and responsive in their supervision of Australia’s psychologists, specifically when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This project was led by the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP), in collaboration with […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors.
Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors. (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Journal). The second companion document is the Listening More Manual of […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources for Psychology Supervisors.
Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources which includes a sample of recommended reading and resources to assist psychology supervisors’ learning journeys. The […]
A review of Evidence-Based Evaluation of Measures for Assessing Social and Emotional Well-Being in Indigenous Australians
Addressing low levels of social and emotional well-being (SEWB) in Indigenous communities has been a national strategic priority for over 10 years and yet progress in assessing the impact of interventions has been slow. One of the key factors limiting the development of evidence-based practice has been the lack of well-validated instruments to assess SEWB […]
Weaving Wayapa and cognitive behaviour therapy: applying research topic yarning to explore a cultural interface between Western and Indigenous psychology practice in Australia
Background Indigenous Psychology within Australia reflects the traditional knowledges of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their understanding of the cultivation of relational social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB). However, these perspectives are poorly incorporated into dominant “Western” psychological theories and practice, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). This represents a barrier to the cultural […]
Working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care through a culturally safe framework [Webinar]
Working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care through a culturally safe framework
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ understandings, experiences and impacts of lateral violence within the workplace
Lateral violence is the act of directing one’s dissatisfaction inwards, towards another member of an oppressed group. Lateral violence is believed to be an ongoing and intergenerational consequence of colonisation and oppression for many Indigenous peoples around the world. Within Australian, oppression in the form of racism and negative stereotypes has consequently enabled lateral violence […]
Attachment and the (mis)apprehension of Aboriginal children: epistemic violence in child welfare interventions
Child protection systems in Australia continue to disproportionately investigate Aboriginal families and intervene to remove Aboriginal children, applying non-Indigenous constructs and understandings of child development that contribute to these enduring inequities. Attachment theory is one such prevalent framework with significant applications in child protection. While constructions of attachment have attempted to grapple with diversity, its […]
Healing Our Way Podcast
The Healing Our Way podcast was created in close consultation with The Healing Foundation’s Youth Reference Group. Season one explores topics relating to intergenerational trauma, racism, identity, culture, and healing. Season two takes a deep dive into intergenerational healing and the strengths and challenges that many First Nations youth are currently experiencing. The series features […]
Glossary of healing terms
