As a therapeutic method, Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy incorporates a body-centered, land-based approach to healing. It recognizes that people are more than driven by their experiences, and their healing is driven by more than just words. 

Instead of focusing solely on talking through an experience, IFOT looks at what is happening within your body and the feelings, sensations, memories and knowledge that come up as you move through challenging experiences. 

This approach was designed for work with complex trauma and incorporates the Indigenous perspectives on healing, including relationships with land, family, community, culture, ancestors, animals, and the wider world.

More than this, it is grounded in the belief that you have knowledge within yourself. And therapy is a tool that helps you create the space to slow down and notice what is happening. It allows you to take stock of what is happening in your body and to explore what your experiences are saying. 

When it comes to trauma, it doesn’t always have to start with you. Nor is it always connected to one specific event. 

Our experiences are influenced by the world around us. And our experiences can be shaped by our families, communities, relationships, cultures, and the systems we've lived within. In Canada, some of these factors include the continued effects of colonization, residential schools, displacement, cultural loss, systemic discrimination, and trauma carried across generations.

The beauty of IFOT is that it provides a framework for exploring personal experiences while recognizing this larger context.

How Does IFOT Work?

You don't need to walk into a session knowing exactly what you're feeling or why.

Part of the work is learning to notice.

Instead of focusing exclusively on the question, "What do you think about what happened?" we may also explore:

Where do you feel it?

What happens in your body when you talk about it?

What emotions or memories come forward?

What does your body need you to pay attention to?

IFOT allows the client to maintain control over the pace and direction of the therapeutic process. The approach creates room for the body's "felt sense"—the physical awareness we can sometimes experience before we're able to put something into words.

Sometimes understanding begins before we have the language to explain it.

IFOT has particular applications in working with complex and intergenerational trauma, but the approach can support people navigating many different experiences.

Our work may explore:

• Complex trauma

• Intergenerational trauma

• Cultural trauma

• Grief and loss

• Childhood experiences

• Emotional abuse or neglect

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Substance use

• Relationship difficulties

• Identity and belonging

• Experiences of systemic injustice

• Difficult emotions that are felt strongly within the body

HealthLink BC identifies Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy as an approach used for complex, cultural, and intergenerational trauma, as well as grief, emotional abuse or neglect, anxiety, substance use, depression, and healthy relationships.