ReRooted – Ep. 51 – All My Relations with Shirley Turcotte, RCC

Shirley Turcotte, RCC, joins Francesca to discuss how Indigenous Focusing-Orientation Therapy techniques are medicine for remembering our collectivity. Shirley Turcotte, RCC, is founder of the Indigenous Focusing-Orientation Therapy (IFOT), a Métis knowledge keeper and registered clinical counselor, working internationally with survivors of childhood abuses, torture, and complex traumas, including Residential School Syndrome. A pioneering activist in the areas of complex trauma therapeutic treatment and program development for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, she has received awards, including British Columbia’s Woman of Distinction Award in Health and Education. She is the lead instructor and clinical supervisor of two Aboriginal Programs with the Centre for Counseling and Community Safety at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. For more info please visit: Focusing Initiatives’ IFOT page All My Relations: Pandemic & Indigenous Community Welcoming her friend and teacher, Shirley Turcotte, RCC, to ReRooted, Francesca invites her to share about the effect of the pandemic on both herself in her work and daily life, and the Indigenous community as a whole. Sharing the trying history of genocide amongst Indigenous populations, Shirley relays the importance of recognizing the collective, communal, and intergenerational experience of pandemic (and trauma in general), recognizing our connection to all life and land, the interconnected web of life. “‘All my relations’ means to be connected and interconnected to all of life and land. So what you in your own body is experiencing does not belong to you. It’s something that’s held collectively. So when I’m experiencing pandemic anxiety, it’s not just my lived experience, I’m holding my community there too.” – Shirley Turcotte For more Francesca exploring the intersection of Indigenous perspectives and mindfulness, check out Ep. 40 of ReRooted Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy (10:58) Shirley shares how her ‘all my relations’ collective perspective connec