N.W.T. counsellors say $7M from feds will establish new healing lodge

New federal funding for a healing lodge in the N.W.T. will help establish a facility focused on cultural immersion, land-based wellness, and processing grief and trauma, according to a couple of trauma counsellors in the territory.

"Trauma impacts the body, the heart, the mind and spirit," said Roy Erasmus, who co-owns Dene Wellness Warriors with his partner Jean Erasmus.  

"It's a wound that adds to personal and intergenerational suffering. We want the participants to learn how trauma has impacted them and we offer the tools to deal with reactions to trauma and live in the present," said Roy.

Roy and Jean co-chair the Endacho Healing Society which will build a new, energy-efficient and eco-sensitive healing lodge with 24 beds and six- to eight-week healing programs.

N.W.T. MP Michael McLeod announced $7 million in federal funding for the facility last month, days before the federal election was called.  

"Across the Northwest Territories, many Indigenous peoples, families and communities are deeply affected by trauma and its health and social impacts," McLeod said in a March 21 news release.

The funding is part of the federal Green and Inclusive Community Buildings (GICB) program, focused on creating a healthy environment and economy. 

The new lodge will focus on culture and traditional teachings, blending Western and Indigenous healing methods to "help deal with the traumas" that addictions stem from, said Roy Erasmus.

The centre will be distinct as a trauma healing lodge and will not be an addictions healing centre. Endacho will provide aftercare to people who are at least 35 days sober, a requirement before attending, Roy said.

Endacho will be open to people who have been sober for years or decades and even those who never faced addictions.

"It's not only psycho-educational, it's really immersing the participants in culture. There will be a land-based component and we know as Indigenous Dene that the land heals," said Jean. 

Jean Erasmus said the lodge would also serve elders. 

"They've been through a lot and lived a long life with their traumas, and a lot of them haven't dealt with it," she said. 

Current treatment difficult to access 

N.W.T. residents currently face waits to attend healing programs in B.C., and there is a lack of an Indigenous-focused trauma healing space to send people to, Roy said.

He says the existing referral process for treatment programs is "very complicated" and requires seeing a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse in order to be assessed. The Endacho lodge will be different, said Roy. 

"We're hoping that people will be able to get referred by a central person in each community working with the lodge, and that it would be a lot easier than it is right now," he said.

Jean said the planned healing lodge will build on the work of the N.W.T.-based Northern Indigenous Counselling program, which trained 16 counsellors in its 2022 cohort and expects 13 more to graduate this July. 

"The beautiful thing about it is that they're not only trained, but they've done a lot of inner work to help them [in] healing their wounds so that they can be really effective counsellors," said Jean.

The Endacho Healing Society still must negotiate the conditions of its contribution agreement and is still working to select a location for the facility. It has an advisory committee with members from each region across the N.W.T. 

"When we made our presentations to the annual assemblies, every region we went to, they all said, 'put it in our region.' Someone may come forward and make us an offer we can't refuse," said Roy Erasmus.

Healing for complex, repeat traumas

Roy said communities in the North are highly interconnected and when there's a tragedy, "everybody knows about it and it affects everybody."

He points to the community of Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., where a 29-year-old man was allegedly murdered in February. Just weeks later, in the same community of about 500 people, a woman was found dead after an alleged stabbing.

Roy said it would be a "huge accomplishment" to provide trauma healing in the North.

"The impact of colonization is the origin of most community, family and personal problems," he said.

The Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation has been calling for years for the establishment of a healing centre in the North, said board member chair Magnolia Unka-Wool. 

"We are glad the government is finally understanding and committing to this need, and we hope this is the beginning of many commitments to support Indigenous wellness in the north," she said.

The foundation, focused on delivery of traditional healing services for the North, will continue to serve those needs, she said.

Dene Wellness Warriors will test its curriculum for a master's degree in trauma counselling in two pilot programs in preparation for the healing lodge, he said. 

Practicum students from the Northern Indigenous Counselling program will assist in a four-week program focused on processing grief and regulating compounding traumas.

The program topics will include "reclaiming our culture, confronting colonization and its impacts," he said.