University of Western Australia
The Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project at The University of Western Australia has launched an Australian-first suite of free resources for psychology supervisors that aims to increase cultural safety when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision initiative was led by Research Fellow Belle Selkirk, a Noongar woman and clinical psychologist with colleague, Dr Joanna Alexi.
The project is under the leadership of trailblazing Bardi woman and psychologist, Professor Pat Dudgeon AM, through the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing research project.
“It is every psychologist’s responsibility to be able to work in culturally safe ways with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and this includes culturally safe psychological supervision,” Ms Selkirk said.
“The knowledges and principles of culturally safe supervision detailed in this guide have been articulated by Indigenous psychologists from an Indigenous standpoint.”
The Listening More initiative has produced a comprehensive set of resources including a guide, manual of resources, and a reflective journal, and the inaugural edition is timely with the proposed changes in the Psychology Board of Australia’s competencies for general registration.
“These free resources will help address a critical gap in psychology and with 46,000 registered psychologists in Australia, the demand for capacity-building necessitated by changes in registration requirements will be significant,” Ms Selkirk said.
The resources were produced by the Listening More working group which included representatives from AIPEP and the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association (working group members: Belle Selkirk (lead), Joanna Alexi, Tanja Hirvonen, Mary Goslett, Jeneva Ohan, and Vanessa Edwige) with the support of the Australian Psychological Society, Australian Psychology Accreditation Council, and Heads of Departments and Schools of Psychology Association.
For more information, please see the AIPEP website.
Image above: Project lead Research Fellow Belle Selkirk and Dr Joanna Alexi.