Living in Shadows, Healing in the Law: An Aboriginal Experience of Recovery Using Psychotherapy and Aboriginal Spiritual Practice

Abstract

This paper presents an Aboriginal experience of recovery from the effects of the violence of sexual, emotional, cultural and spiritual abuse which caused the author to develop dissociative identity disorder and complex post‐traumatic stress disorder, from which she recovered utilizing psychotherapy combined with Ngungkari medicine from traditional Aboriginal healers. The paper discusses aspects of these different traditions and the clinical, social and political necessity of understanding and accepting the use of traditional medicine in the process of recovery.