Towards a bicultural psychotherapy: Decolonising psychotherapy in hospice care

Abstract

Discrepancies between hospice service usage and cancer rates in Māori, the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, raise several questions. There have been numerous studies into these discrepancies highlighting issues regarding the appropriateness of care in hospice services in Aotearoa for Māori. This paper explores these issues, accentuating some gaps in the literature—such as intergenerational trauma—as well as ways that Pākehā psychotherapists (New Zealander psychotherapists of European descent) can biculturally engage with Māori. The author encourages psychotherapists to become allies by embracing a Māori-centred approach to psychotherapy that brings both groups together as partners, while working through numerous post-colonial issues.