Con Alma: Dialogues in Decolonizing Counseling

355 Pages·2014·3.24 MB·English

Copyright
by
Alicia Elizabeth Enciso Litschi
2014
The Dissertation Committee for Alicia Elizabeth Enciso Litschi Certifies that this is
the approved version of the following dissertation:

Con Alma: Dialogues in Decolonizing Counseling—
Reciprocal Ethnographic Explorations in Indigenous Spaces for
Community Healing

Committee:

Ricardo C. Ainslie, Supervisor
Cecilia Ballí
Kevin O. Cokley
Alissa Sherry
Richard R. Valencia
Con Alma: Dialogues in Decolonizing Counseling—
Reciprocal Ethnographic Explorations in Indigenous Spaces for
Community Healing

by
Alicia Elizabeth Enciso Litschi, B.S.; M.A.

Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
The University of Texas at Austin
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

The University of Texas at Austin
August 2014
Dedication

This story is dedicated in gratitude to:

The mujeres of Alma—
Storytellers, medicine women, curanderas, healers, artistas,
warriors, guardians, teachers, elders, abuelas,
hermanas y comadres.

And to my family.

May this ceremony be opened and the work begun.
May all thought, word, and deed emerge in right relation to everything else.
May all missteps be acknowledged with a sincere heart and full repair.
May this story and all interconnected stories serve the work of healing.
Ometeotl!
Acknowledgements

First things first: all gratitude to Creator, Earth Mother and Sky Father, for what
felt like a detour to Texas and became a medicine journey. To the spirits and ancestor
guides and companions, thank you for your patience with me. This research is about
community, and so too I have been blessed with communities big and small and across
miles and years, without whom I would not have had the privilege of doing this work.
To the mujeres of Alma de Mujer, the curanderas and medicine women of central
Texas, gracias. There is so much to say that I cannot possibly do justice in this short
space. My prayer is that I have been respectful and honored all that I have learned from
you. Thank you: María Elena for your generous teachings to me and the community,
devoted leadership, and profound love; Modesta for always reminding us, no matter
what, que ¡sí se puede!; Yvette for helping me with my turtle and sharing with me a
glimpse of your powerful medicine; Gloria for your beautiful stories and ways of
speaking Spirit in the moment; Graciela for your gentle and keen ways of getting straight
to the heart of what matters; Beth for your amazing photos, chocolate mousse, andrenal
remedies, and encouragement as I trudged through writing; Sylvia for our laughs and
stories in the midst of summer camp chores; Cynthia for your unrelenting love of Alma
and teaching me to walk the land and listen attentively; Iris for carrying the medicine
networks across the interwebs and living the ways consciously; Lulu for the gift of
bringing Alma to the youngest of our community; and to Velia for first getting me to
Alma. To Rosa for welcoming me into your home and sharing with me the wisdom of
your own journey between worlds. To Marika, for your steadfast, tell-it-like-it-is love.
Thank you for the prayers and tinctures to help my body, mind, and spirit get through this
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last part. To Brenda, curandera de la academia; and to Naya, hermana staying true to
your ways while doing the doctorate. Thank you for being the trailblazers you are. To
my healer in the therapy office, Amiel Romain, for believing when I insisted on not.
To my Comadre y maestra Virginia Marie, thank you for so many limpias,
prayers, and teachings. Thank you for own example and loving commitment to the work,
helping me get through the hard parts, and encouraging me to get out of my own way.
Wholehearted gratitude to my academic mentors and dissertation committee who
have supported me in carrying forward the idea for this work. I pray that I have honored
and been respectful of what you have taught me too. To Dr. Ricardo Ainslie, for
encouraging me to revive the anthropologist in me and return to the power of stories; for
supporting this research even when I was doubtful that it was possible. To Dr. Kevin
Cokley for all the support, especially in the early years when I questioned whether I could
find a place for myself in psychology; thank you for nurturing the feel of community
among students of color in the program. To Dr. Alissa Sherry for all the wonderful
articles that inspired me to think about the history of Western psychology. To Dr.
Richard Valencia for the lessons on the power of scholarship to make a difference. To
Dr. Cecilia Ballí for mentoring me in the craft and sacred labor of writing. To my early
mentors in anthropology so many years ago: Dr. Laura Miller and Dr. Ruth Behar. I
remembered your teachings; it just took me a while to find my topic.
To my clinical supervisors over the last five years, thank you for inspiring me and
fostering my love of therapy: Dr. Lynn Chang, Molina Davis, Dr. James Coleman, Dr.
Sylvia Chen, Dr. Mike Andorka, Dr. Marla Craig, and Dr. Mark Zentner. To Martha
Feng and Willow Young for the soul-nourishing time together at Pacifica.
To my beloved friends and companions on this journey; I am looking forward to
more play time! To Mercedes Martinez for being in the canoe, even in drought and
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storms. To Laura Weingarten for your ability to make me laugh and for enduring the
pains of a vicarious doctorate. To Shane Whalley for witnessing. To my dear sisters Ra
and Nicky and beloved hermano Shinzan—thank you for the spiritual journeys we have
taken together. To my first Comadre, Elizabeth de la Portilla. You helped awaken the
curandera in me. Thank you for fourteen years of enduring friendship.
To the Litschis, Bob and Sandy, thank you for your wholehearted welcome into
your family, your support and encouragement as I disappeared in order to write.
The seed of this work was planted long ago, nourished, and given life by my
family. To my beautiful parents, Sergio and Patsy Enciso, thank you for showering me
with unending love and gifting me with your faith, love of the ancestors, and love of the
plants. Thank you for trusting and supporting me even when my path seemed absolutely
baffling. That has made all the difference. Thank you to my sister, Angela Castillo, a
woman with the most generous heart who always has been by my side. Thank you for
growing our family with Justin and the amazing Marcus and Tess.
Thank you to my beloved elders, Nani and Tía Chata. And to those who have
passed on: Panino, Grandpa Jim, Mina, Mamina, Anne Camille, Uncle Henry, Tía Lichi,
and all those relatives now gone, whom I never met in the flesh. Thank you for your
guidance and all the paths and sacrifices that brought me to this moment.
To my soulmate and husband, Matthew Litschi. Thank you for stepping into the
mystery with me, for your prayerful heart, and the healer you nurture in yourself. You
have had a raw, behind-the-scenes view of this process. Thank you for seeing the big
picture when I could not and for keeping the hearth fires alive when I was too tired. I am
so grateful.
Last but not least, thank you to the spirits of the land at Alma and to Marsha
Gómez for all that you have done.
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Con Alma: Dialogues in Decolonizing Counseling—
Reciprocal Ethnographic Explorations in Indigenous Spaces for
Community Healing

Alicia Elizabeth Enciso Litschi, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin, 2014

Supervisor: Ricardo C. Ainslie

Postcolonial critiques have emphasized the need for Western psychology to
become more reflective of the histories, worldviews, and lived realities of historically
marginalized communities across the globe (Comas-Díaz, 2000; Duran & Duran, 1995;
Pickren, 2009). These works have included the contributions of liberation psychologists
who advocate for the need to privilege the knowledge systems, concerns, and
perspectives of local communities when proposing avenues for psychological research,
intervention, and theoretical development (Watkins & Shulman, 2008). Recognizing the
legacies of colonialism in North America, U.S. psychologists working with Indigenous
communities have advocated for better collaboration with grassroots elders, teachers, and
community groups, noting the importance of recognizing the validity of Indigenous
epistemologies and the colonizing tensions that still exist between Indigenous healing
systems and Western psychology (Duran, Firehammer & Gonzalez, 2008; Gone, 2007;
Gone & Alcántara, 2007).
Against this backdrop, the present research was carried out as an immersive,
long-term ethnographic study in collaboration with Alma de Mujer (Alma), a community
of Indigenous-identified women in central Texas, who are committed to creating
accessible spaces for their communities to practice Indigenous lifeways and healing.
Employing reciprocal ethnographic methods, the author spent two years participating in
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events and gatherings with the Alma community, as well as conducting in-depth
interviews. Community members were consulted on an ongoing basis about the
development of the research.
The document centers on four objectives: First, the author traces the history of
the Alma community as it emerged from social liberation and psychospiritual healing
movements over the latter half of the 20th century. Second, based on the women’s
stories, the author presents community members’ narratives about how healing is situated
within the community’s Indigenous knowledge systems. Specific attention is given to the
holistic and reciprocal nature of healing in these stories. Third, the author includes
contributions from Indigenous healers who remark on their experiences of the tensions
between Indigenous healing systems and Western mental health institutions. Fourth, the
author concludes with a personal critical reflection as a trainee in Western psychology
and considers how dialogues between local Indigenous communities and Western
psychology might be further explored.
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Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... xiv
PROLOGUE: OPENING THE CIRCLE ............................................................1
INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH FROM WITHIN THE CIRCLE ..................3
PART I. TRACING HISTORIES ......................................................................23
Chapter 1. Arrival at Alma....................................................................................23
The Early Years ............................................................................................28
Cycles of Grief and Healing .........................................................................31
The Web of Community ...............................................................................33
Chapter 2. Legacies of De-Indigenization and Racialization on Turtle Island .....39
Mestizaje in Spanish and Mexican Legacies ................................................41
Indian Removal Strategies in the U.S. ..........................................................46
Ethnic Cleansing in Texas ............................................................................48
Racialization and De-Indigenization into the Twentieth Century ................52
Chapter 3. De-Indigenizing Healing and Medicine ..............................................56
Curanderismo under Spanish Rule................................................................57
The Place of Women in Healing ...................................................................62
The Medicalization of Healing .....................................................................65
Chapter 4. Colonizing Legacies in Western Psychology ......................................71
Western Psychology as the Exception ..........................................................73
Epistemological Dilemmas in Western Psychology .....................................79
Privileging Western Life-Worlds ..................................................................84
Chapter 5. Postcolonial Contexts and Liberation Discourses ...............................88
Naming Postcolonial Wounds.......................................................................89
Liberation Psychologies ................................................................................91
Sharing Space with the Voices of Local Communities ................................95
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