Prejudice and Politics in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: An Indigenous Perspective from Aotearoa-New Zealand and Australia

The political dimensions of cognitive-behavioral practice are considered in the context of a range of social justice issues, including the marginalization of minorities following colonization, and the role that research and practice play in supporting conditions that maintain trauma and injustice with disempowered peoples. It is argued that critical issues for CBT practitioners who engage with Indigenous peoples in Australasia include appreciating the narrow lens of legitimization, understanding their limited capacity to account for the impacts of systemic oppression, and accommodating points of epistemic and normative divergence with Indigenous ways of being.