Maya Migrants and Psychotherapy: Recommendations and a Case Study from Comunidad Sol in Canton, Ohio

This article approaches the question: How can non-Indigenous mental health practitioners work appropriately with Maya K’iche’ and Ixil communities in the United States? The authors are three Maya leaders and one non-Indigenous psychotherapist, the four of whom have worked together for several years. Psychological treatment rooted in Euro-American paradigms can be minimally helpful—if not harmful—to many Indigenous communities (Dudgeon & Bray, 2016). Traditional approaches such as cognitive-behavior therapy continue the colonial preoccupation with individual pathology and the separation of mind, body, spirit, and nature. The authors suggest that more appropriate approaches would include acknowledging structural oppression and centering the K’iche’ and Ixil cosmovision, which are oriented toward community and Mother Earth. In addition, cosmic health processes consistent with the communities’ lifeways work from a non-hierarchical relationality based on dialogue and shared power. The authors discuss a case example with an Ixil man which demonstrates such a re-orientation toward cosmic wellness.