Caribbean Healing Traditions

As Caribbean communities become more international, clinicians and scholars must develop new paradigms for understanding treatment preferences and perceptions of illness. Despite evidence supporting the need for culturally appropriate care and the integration of traditional healing practices into conventional health and mental health care systems, it is unclear how such integration would function since little is known about the therapeutic interventions of Caribbean healing traditions.

Caribbean Healing Traditions: Implications for Health and Mental Health fills this gap. Drawing on the knowledge of prominent clinicians, scholars, and researchers of the Caribbean and the diaspora, these healing traditions are explored in the context of health and mental health for the first time, making Caribbean Healing Traditions an invaluable resource for students, researchers, faculty, and practitioners in the fields of nursing, counseling, psychotherapy, psychiatry, social work, youth and community development, and medicine.

Patsy Sutherland, MEd, is a psychotherapist and PhD candidate in counseling psychology at the University of Toronto. She has authored or coauthored over fifteen peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and served as a reviewer for the Counseling Psychology Quarterly. Patsy cofounded the Society for Integrating Traditional Healing into Counseling, Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry.

Roy Moodley, PhD, is associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Toronto. He is the director for the Centre for Diversity in Counselling and Psychotherapy. He has authored or edited several journal articles, book chapters and books, including Outside the Sentence and Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy in an International Context.

Barry Chevannes, PhD, was emeritus professor of social anthropology at the University of the West Indies, Mona. He authored three books, one edited collection, and scores of articles on the Rastafari and Revival religions, male socialization, and culture. A public scholar, he served as chair of the Institute of Jamaica, the National Ganja Commission, and the Jamaica Justice System Reform Task Force.