At the 2011 Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disease (CCSAD), Dr. Judith Landau – as an indigenous healer and holistic physician – spoke with executives of the Symposium’s owners – C4 Recovery Solutions – about her long-held dream of bringing together indigenous healers from around the world and across cultures with Western medicine practitioners to share knowledge and experiences in order to link the wisdom of indigenous healing with the scientific approaches to addictions treatment and recovery. Judith’s dream was consistent with C4’s history and early activities in “Indian Country,” and an initial plan for development was created; 4 Winds was born.
The purpose of the 4 Winds Indigenous Healers Project (4 Winds) is to improve Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery for individuals and families affected by Trauma and Addiction through integration of indigenous and Western medicine practices.
Our hope is that this page of “Our Work” will become a resource for us all. Please contribute your thoughts, practices, experiences, music, poems and other contributions to our Contributions and Discussions page. We will select from that on a regular basis those pieces that will be added to this resource section.
4 Winds accomplishes its work by collaborating with indigenous healers and communities to
1. Identify culturally competent approaches to trauma and addiction treatment and recovery;
2. Develop an interactive, web-based community of indigenous and Western practitioners and evolve a Compendium describing indigenous approaches and comparing these approaches to "Western Science-based" (Western) approaches to identify commonalities, complementarities, and divergences; and
3. Suggest ways that both indigenous, Western and other practices might be improved. The Project will do this by continuing its identification and recruitment of both Western scientists and indigenous healers and resources throughout the World (e.g., North and South American Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian, Maori, Australian aboriginal, African, Arctic Sami) to solicit their participation in the Project, and working with them to develop the community and Compendium.
The principals of 4 Winds – their Executive Committee – is composed of Dr. Judith Landau, Chair, Dr. Walter Hillabrant, Vice-Chair, Sonita Abrahams, Secretary/Treasurer, and Brunie Emmanuel, Coordinator. Each of these individuals offer different and valuable skills to accomplish the Goals of 4 Winds. Their individual approaches may best be understood by viewing brief video clips from each of them.
Goals
1. Continue to identify, recruit, and collaborate with an opportunity sample of indigenous healers willing to a) describe the nature and scope of trauma and addiction in their communities, and b) describe their approach to healing and recovery as well as the problems associated with the ways that "western science-based" approaches are applied in their communities.
2. Develop an outline of the Compendium of indigenous, Western and other approaches to trauma and addiction prevention, treatment, recovery and healing.
3. Produce and disseminate the draft Compendium with the aim of obtaining reviews and feedback of ways to improve.
4. Revise and update the Compendium based on feedback received.
5. Broadly disseminate the Compendium with the goal of improving trauma and addiction prevention, treatment, recovery and healing in both native and non-native communities.
6. Continuously work to achieve sustainability and obtain funding from private and public sector funders to ensure attainment of 4 Winds’ goals and objectives.
Objectives
In this section, objectives are described for each of the 5 goals described in the previous section. While envisioning the Project activities to continue and grow beyond the period of performance of this grant, the following activities and deliverables will be conducted and developed as a result of this funding.
Goal 1. Continue to identify, recruit, and collaborate with an opportunity sample of indigenous healers willing to a) describe the nature and scope of trauma and addiction in their communities, and b) describe their approach to healing and recovery as well as the problems associated with the ways that "western science-based" approaches are applied in their communities.
Background. Over the life of the 4 Winds project, we have identified and recruited indigenous healers including North and South American Indians, native Hawaiians, Maori from New Zealand, as well as healers from South Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. In addition, 4 Winds has developed relationships with a number of Western and other practitioners from the New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Turkey, Iran, India, Nepal, China, Japan, the Caribbean and the Americas through its Advisory and Consultant networks.
With the funding obtained from C4 and other entities, we anticipate more than doubling the number of participating healers and practitioners.
December 31, 2014. Identification of and communication with an additional 30 indigenous healers/organizations. Communication will include development of:
1. Guidelines for the requested descriptions of approaches (nature and scope of trauma and/or addiction; indigenous approaches to prevention, treatment, and healing; problems associated with Western/science-based and other approaches in their communities)
2. Strategies to identify potential 4-Winds national and international funders (see goal 5 and associated objectives).
3. Formal and informal agreements established with 20 indigenous healers/organizations. These agreements will summarize the mutual projects’ goals and objectives as well as the roles and responsibilities of the participants.
Goal 2. Develop an outline of the Compendium of indigenous, Western and other approaches to trauma and addiction prevention, treatment, recovery and healing.
2.1. December 31, 2014. Development of the first rough draft of the Compendium outline.
2.2. March 30, 2014. Development of the second draft of the Compendium outline and plan for distribution to project participants and other stakeholders.
2.3. June 30, 2015. Revision of the Compendium outline and first draft of selected sections.
Goal 3. Produce and disseminate the draft Compendium to the 4 Winds network with the aim of obtaining reviews and feedback of ways to improve it.
3.1. July 15, 2015. Development of the first draft of the initial Compendium. The writing process will be collaborative and iterative with sections of the compendium assigned to specific authors.
3.2. July 30, 2015. The first draft of the initial Compendium will be disseminated, primarily through the 4 Winds website. This dissemination and request for feedback will include a broad range of stakeholders--indigenous healers and organizations, practitioners and researchers.
Goal 4. Revise and update the Compendium based on feedback received.
4.1. September 30, 2015. Revision of the Compendium will be an ongoing process, but a revised draft will be completed by this date.
4.2. October 15, 2015. For the purposes of this funding, the final draft of the Compendium will be distributed to members of the 4 Winds world-wide network and our web-based community (i.e., a minimum of at least 50 network members).
Goal 5. Broadly disseminate the Compendium with the goal of improving trauma and addiction prevention, treatment, recovery and healing in both native and non-native communities.
5.1. Develop and implement a process for measuring the effect of integration of indigenous, Western and other practices on at least 3 target populations.
5.2. Continue efforts to expand that population of users of these integrated practices to at least 3 other populations.
Goal 6. Continuously work to achieve sustainability and obtain funding from private and public sector funders to ensure attainment of 4 Winds’ goals and objectives.
6.1 By the end of September, 2015, 4 Winds will have secured sufficient additional funding to continue its work for at least 3 years.
