Community Healing: Why It's Essential for Collective Resilience

Modern mental health frameworks often prioritise individual treatment models, rooted in Western notions of self-reliance and autonomy. While effective in many contexts, this individualistic focus can neglect the profound role of community in fostering resilience and healing. Community healing, which involves collective processes such as storytelling circles, shared grief rituals, and mutual support, offers an essential complement to individual therapy. For many cultures, particularly those historically impacted by colonialism, community-based approaches resonate deeply with traditional practices and provide a pathway for collective resilience.

The Roots of Community Healing

Community healing is not a novel concept but is deeply embedded in the traditions of many Indigenous and marginalised cultures. Practices such as talking circles among First Nations communities, Ubuntu in African philosophy, and communal mourning rituals in various societies exemplify the inherent value placed on shared experiences and collective care (Gone, 2013). These approaches recognise that healing is not solely an individual endeavour but a communal one, addressing the interconnectedness of personal well-being and collective harmony.

Colonial histories often disrupted these traditions, imposing Western psychological paradigms that emphasised the individual while marginalising communal practices. Decolonising mental health requires reviving and integrating these community-oriented approaches into contemporary healing frameworks. By doing so, practitioners can challenge the dominance of individualism and honour the cultural knowledge systems that promote resilience through collective care.

The Psychological Benefits of Community Support

Research consistently highlights the mental health benefits of social support and collective engagement. Studies have shown that individuals embedded in strong social networks experience lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985). Community-based healing amplifies these benefits by creating safe spaces where individuals can share their experiences, grieve collectively, and foster mutual understanding.

For example, storytelling circles, widely used in Indigenous and therapeutic contexts, allow participants to share their narratives in a supportive environment. This process not only validates individual experiences but also creates a shared sense of meaning and solidarity. Narrative therapy, which often incorporates communal storytelling, emphasises the importance of re-authoring stories to highlight resilience and agency (White & Epston, 1990). When this process occurs within a group setting, it reinforces the collective identity and shared strengths of the community.

Shared Grief as a Pathway to Resilience

Grief is a universal experience, yet its expression and resolution are profoundly shaped by cultural and communal contexts. In many societies, grief is not viewed as an individual burden but as a collective process that strengthens social bonds. Shared grief rituals, such as community mourning ceremonies, allow individuals to process loss within the support of their social networks.

Western models of grief, such as Kübler-Ross's stages of grief, often focus on individual emotional processing (Kübler-Ross & Kessler, 2005). While valuable, these models can neglect the relational dimensions of grieving. In contrast, communal grieving recognises that loss affects not only individuals but entire communities. By grieving together, communities reaffirm their connections, honour their losses, and build collective resilience.

Challenging the Individualistic Focus of Western Mental Health

Western mental health models often prioritise individual autonomy and self-help, reflecting broader societal values of individualism. While these approaches can be empowering, they may inadvertently marginalise those whose cultural traditions emphasise interdependence and communal well-being. For example, collectivist cultures often view mental health as a shared responsibility, with family and community playing integral roles in the healing process (Sue et al., 2009).

Community healing offers a vital corrective to this individualistic focus, highlighting the importance of relational and collective approaches. It shifts the emphasis from isolated self-improvement to interconnected well-being, recognising that personal and communal health are inseparable. This perspective aligns with the principles of decolonised therapy, which seeks to challenge dominant paradigms and honour diverse ways of knowing and being.

Practical Applications of Community Healing

Incorporating community healing into mental health practice requires intentionality and cultural sensitivity. Practitioners can facilitate communal support by creating spaces for shared storytelling, group therapy, and community rituals. For example, therapists working with refugee populations may organise storytelling circles where individuals can share their migration experiences and build solidarity. Similarly, grief counsellors might incorporate communal mourning practices that honour cultural traditions and provide opportunities for collective healing.

Community-based interventions can also address systemic issues that contribute to mental health challenges. For example, community organising and activism can empower marginalised groups to challenge the social determinants of mental health, such as poverty, discrimination, and inequality. By combining therapeutic and systemic approaches, community healing initiatives can foster resilience at both individual and societal levels.

Reconnecting with Traditional Knowledge

Decolonising mental health involves not only integrating community-based approaches but also reclaiming traditional knowledge systems that were suppressed under colonial rule. These systems often emphasise the interconnectedness of individuals, communities, and the natural world, offering holistic frameworks for healing. For example, many Indigenous traditions view health as a balance between physical, emotional, spiritual, and communal dimensions (Kirmayer et al., 2011).

Reconnecting with these traditions can provide communities with a sense of cultural continuity and empowerment. It affirms the value of their knowledge systems and challenges the dominance of Western psychological paradigms. For therapists, this requires a commitment to cultural humility and an openness to learning from diverse perspectives.

Conclusion

Community healing is an essential component of collective resilience, offering a powerful alternative to the individualistic focus of Western mental health models. By fostering communal support, shared storytelling, and collective grieving, community-based approaches address the relational and cultural dimensions of healing. These practices not only honour the traditions of marginalised communities but also provide valuable insights for decolonising mental health care. As practitioners embrace these approaches, they can create more inclusive and effective frameworks for healing, grounded in the interconnectedness of personal and communal well-being.

References

• Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.

• Gone, J. P. (2013). Redressing First Nations historical trauma: Theorising mechanisms for Indigenous culture as mental health treatment. Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(5), 683–706.

• Kirmayer, L. J., Dandeneau, S., Marshall, E., Phillips, M. K., & Williamson, K. J. (2011). Rethinking resilience from Indigenous perspectives. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(2), 84–91.

• Kübler-Ross, E., & Kessler, D. (2005). On grief and grieving: Finding the meaning of grief through the five stages of loss. Scribner.

• Sue, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2009). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Wiley.

• White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. Norton.