The Enduring Logics of Settler Colonialism in Family Therapy: A Case Analysis of Sociocultural Attunement

Abstract

Drawing on insights from critical Indigenous studies, settler colonial studies, and critical whiteness studies, the authors examine how settler colonial and white supremacist ideologies may continue to structure their own family therapy theorizing and practice, with particular attention to the concept and practice of sociocultural attunement (SCA) as applied to Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT). SCA was developed within settler colonial structures and is increasingly promoted as a decolonial, anti-oppressive practice in family therapy. An anticolonial lens, paradoxically, makes visible the nature and extent of racial settler colonial logics in SCA, highlighting the need for a more nuanced analysis of SCA (and other therapy practices) that acknowledges tensions and contradictions. The authors' critical analysis invites reflection on the cultural and material conditions in which family therapy concepts and practices are produced, circulated, and applied and illustrates how interrogating family therapy concepts and practices can disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions, improve distinct forms of accountability for the impact of therapy, and reveal new targets for socially responsible work.