Wellness Decolonized: The History of Wellness and Recommendations for the Counseling Field

Abstract

The word wellness became mainstream in the United States around 1980, and wellness counseling literature often cites the beginnings of wellness around this time. The problem with this identification is that the roots of what counselors understand the wellness movement to be stretch back to between 3,000 and 1,500 BCE in India. Since wellness counseling literature often is not contextualized appropriately, failing to address the historical roots of wellness concepts and practices earlier than the 1980s wellness movement in the West, counselors are often missing crucial information regarding wellness for themselves and their clients. The purpose of this article is to encourage social change by grounding the wellness counseling literature in this missing history. To do this, we explore wellness from its conception until the present day, discuss wellness practices for historically marginalized groups (i.e., Black, Indigenous People, queer, fat, and disabled people), and provide implications for mental health counselors.