Helen Tafoya-Barraza, MA, LPCC UNM Psychiatric Center – Psychosocial Rehabilitation

1. Comparison & Contrast of the Training of Mexican American Traditional Healers with Western Philosophy Helen Tafoya-Barraza, MA, LPCC UNM Psychiatric Center – Psychosocial Rehabilitation Psychosocial Rehabilitation Association of NM, June 12, 2014

2. Primary Theorists/Information Sources Carl Rogers Albert Ellis Sylvia Ledesma Albert Bandura Lev Vygotsky

3. Differences vs Similarities

4. La Maestra Sylvia Ledesma • Founder of the Kalpulli Izkalli (community of traditional healers based in the South Valley) • Practicing traditional healer/curandera • Teacher/Mentor • Lifetime Social Justice & community activist

5. Some of her teachers • Her grandmother • Her mother • SeñorUribe • El Maestro Andres Segura • Nana Valdez • La JefaJosefina

6. They taught, she learned • Story telling • Conversations • Reading, reading some more • Observation/modeling • Minimal note taking • Experiential learning which includes practice and learning on a Spiritual level

7. Her primary mentor/teacher was el Maestro Andres Segura • He would encourage her to learn from other healers • They would travel together throughout the United States, Mexico and South America • She was rarely allowed to take notes • She was told, “keep your eyes and your ears open.’ • He encouraged her to read everything • He encouraged her to question everything

8. La Maestra Sylvia’s perspective • Learning in this matter, without notes, forces one to learn at a deeper level • To integrate the information • To make the information a part of you • To learn to trust one’s Spirit Guides & one’s instincts • One learns to transcend to another place • To see with a “different lens” • Study is never done, “one cannot learn it all”

9. Information & knowledge grows in concentric circles out, always expanding

10. Does not refer to herself as a “curandera” • To do so is owning a powerful identity • Sees herself as an (advanced) apprentice • In learning mode from her teachers that are still alive • Still apprenticing to her teachers & her Spirit Guides • To call oneself a curandera, does that mean you are alone? That you no longer have your guides?

11. The comparison with Western thought seems clear • Traditional healers employ an apprenticeship model • Rely heavily on modeling and observation (Bandura) • “A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another's learning (Rogers) • Notion of the Perpetual student • Social interaction with members of one’s own community (Vygotsky) • Learning from a More Knowledgeable Other (Vygotsky) • Reciprocal Determination (Bandura)

12. Apprenticeship Model • Having a master teacher • Working with a master teacher in a variety of contexts • Learning from a variety of teachers • Increasing level of responsibility as learner acquires knowledge • Reading, reading and reading some more • Asking questions

13. Contrast • Emphasis on learning “at a deeper level” • Minimal note taking • Teaching & learning by story telling • Emphasis on seeking guidance from one’s Spirit Guides • Learning to trust one’s intuition • Learning is never completed (goes beyond CEUs) • Deep humility

14. Additional thoughts • In traditional practices teaching and learning are considered sacred • Apprentices learn not just to gain knowledge but to gain health • In this way, education, gaining knowledge from whatever the information source, is an exercise in self-healing • This is very much a social justice perspective • These goals in traditional healing are rarely discussed in Western pedagogy

15. Sylvia models an age old method of passing on knowledge • Knowledge is integrated at a higher (or deeper) level • In this way she heals herself. • In this way she heals others

16. References • Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. • Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved from http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/pluginfile.php/9107/mod_resource/content/1/Collins%20report.pdf • Rogers, Carl (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable. • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman., Eds.) (A. R. Luria, M. Lopez-Morillas & M. Cole [with J. V. Wertsch], Trans.) Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Original manuscripts [ca. 1930-1934]) Reprinted in (1997) (M, Gauvain & M Cole, Eds.) Readings on the Development of Children, Retrieved from http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/vygotsky78.pdf